What we can expect from the Immigration Levels Plan 2026-2028
The Canadian federal government is set to announce how many permanent residents and temporary residents Canada will aim to admit over the course of 2026.
On or before November 1, 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will publish the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan.
Each year’s Levels Plan presents admissions targets for the coming year, along with notional targets for the following two years.
Previous communications from the government have given us some indications of what we can expect from the upcoming Plan.
Stabilization of permanent resident levels
If the federal government keeps its election promise, we can expect that permanent residence admissions targets for 2027 will not exceed 416,500.
We can establish this expected upward bound because lading up to the most recent election, the Liberals pledged to stabilize permanent resident admissions at less than 1% of Canada’s population annually, and Canada’s population stands at an estimated 41.65 million, as of July 1, 2025.
The targets from the Plan published last year also fall beneath this upper bound, as the government had cut permanent residence admissions targets for 2025 by 20% relative to the Plan published in 2023
The targets for overall permanent resident admissions under the previous two Immigration Levels Plans are as follows:
YearImmigration Levels plan 2025-2027 (published 2024)Immigration Levels plan 2024-2026 (published 2023)
2025395,000500,000
2026380,000500,000
2027365,000-
These targets are inclusive of economic immigration, family reunification, and refugee and humanitarian immigration.
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Express Entry
Although last year’s Immigration Levels Plan reduced the top level immigration targets for permanent resident admissions across all programs by 20%, the landings targets for economic immigrants through the Express Entry system actually increased.
Last year’s Immigration Levels Plan introduced the categories Federal Economic Priorities and In-Canada Focus, in place of what was previously called Federal High Skilled (FHS) – the allotment for admissions through the Express Entry system.
For the year 2025, Combining Federal Economic Priorities (41,700) and In-Canada Focus (82,980) yields a target of 124,680, up from 117,500 for FHS from the previous year’s Plan.
YearImmigration Levels plan 2025-2027Immigration Levels plan 2024-2026
Federal Economic PrioritiesIn-Canada FocusFederal High Skilled
202541,70082,980117,500
202647,40075,830117,500
202747,80070,930-
Federal Economic Priorities includes in-demand occupations for category based draws, as well as French language proficiency, while In-Canada Focus refers to permanent resident admissions of foreign nationals already in Canada with valid temporary resident status.
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Provincial Nominee Program
Last year’s Immigration Levels Plan saw a significant shift in Canada’s recent immigration strategy regarding Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) targets.
The plan cut federal admission targets for the PNP by half as compared to the year prior, reducing admissions to just 55,000 per year in 2025, 2026 and 2027, down from a target of 110,000 for 2024.
YearImmigration Levels plan 2025-2027Immigration Levels plan 2024-2026
202555,000120,000
202655,000120,000
202755,000-
In keeping with this, provinces and territories received significantly smaller nomination allocations for 2025.
Since then, however, many provinces and territories – including British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick – have successfully negotiated increases to their PNP nomination allocations for 2025.
Moreover, on October 16, immigration minister Lena Diab met with her provincial and territorial counterparts to discuss allocating extra spaces to their PNPs.
If the federal government were to continue along the same path we have seen throughout 2025, we would expect 2026 to see an increase in the PNP landings target from last year’s target of 55,000.
Targets for temporary resident admissions
IRCC is expected to include temporary residents in the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan. In its 2025 consultations — which are intended to inform the 2026–2028 plan — IRCC stated that it would build on last year’s approach and remain guided by its commitment to reduce the non-permanent resident population to below 5% of Canada’s total population by the end of 2027.
Last year marked the first time that the Immigration Levels Plan included temporary resident levels. Temporary residents include temporary foreign workers and international students.
In last year’s Immigration Levels Plan, targets for international students made up the majority of temporary resident arrivals for 2026 and 2027, while the remainder was allocated to temporary workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program.
202520262027
International Mobility Program285,750128,700155,700
Temporary Foreign Worker Program82,00082,00082,000
Students305,900305,900305,900
Overall arrivals673,650516,600543,600
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What does this mean for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program?
Prime Minister Mark Carney has telegraphed forthcoming changes to the TFWP, but it is unclear what effect(s) any forthcoming changes might have on annual landings targets under the TFWP, previously set at 82,000.
In an address to the Liberal caucus in Edmonton on September 10, Carney said that the TFWP must have a “focused approach” that targets specific strategic sectors, and needs in specific regions.
Over the past year and a half, the government made significant changes to the TFWP:
The TFWP has come under fire this year, with Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre calling for it to be abolished.
Focus on francophone immigration
If the federal government keeps its election promise, we can expect to see for the year 2028 an increase in landings targets for francophone immigration.
In the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government committed to gradually increasing the share of French-speaking permanent residents settling outside Quebec, targeting 8.5 % in 2025, 9.5 % in 2026, and 10 % in 2027.
In his election campaign, Carney pledged to boost francophone immigration outside Quebec to 12 % by 2029.
IRCC has also repeatedly stated that francophone immigration is a priority, even as overall immigration levels are scaled back.
Over the last few years, IRCC has continued to prioritize francophone immigration by introducing French-language category-based selection draws, launching francophone immigration pathways (like the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot), and increasing settlement support for francophone immigrants.
Caps on international students
It is unclear whether the upcoming Plan will adjust targets for admissions of international students.
Last year’s Immigration Levels Plan put in place the following targets for international student arrivals:
YearInternational Student Arrivals
(as per Immigration Levels Plan 2025-2027)
2025305,900
2026305,900
2027305,900
To achieve these targets, the federal government has instituted an annual cap on study permits applications, which is enforced by requiring non-exempt students to include Provincial Attestation Letters (PALs) in their study permit applications. The cap on study permit applications is updated each year, and has typically been announced each January.
