Canada's Immigration Levels Plan 2026-2028: what the targets mean for you

What the Immigration Levels Plan is

Section 94 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires the Minister to table, by 1 November, a plan for the number of permanent residents Canada will admit in the coming year, and since 2017 the plan has covered three years with the first year fixed and the later two notional. Since the 2025-2027 plan it also sets targets for new temporary resident arrivals. The numbers are not quotas that close a program when reached; they are the admissions IRCC is resourced and instructed to deliver, and every operational decision downstream, the size of Express Entry rounds, the nomination allocation each province receives, how many spousal files an office processes, follows from them. The current plan was tabled on 5 November 2025 and is published with its supplementary information on canada.ca.

Permanent resident targets, 2026 to 2028

Canada plans to admit 380,000 permanent residents in 2026 and the same number in 2027 and 2028, with 239,800 places going to economic programs, 84,000 to the family class and 49,300 to refugees and protected persons in the first year. Only the 2026 column is fixed; the 2027 and 2028 figures are notional and can be replaced by the next plan.

Temporary resident targets

The plan admits 385,000 new temporary residents in 2026, made up of 230,000 workers and 155,000 students, and cuts that to 370,000 in each of 2027 and 2028. The whole reduction lands on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the student line, because the International Mobility Program figure is held at 170,000 throughout.

What the numbers mean line by line

Express Entry: 109,000 Federal High Skilled

Federal High Skilled, the line covering all three Express Entry programs, is set at 109,000 admissions in 2026 and 111,000 in 2027 and 2028, and it is the pool every round of invitationsdraws from. That target explains the 2026 pattern: no all-program rounds, a steady Canadian Experience Class stream, and category rounds for healthcare, trades, STEM, education, transport, agriculture and French. Because the 109,000 counts dependants as well as principal applicants, it converts to an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 principal-applicant invitations across the year, which is why the CEC line has held between 507 and 523 while French rounds have gone as low as 382. The plan's stated intent to move up to 33,000 temporary workers to PR in 2026 and 2027 sits inside this line and is the policy behind the in-Canada tilt. If you are abroad without Canadian experience or French, the honest reading is that a provincial nomination is the lever.

Provincial Nominee Program: 91,500

The Provincial Nominee Program target rises to 91,500 in 2026 and 92,500 in 2027 and 2028, up from the 55,000 the 2025 plan allowed, and it is the single most consequential number for Alberta. That 55,000 reduced Alberta's allocation to 6,603 and produced the ad hoc, tightly rationed draws of 2025 and 2026. The 91,500 restores most of the room, and provinces have been notified of larger allocations, though each is still drawing against a backlog of Expressions of Interest built up during the cut. Expect more invitations than 2025, continued priority for people already working in the province, and cut-offs that ease rather than collapse. Our AAIP draws, Manitoba draws and BC draws trackers show how each province is spending it.

Family class: 84,000

Spousal sponsorship is demand-driven and not rationed by invitation, so the 69,000 target for spouses, partners and children is a statement of processing capacity. It is why IRCC publishes a processing time of 26 months for inland spousal sponsorship and 18 months outland, outside Quebec (IRCC processing times, updated 3 September 2026), and the drop to 66,000 in 2027 suggests those timelines will not shorten on their own. The 15,000 line for parents and grandparents is drawn from the existing pool of 2020 interest-to-sponsor forms; the super visa remains the practical route for most families.

Francophone immigration: 9 to 10.5 percent

Canada sets French-speaking admissions outside Quebec at 9 percent of the total in 2026, 9.5 percent in 2027 and 10.5 percent in 2028, and that rising target is why the French-language category has produced the lowest Express Entry cut-offs of 2026 and why Francophone Mobility lets French speakers take most jobs outside Quebec without an LMIA. For anyone with NCLC 7 French, it is the most under-used advantage in the system.

Temporary residents: 385,000 falling to 370,000

The TFWP line falling from 60,000 to 50,000 is delivered through the low-wage LMIA cap, the refusals in high-unemployment metro areas and the provincial wage thresholds, all of which we see in Bow Valley hospitality hiring. The 155,000 student line is the study permit cap and the provincial attestation letter. The 170,000 IMP line, unchanged, is where International Experience Canada, spousal open work permits, PGWPs and intra-company transfers live; it is the door that stays open.

How this plan compares with the last two

Canada has cut its first-year permanent resident target from 485,000 in the 2024-2026 plan to 395,000 in the 2025-2027 plan and 380,000 in the current one, while the Provincial Nominee Program was halved to 55,000 for 2025 and then restored to 91,500 for 2026.

The story of the three plans is a reduction from 485,000 to 380,000 in permanent admissions, a temporary-resident cap introduced in 2025, a PNP that was halved and then largely restored, and a federal skilled line that shifted from selecting abroad to selecting people already in Canada. For the policy story behind that shift, see how the Carney government arrived at these targets. If you are planning around these numbers, the two conclusions that hold for every profile are: Canadian experience and a provincial connection are worth more than they were, and French is worth more than either.

What to do with this

• In Canada on a permit: the plan is built for you. Build the year of experience for the CEC, submit the provincial EOI, and keep status with a bridging permit. See TR to PR.
• Abroad in a category occupation (health, trades, STEM, education, transport, agriculture): the category rounds are your line. Check the NOC code and the category lists.
• Abroad with French: get the TEF or TCF result; the French rounds and Francophone Mobility are the widest open doors.
• Abroad without either: your two realistic levers are a provincial nomination or an employer willing to run an LMIA, and you need an honest look at the CRS calculator before you spend on tests.
• Sponsoring a partner: file now; the family target eases in 2027 and timelines will not improve by waiting.

Compliance note. Wild Mountain Immigration is a licensed RCIC practice (CICC R706497). Figures are from IRCC's published 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan and its supplementary information; the next Immigration Levels Plan is due by 1 November 2026 and this page will be updated when it is tabled. Nothing here predicts an individual outcome.