Canada Immigration Levels Plan: 2020-2022

Canada will welcome more than one million new permanent residents between 2020 and 2022, with annual increases ensuring the highest Canadian immigration levels in modern history.

The ambitious targets were formally revealed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on March 12 through the publishing of the Canada Immigration Levels Plan for 2020-2022.

In total, Canada plans to admit around 1,053,000 new permanent residents over the three-year period, with as many as 1,140,000 to be admitted if the Liberal government hits the upper range of its targets.

The target for 2020 has been set at 341,000, with another 351,000 or so to obtain permanent residence in 2021, and a further 361,000 to follow in 2022.

Of these, the majority (approximately 58 percent) are set to be admitted as economic migrants, encompassing a range of programs at the federal and provincial levels. The most well-known of these are the federal economic programs managed under the Express Entry system, namely the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Canadian Experience Class, and the Federal Skilled Trades Class.

Express Entry admissions won’t make up a majority of economic admissions to Canada, however. The Provincial Nominee Programs, the Quebec Skilled Worker and Quebec Experience Programs, and newer initiatives such as the Atlantic Immigration Pilot and Rural and Northern Pilot will together be responsible for more permanent residence admissions than Express Entry.

As provinces and regions take an even greater role in figuring out local labour market challenges, people who want to settle in Canada need to stay up to date on PNPs and regional programs. Canada’s provinces will continue to welcome applications across a wide and ever-growing range of PNP streams, some of which are aligned with Express Entry, and some of which exist outside that federal system. You can review and keep track of the your PNP options on Moving2Canada’s PNP Live Tracker.

Canada will also welcome around 273,000 spouses, common-law partners, dependent children, parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents under its Family Class programs over the three-year period. Finally, Canada will continue to uphold its tradition of being a safe haven for those in need by settling up to 154,600 refugees, as well as up to 14,500 for humanitarian and other reasons.

All of these figures represent an increase on the previous multi-year Canada Immigration Levels Plan, which was published towards the end of 2018.

The 2020-2020 Canada Immigration Levels Plan figures do not include the many hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers and international students expected to move to Canada annually.

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Plan “directly addresses labour market needs”

Moments after tabling the 2020-2022 Canada Immigration Levels Plan, Minister of Immigration Marco Mendicino spoke to reporters.

“Our plan will benefit all Canadians because immigration drives economic growth, contributes to our diversity, spurs innovation, and helps employers across the country access the talent that they need to succeed and to thrive,” Minister Mendicino described. “With increased space for the Provincial Nominee Program, a permanent Atlantic Immigration Program, and the Agri-food and Rural and Northern Immigration pilots, the levels plan directly addresses labour market needs across Canada.”

To learn more about Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan for 2020-2022, please visit this page.