IRCC has unveiled which PR applications it plans to process in 2025
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) does not plan on clearing its entire inventory of PR applications this year—except for a few permanent residence (PR) streams.
Per the immigration department’s most recent Minister Transition Binder, only Express Entry programs, Express Entry-aligned Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) streams, IRCC’s community pilots, and Quebec’s skilled worker pathway will see their total inventory processed in 2025.
Other economic PR pathways will maintain inventories at different levels (depending on each pathway) and only seek to process a portion of their respective inventories.
See your eligibility for all Express Entry streams
This article will cover planned application processing, inventory, and wait times for Canada’s federally managed economic PR pathways.
IRCC plans to clear the entire application inventory for the following economic PR pathways in 2025:
The Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
Community Pilots.
The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP).
The Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).
Enhanced PNP streams (Express Entry-aligned).
Quebec Experience Class (PEQ).
Quebec’s Pilot Programs.
Quebec Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ).
Remaining economic PR pathways will only see a portion of their entire application inventories cleared in 2025:
PR Pathway Proportion of inventory to be processed in 2025
Agrifood Pilot 5%
Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) 33%
Caregiver Pilots 14%
Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) 12%
Base PNP (Not Express Entry-aligned) 35%
Quebec Business 3%
Start-up Visa 2%
Express Entry
All currently operating Express Entry streams will see their inventory of applications processed in 2025.
This includes the CEC and FSW programs (FSWP and FSTP).
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Applications to be processed this year
CEC 19,300 19,300
FSW 12,500 12,500
Application wait times (in months) over the last year for these pathways are given below:
Program 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
FSW6 months 5 months 6 months 6 months 6 months
CEC 6 months 6 months 6 months 7 months 5 months
See your eligibility for all Express Entry streams
Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)
PNP streams that are aligned with Express Entry (also known as enhanced PNP streams) will see their full application inventory processed in 2025.
PNP streams that are not aligned with Express Entry (also called base PNP streams) will only see 35% of their application inventory processed in 2025. Base PNP streams cover all remaining PNP streams that do not use the Express Entry system to select immigration candidates or process applications.
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Applications to be processed this year
PNP (Express Entry) 16,300 16,300
PNP (Base) 87,700 30,695
Application wait times (in months) over the last year for these pathways are given below:
Program 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
PNP (Express Entry) 6 months 6 months 7 months 7 months 6 months
PNP (Base) 11 months 11 months 13 months 24 months 19 months
See your eligibility for all enhanced PNP streams
Quebec
Quebec’s skilled worker pathways (including the Quebec Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ), the Quebec Experience Class (PEQ), and Quebec’s Pilot Programs) are set to be cleared of the inventory in 2025.
Quebec’s Business pathways (including the Quebec Investor Program, Quebec Entrepreneur Program, and Quebec Self-Employed Program) will only see 3% of their collective inventory cleared in 2025.
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Applications to be processed this year
Quebec Skilled Worker 27,600 27,600
Quebec Business 4,100 123
Application wait times (in months) for these two classes are given below:
PR Pathway 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
Quebec Business 20 17 22 108 108
Quebec Skilled Worker 8 8 11 8 9
Learn more about your options and get assistance immigrating to Quebec
Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP)
IRCC will process 33% of the AIP’s application inventory in the remainder of 2025:
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Applications to be processed this year
AIP 12,100 3,993
AIP application wait times (in months) over the last year are given below:
Program 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
AIP 12 months 13 months 17 months 27 months 24 months
Federal economic pilots
Canada’s federal economic pilots include the Agrifood Pilot (now closed), caregiver pilots (including the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots (HCWP), Home Child Care Provider Pilot (closed), and the Home Support Worker Pilot (closed)), and the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP).
The percentage of inventory to be cleared for each pathway in 2025 is given below, alongside the inventory numbers that this percentage corresponds to:
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Percentage of inventory to be processed this year Applications to be processed this year
Agrifood 8,900 5% 445
Caregivers 34,400 14% 4,816
EMPP 2,500 12% 300
Historic application wait times (in months) over the last year for these pilots are given below:
Program 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
Agrifood 22 32 60 180 228
Caregivers 31 29 27 84 108
EMPP 10 8 10 36 54
IRCC has also recently closed intake for the “applicants not in Canada” stream of the HCWP, indicating that the department will not further add to its caregiver inventory this year.
Federal community pilots
IRCC’s federal community pilots include the Rural Community Immigration Program (RCIP), the Francophone Community Immigration Program (FCIP), and the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) (now closed).
In 2025, IRCC plans to clear its remaining application inventory for these programs:
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Applications to be processed this year
Community Pilots 3,500 3,500
Application wait times for these pilots (in months) over the last year are given below:
Program 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
Community Pilots 12 14 12 12 7
Start-up Visa
Canada’s federal Start-Up Visa (SUV) program will only process 2% of its inventory this year:
PR Pathway Application inventory as of September 11 Applications to be processed this year
SUV 38,600 772
Historic application wait times (in months) over the last year for the SUV are given below:
Program 2024-Q2 2024-Q3 2024-Q4 2025-Q1 2025-Q2
SUV 48 51 71 420 420
