Canada receives 35,260 new immigrants as permanent residents in one month

Canada accepted a total of 35,260 new permanent residents in the month of January 2022, setting off to reach its target of inviting over 400,000 new immigrants for the second consecutive year.

This is according to the data from the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Under its new Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024, unveiled earlier in the year, Canada is targeting nearly 432,000 new immigrant landings this year, which would be the highest level in history. So far in the month of January it has achieved over 8% of its target for the year.

In 2021, Canada landed over 405,000 immigrants, primarily by transitioning those living in the country to permanent residence, due to travel restrictions placed because of the covid-19 pandemic. It marked a record-breaking year for the country and was the first time since 1913 the country landed over 400,000 immigrants.

In the month under review, 65% of new permanent resident landings came under the economic class, which is higher than the 56% targeted under the levels plan. Also, 20% landed under the family class, which is lower than the 24% levels plan target.

The refugee and humanitarian class accounted for the remaining 15% of landings, which is lower than the 20% levels plan goal for this year.

A further breakdown of the data showed that the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) remained the leading program for new economic class landings, accounting for almost 7,700 immigrants. IRCC relied heavily on the CEC last year to achieve its immigration level goal, as the CEC accounted for about one-third of new admissions.

However, IRCC seems to be shifting course by processing more FSWP applications in recent months. It processed over 9,000 people under the FSWP between the middle of December and the end of February, which is much higher than the average of 600 people it was processing under the FSWP for much of 2021. This indicates that the IRCC is beginning to normalize its operations which entails striking a balance between processing immigration applications submitted inside of Canada and abroad.