Canada PR application fees: the 2026 IRCC fee table

Canada PR application fees at a glance in 2026

IRCC groups permanent residence fees by class of application, and almost every class has the same shape: a processing fee, an optional right of permanent residence fee, and a per-dependant add-on. The table below is the full current schedule, verified against IRCC's fee list, last modified July 2, 2026. Fees move on IRCC's biennial adjustment cycle, so treat the date above as when this table was checked, not a permanent guarantee.

Two things to notice. “With RPRF” and “without RPRF” are not two fees, they are one processing fee that can include the $600 right of permanent residence fee up front or pay it later, closer to landing. And this table is government fees only: biometrics, medicals and any professional fee are covered separately below.

What changed on April 30, 2026? Old fee vs new fee, side by side

Canada adjusts most immigration and citizenship fees every two years, under an inflation-linked formula in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations. IRCC announced the 2026 adjustment on March 27, 2026, applying to applications received on or after April 30, 2026. A fresh application, or a deferred payment made after that cut-off, is charged at the new rate.

If you deferred your right of permanent residence fee, this is where the increase catches people out: the amount due is generally what is in effect on the date you actually pay, not the date you first applied. Check the current $600 figure against IRCC's fee-change notice before paying, rather than assuming the amount you budgeted a year ago still applies.

Express Entry and Provincial Nominee Program PR application fees

Express Entry and the base Provincial Nominee Programs fall under the same economic-class fee: $1,590 with the RPRF, or $990 without it, for each of the principal applicant and an included spouse or partner, plus $270 per dependent child. This covers Express Entry's three federal programs, the Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades, plus an enhanced provincial nomination that adds 600 points inside the pool. A nomination changes your ranking; it does not change the government fee you pay once invited.

The pool itself moved quickly through 2026. Canadian Experience Class rounds invited candidates at CRS scores between roughly 507 and 523, with a September 1, 2026 round inviting 2,000 candidates at 521, while Provincial Nominee Program rounds ran into the 700s because of the 600-point bonus. As of August 30, 2026, the Express Entry pool held 226,673 active profiles, with the largest single band, 74,105 candidates, sitting between 451 and 500 CRS. None of that changes the fee: invited at 400 or 800, the application costs the same $1,590 or $990.

For a plain Express Entry submission with no dependants, budget $1,590 plus $85 in biometrics, a total of $1,675. Add a spouse and it rises to roughly $3,350 with family biometrics; the worked examples below set out the shapes we see most.

What is the right of permanent residence fee, when do you pay it, and who is exempt?

The right of permanent residence fee (RPRF), sometimes called the landing fee, is a separate charge from the processing fee, currently $600 per principal applicant or included spouse or partner on most economic and business applications. It is the single largest component of most PR fee totals and the one most often paid late.

You can pay it alongside your processing fee at submission, the “with RPRF” column above, or pay the processing fee only and defer it until closer to landing. Paying up front avoids a delay right at the finish line, when IRCC is waiting on payment before finalising your Confirmation of Permanent Residence. Deferring it can help cash flow earlier on, provided you do not lose track of it and check the current amount before you eventually pay.

The RPRF is not charged on protected person applications or on most sponsored dependent children. Family class relatives 22 or older do have an RPRF component built into their $660/$1,260 fee, described below.

Exemptions exist because the RPRF is tied to the transition into permanent residence itself, not to the cost of processing your file. If your category does not carry an RPRF line in the table above, you were never charged one to begin with, so there is nothing to defer now and nothing to claim back later.

Family sponsorship fees: spouse, partner, dependent children, parents and grandparents

Family sponsorship fees run on a different scale, because the sponsor pays a package fee for the person being sponsored rather than the applicant paying for themselves. Sponsoring a spouse, common-law partner, conjugal partner, or another eligible relative aged 22 or older, whether inland or outland, costs $660 without the RPRF or $1,260 with it. That fee is the same either way; what differs between inland and outland is processing time, not price.

A dependent, adopted or orphaned child costs $180, with no RPRF component. A relative under 22 who is not a dependent child costs $780. Parents and grandparents sponsored under the Parents and Grandparents Program fall under the same $660/$1,260 adult-relative structure, though that program runs its own separate annual invitation process rather than a first-come intake.

For spousal or common-law sponsorship, note the fee above is the government charge only. Our free first call is reserved for spousal sponsorship enquiries specifically, so we can usually give useful direction before any payment changes hands.

