What to expect from Canadian immigration in 2024

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has begun initiating a variety of changes that will affect all newcomers to Canada in 2024.

As announced in the Immigration Levels Plan for 2024-2026, Canada aims to welcome a total of 485,000 permanent residents (PRs) in 2024. Alongside this increased level of immigration, Canada is expected to launch updates across various programs and leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline the client experience.

Updates to the Express Entry System

In 2023, IRCC began conducting category-based Express Entry draws. These draws were implemented to help Canada find foreign nationals best suited to address the country’s most pressing labour gaps and demographic needs.

In the first year of category-based draws, IRCC chose to prioritize the following categories of immigration candidates.

• Those with French language proficiency
• Those with recent work experience in any of the following five industries: Healthcare; Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM); Trades, Transport and Agri-Food/Agriculture
• In 2024, IRCC is expected to continue with category-based draws. However, the department has made it clear that they will reassess the focus categories chosen for 2023 and potentially alter them based on the changing needs of Canada’s labor market. This means that new sectors and proficiencies may be chosen as areas of focus by IRCC, potentially enabling new groups of newcomers to be eligible for category-based Express Entry draws this coming year.
• New Provincial Nominee Program guidelines

Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) are immigration pathways that allow local governments to hand-select candidates that will best help them address labour market gaps. According to IRCC’s latest Immigration Levels Plan, PNPs are projected to make up the country’s biggest (by immigration targets) immigration pathway in 2024.

Provinces were recently provided with a new set of guiding principles for PNPs, detailed here.

IRCC is also introducing new multi-year plans for the PNP starting in 2024. This will enable provinces and territories to better plan for their immigration strategies, as they will know their 2025 allocation a year in advance.

Taken together, these new PNP developments mean that prospective newcomers pursuing this immigration pathway should have a clearer picture of their options to immigrate to their province or territory of choice due to better planning by each regional government.

More Parents and Grandparents Program admissions spaces

In 2023, Canada aimed to welcome 28,5000 immigrants through the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP).

In 2024, the latest Immigration Levels Plan indicates that PGP targets will grow to 32,000. Should IRCC prove able to improve “intake management and the alignment of [application] inputs and outputs”, more PGP applicants should be able to come to Canada in the coming year.