For the second time in a month, the total number of backlog applications in the IRCC has considerably slipped below the one million mark.

As of January 31st, 2025, the total number of applications in the department’s backlog was 892,100. This is a decline of 5.33% compared to the backlog at the end of December 2024, which was around 942,300.

The following are the backlog numbers till now 

There is also a reduction in the total number of applications IRCC has in the inventory. There were 2,119,900 applications overall as of December 31st, 2024, which has seen a considerable fall to 2,076,600 as of January 31, 2025.

As per service standards, the number of applications processed was 1,184,500, which was 1,177,600 at the end of December.

Let us understand when an application is regarded as a backlog. If an application is not processed within IRCC’s published service standards, then it’s considered a backlog. The standards are the IRCC’s timeline, which is considered a reasonable application processing time.

Also, the amount of time that is ascertained depends on the type of application. If it’s an Express Entry application, then it will have a service standard of six months, and for a family sponsorship application, the service standard is 12 months.

Current Backlog:

Permanent resident applications backlog:

End of January 31, 2025, there were a total of 839,900 applications in the inventory in this category, which included the Express Entry Program, Express Entry aligned streams of the PNP, and the family sponsorship program. From this lot, around 58% (483,500) were being processed within the service standard,s and the rest were kept as backlog.

Approximately 20% of Express Entry applications were considered as backlog which meets the IRCC’s service standards of processing 80% of applications with the service standards of 6 months.

There was a significant rise of 30% as of January 2025 for the Provincial Nominee Programs through Express Entry, which was 25% as of December 2024. It indicates that there is a growing percentage of PNP applicants who are awaiting a decision.

The family sponsorship backlog also remains a consistent number at 15%, which is the same as it was last month, with a project backlog of 15%.

Temporary resident permit application backlog:

As of January 31, only 51% of applications for temporary residency were processed with the service standards that included work permits, study permits, and visitor visas.

Only 51% of applications were processed as per service standards out of a total number of 998,100, which leaves an application backlog of 493,700. 

Visitor visas have the highest percentage of applications in the backlog, with around 71% of visitor visa applications against a projected backlog of 43% as of December 31.

In the case of study permits, the backlog has seen a continuous rise of 45% as compared to 43% in December. The number of work permits in the backlog has significantly fallen during the same duration. 42% of applications remained in the backlog in comparison to 57% at the end of December 2024.

Citizenship grants backlog:

This category remains low with 238,600 applications in total as of January 31. Of these numbers, 82% were processed with the service standards, which leaves 18% in the backlog.