Parents and Grandparents Program invitations and the Super Visa alternative

The Parents and Grandparents Program runs on the same $660 or $1,260 adult-relative fee described above, but the fee is the easy part. Access to PGP is invitation-based: IRCC opens an interest-to-sponsor pool for a limited window each year, draws a set number of names from it, and only a sponsor who receives an invitation can go on to submit a full application and pay the fee. Missing the window means waiting for the next intake, not paying more to skip the queue.

Many parents and grandparents apply for a Super Visa instead, either while they wait for a PGP invitation or as an alternative to sponsorship altogether. A Super Visa is not a permanent residence application: it is a long-stay temporary resident visa, carries the standard visitor visa fee rather than any figure on this page, and does not by itself lead to permanent residence. Do not confuse a Super Visa fee with a PGP or family sponsorship fee when budgeting; they are different products with different costs and different outcomes.

Business, caregiver, protected person and humanitarian and compassionate PR fees

Outside Express Entry, the PNPs and family sponsorship, four smaller categories carry their own fees:

• Business immigration (Start-up Visa, self-employed persons, Quebec business category) is the most expensive government fee on this page: $2,495 with RPRF, or $1,895 without it, for the principal applicant, with a spouse or partner at $1,590/$990 and each child at $270.
• Caregiver programs opened before 2025, for home child-care and home-support workers, charge $1,260 with RPRF or $660 without, plus $180 per child. Caregiver streams opened in 2025 and later use the standard economic-class fee instead.
• Protected persons, meaning refugees and others granted protection in Canada, pay a flat $660 with no RPRF charged at all, plus $660 for an included spouse and $180 per child. This is the one major PR category with no landing fee component.
• Humanitarian and compassionate applications, temporary-resident-to-permanent-resident public policy applications, the health-care worker pathway, and the Hong Kong policy all share the same fee: $1,260 with RPRF or $660 without, plus $180 per dependent child. The permit holders class, a narrower category for certain temporary residents, is separate at $990 with RPRF or $390 without.

Choosing the wrong category, and therefore the wrong fee schedule, is one of the more common ways an application stalls at the payment stage, because IRCC's epay system will not process a fee that does not match the class of application you have selected.

Biometrics, medical exam and police certificate costs IRCC does not list as application fees

Every table above stops at the application fee. Three further costs apply to most PR applicants and are billed separately from the numbers you have just read.

Biometrics are the one IRCC does charge and publish a fixed price for: $85 per person, $170 for a family of two or more applying together, and $255 for a group of three or more performing artists filing under the same engagement. Biometrics are generally valid for ten years, so a recent set given for a work permit, study permit or visa may already cover your PR application; check before paying and attending again.

The immigration medical examis not an IRCC fee: you pay a panel physician directly, at a price their clinic sets, varying by clinic and country. Police certificates work the same way, paid to the issuing authority in each country you have lived in. Language testing (IELTS, CELPIP or a French equivalent) and an Educational Credential Assessment, where your program requires one, are further third-party costs, not IRCC charges. None belong in the “government fee” column, but all belong in your budget; our cost to immigrate calculator walks through them alongside the fees on this page.

What does a family actually pay? Worked totals for four common situations

Here is the arithmetic for four situations we see often, using only the government fees described above.

Two adjustments. The PR card is not part of the application: it is a separate $50-per-person fee charged after landing, so a family of four should budget another $200 later. And these totals assume the RPRF is paid with the application; if you defer it, subtract $600 per adult now and add it back, at the then-current rate, before landing.

A fifth shape worth budgeting for: a self-employed persons or start-up visa applicant filing alone, with no spouse or dependent children, pays the business-class fee of $2,495 including the RPRF, or $1,895 if the RPRF is deferred, plus $85 in biometrics. That puts the government total at $2,580 with the RPRF paid up front, noticeably higher than the $1,675 an Express Entry or PNP applicant pays for the same family shape, because business and self-employed categories run on their own, higher fee schedule, described earlier on this page. A sponsored parent or grandparent under PGP, once invited, fits the family class row above: $1,260 with RPRF or $660 without, plus $170 in family biometrics for a couple being sponsored together.

Which Canada PR fees are refundable and which are not?

Refundability depends on which fee and at what stage you withdraw or are refused. The right of permanent residence fee is generally refundable: if you are exempt, if your application is refused, or if you do not end up landing, the $600 per adult is returned. It is tied to actually becoming a permanent resident, not to the act of applying.

