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Ottawa to Grant Permanent Residency to 200,000 Temporary Residents
Ottawa will grant permanent residency to 200,000 temporary residents already in Canada.
Key points
- The measure is a one-time move to reduce a backlog of applications in the federal immigration system.
- The workers' cohort covers applicants to pathways including the Start-up Visa Program, Home Care Worker pilots, Atlantic Immigration
- Many of those pathways were suspended in late 2025 because of processing backlogs.
Why it matters. The measure is one way Ottawa aims to cut temporary residents to 5 per cent of the population by the end of 2027, a goal the government now has just over a year to reach.
Ottawa's Thursday budget splits the 200,000 spots into two 100,000-person cohorts: workers in pathways such as the Start-up Visa Program, and humanitarian cases such as Ukraine family reunification. The aim is to cut a backlog, and the 380,000 annual permanent resident target is unchanged. Statistics Canada data show the non-permanent share of the population was 6.7 per cent as of July 1.
Latest updates
Ottawa to Grant Permanent Residency to 200,000 Temporary Residents
The federal government announced on Thursday a one-time measure to grant permanent residency to 200,000 temporary residents already in Canada. The measure is intended to reduce a backlog of applications. It will apply to two groups, a workers' cohort and a humanitarian cohort. The government also said it would maintain its annual number of immigrants admitted to Canada over the next three years. The Globe and Mail reported the announcement.