If you apply today, when will you hear back?
Pick your program and where you're applying from, and we'll lay IRCC's current processing data onto a calendar — including the queue you'd be joining and whether IRCC is meeting its own targets.
IRCC data: temporary residence as of October 29, 2026 (updated weekly) · PR & citizenship projections as of October 9, 2026 (updated monthly) · rebuilt daily.
How this wait has moved — and where it's heading
The chart follows your selection above.
The dashed line is nothing smarter than the recent trend continued in a straight line for six months; the shaded band is how far off that same method was when we replayed it on this series' own past. Queues jump when policy or intake changes — read it as a direction, not a promise.
Every PR queue at a glance
IRCC's own projections for a complete application submitted today, the size of each queue, and how the department did against its service standard in FY 2024–25.
| Program | Projected time | In the queue | Standard (share met) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express Entry — Canadian Experience Class | About 6 months | About 53,900 people waiting | 6 months (86% met) |
| Express Entry — Federal Skilled Worker | About 7 months | About 58,300 people waiting | 6 months (87% met) |
| Provincial Nominee — through Express Entry | About 7 months | About 13,100 people waiting | 6 months (79% met) |
| Provincial Nominee — base (non-Express Entry) | About 13 months | About 96,500 people waiting | 11 months (67% met) |
| Spouse/partner sponsorship — applying from abroad | About 18 months | About 65,600 people waiting | 12 months (75% met) |
| Spouse/partner sponsorship — applying inside Canada | About 26 months | About 55,600 people waiting | — |
| Dependent child sponsorship (abroad) | About 41 months | About 60,400 people waiting | — |
| Parents & Grandparents Program (PGP) | About 28 months | About 35,600 people waiting | — |
| Citizenship grant | About 12 months | About 322,700 people waiting | 12 months (86% met) |
| Proof of citizenship (certificate) | About 34 months | About 130,700 people waiting | — |
Projections as of October 9, 2026; service-standard performance is FY 2024–2025. IRCC's service standard is a commitment to process 80% of complete applications within the stated time. 'Met' is the share of decisions inside the standard in the 2024–2025 fiscal year.
Where you apply from matters
For temporary residence, IRCC publishes how long 80% of recent applications took — per country. The same study permit that takes 3 weeks from one country takes 3 months from another.
Selected major source countries, as of October 29, 2026. Use the predictor above for any of the 211 published countries.
Archived IRCC publications back to 2018-09-09. History reconstructed from the Internet Archive's snapshots of IRCC's own data files; sparse stretches mean IRCC published no change we could observe.
Express Entry? The clock starts after your ITA
IRCC's processing time covers the application you file after an invitation to apply. Time in the pool waiting for a draw comes first — see our draw predictions for when your CRS score might be reached, and add the two together.
How we predict — and what we won't pretend to know
Two kinds of official numbers
Temporary-residence times are backward-looking: how long 80% of recent complete applications actually took, per country. PR and citizenship times are IRCC's forward-looking projections from today's inventory. We label each estimate with which one you're seeing.
The clock starts at "complete"
Every IRCC number counts from the day a complete application is received. Missing documents, biometrics delays and LMIA stages (for work permits) are extra, and Express Entry pool time is never included.
Real outcomes, coming
As MaybeCitizen users track real applications, anonymized decision-time percentiles will appear alongside the official figures — never replacing them. Nothing is shown until enough cases exist to protect privacy.
Estimates move with IRCC's queues — a date shown today is an expectation, not a commitment. Always confirm against IRCC's official processing-times tool before making plans.
Applying for real?
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