Processing fees behave differently. Once IRCC has started assessing your file, the processing fee is largely non-refundable, with narrower exceptions such as a fee paid in error, a duplicate payment, or an application returned as incomplete before it is opened for processing. Confirm your specific situation against IRCC's current refund guidance rather than assuming either way, and never treat a fee, refundable or not, as something that buys or predicts an outcome.

How do you pay your PR application fee through the IRCC epay portal?

IRCC collects PR application fees through its own online payment system, epay, not through a representative and not by mailed cheque. The mechanics are the same across programs; what changes is which category you select.

The epay portal organises categories by number rather than by plain-language name, which is part of why choosing the wrong one is so easy. Economic class applications, business applications and family sponsorship applications each sit under a different category number, and the portal does not check whether the one you picked matches your invitation or approval letter. Confirm the category against your own paperwork before you pay, not against a number a friend or forum post gave you for a different situation.

1. 01

   Confirm your application category first

   Economic class, business, family sponsorship, humanitarian and compassionate and protected person applications each use a different epay category. Selecting the wrong one is a common fee error.

2. 02

   Enter every person the fee covers

   The principal applicant, an included spouse or partner and each dependent child are charged separately, so check every family member is included before you pay.

3. 03

   Decide whether to include the RPRF now

   Pay the $600 RPRF with your processing fee to avoid a delay closer to landing, or defer it and check the current amount when the time comes to pay.

4. 04

   Pay by an accepted method and download the receipt

   Save the payment confirmation; it is uploaded as part of your application package as proof of payment.

5. 05

   Attach the receipt to the right application

   A payment not matched to the correct application can hold up processing. Double-check the reference details before submitting.

Fee mistakes that delay or return a PR application (an RCIC's practice notes)

Fee errors are among the more avoidable reasons a PR application stalls. These are the mistakes we see most often.

• Choosing the wrong epay category. A payment made under the wrong program does not transfer to the right one; it can mean a second payment and a wait for a refund on the first.
• Missing the biometrics line entirely. Biometrics are billed separately, and applicants who budget only for the processing fee and RPRF are sometimes caught off guard.
• Forgetting a dependent child's fee. Each child needs their own $270, $180 or $780 fee depending on the category; a missed child fee is a missed payment, not an oversight IRCC will excuse.
• Deferring the RPRF and losing track of it. An unpaid RPRF stalls the final step, and after April 30, 2026 it is also charged at a higher rate than many applicants originally budgeted.
• Paying the old fee after a rate change. An application received on or after an adjustment date is charged the new rate; a payment at the old amount typically needs a top-up.
• Not matching the receipt to the application. A mismatch between the payment record and the file is a common cause of processing officers requesting clarification.
• Paying for the wrong family size after a life change. Adding a newborn or a newly dependent child after the initial payment usually means a top-up payment matched to the new headcount, not an automatic adjustment.
• Assuming a provincial nomination fee and the federal fee are one payment. A provincial nomination fee, where one applies, is paid to the province, not to IRCC, and neither payment substitutes for the other.

What a case officer checks when a fee looks wrong

When a fee issue surfaces after submission, what gets checked first is not whether a payment exists but whether the amount and the fee code on file match the application. A payment logged against the wrong applicant type, a partial amount, or an old-rate payment made after a fee increase are all handled the same way: the file is paused pending correction rather than refused outright. The pause itself is the real cost, because a straightforward application can lose weeks to a payment mismatch that a quick check before filing would have caught.

Government fees vs professional fees: what these amounts do not include

Every number on this page is a government fee: money paid to IRCC, or, for the medical, police certificate and language testing, to a third party IRCC requires but does not itself charge. None of it is a payment to us or to any other representative.

If you work with a licensed RCIC, a professional fee sits alongside these government amounts, paying for the RCIC's time, strategy and representation with IRCC. The two are always kept separate in an honest quote: our published professional fees are itemised apart from the IRCC fees on this page. A representative offering to bundle or discount the government fee itself is a signal to check their credentials carefully.

Under our own File Management service, the fee work is one item on a longer checklist rather than a separate charge: confirming the epay category, totalling every family member's fee, timing the RPRF and matching the receipt to the application sit alongside the rest of the file preparation, for the fee quoted before we start. Nothing about that changes what IRCC decides; it only reduces the chance that a payment error is what slows the file down.

Compliance note. Wild Mountain Immigration is a licensed RCIC practice (CICC R706497). Government fees change on IRCC's own schedule and are set by government, not by us; we confirm the current amount for your specific application before you pay, and nothing on this page is a guarantee of eligibility, approval or any particular outcome.