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

Temporary resident targets

What the numbers mean line by line

Express Entry: 109,000 Federal High Skilled

This is the pool the rounds of invitationsdraw from, and it 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. Roughly 109,000 admissions, including dependants, translates to something like 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 single most consequential number for Alberta. The 2025 plan cut the PNP target to 55,000, which reduced Alberta's allocation to 6,603 and produced the ad hoc, tightly rationed draws of 2025 and 2026. A 2026 target of 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's published times for spousal sponsorship sit at about 27 months inland and 17 months outland in 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

A rising French-speaking target outside Quebec 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

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. 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: a provincial nomination or an employer with an LMIA, and an honest look at the CRS calculator before spending 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 plan and its supplementary information; the 2027-2029 plan is due by 1 November 2026 and this page will be updated when it is tabled. Nothing here predicts an individual outcome.