441-02006 (Citizenship and immigration)

The Government of Canada recognizes the dedication and significant efforts of Canadians and permanent residents who support the resettlement of refugees through the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Program. In the 40 years since the program began, Canada has become a model for the world, inspiring 15 countries to develop their own community sponsorship programs. Its success is due to the immense contributions of sponsors who help refugees find protection in Canada.

 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) takes the safety and security of all refugees seriously.  We continue to process applications as quickly as possible, and are actively introducing measures and exploring new options to reduce wait times for vulnerable clients.

The Immigration Levels Plan establishes admission targets in the permanent resident programs, which determines the total number of people that can arrive in Canada each year from each program stream. Levels space for the PSR program has grown significantly since 2015 to accommodate growing demand, from 6,300 in 2015 to 27,505 in 2023.  Looking forward, Canada aims to welcome 27,750 privately sponsored refugees in 2024, 28,250 in 2025 and 28,250 in 2026.

The number of resources allocated to support processing each year is based on the admissions target approved by Cabinet in the Immigration Levels Plan. When the number of applications submitted to the Department exceeds the admissions target, those applications are added to the inventory and are processed in subsequent years. In the PSR program, we do not currently limit the number of applications certain groups of sponsors can submit to the program, and over the years more applications have been submitted than the Department can process in a given year, resulting in growing inventories and wait times in the PSR program.

To help reduce the inventory and processing times, IRCC has made several key investments to boost operational processing capacity, including technological improvements and adding additional officers. We have also implemented digital tools that allow officers to process requests from different parts of the world more effectively, and the use of automation tools to help sort and process applications while ensuring there is no built-in bias.  We are also developing an intake management system for the PSR program, which will allow us to better calibrate application intake to the annual Levels plan, with the goal of reducing the inventory and introducing shorter and more predictable processing times for PSR clients.

The Government of Canada, including the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad, is monitoring the situation closely and is actively and continuously engaging with the Government of Pakistan and other domestic and international partners on the resettlement of Afghans and related issues. The Government of Canada appreciates Pakistan’s support of our efforts to resettle vulnerable Afghans to Canada while we navigate an extremely complex situation. We all play critical roles in moving Afghans to safety - the Government of Pakistan sets its own entry and exit requirements and determines when and if these requirements are changed, and Canada continues to advocate for streamlined procedures and strengthened protections for vulnerable Afghans. Clients facing potential detention who need to demonstrate to the Government of Pakistan that they have an ongoing application may do so using any of the communications that they have received from IRCC related to their application. Also, if an applicant is facing the possibility of being detained or deported, we urge them to notify the High Commission of Canada in Islamabad immediately or have a family member do this on their behalf. IRCC continues to communicate with clients as we are made aware of their change in circumstances, and we are treating each case with a great sense of urgency.

Despite challenges facilitating movement out of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans have transited through Pakistan over the past year. Since 2021, there have been 45 chartered flights from Pakistan to Canada in addition to hundreds of Afghan refugees who traveled on commercial flights from Pakistan (As of December 18, 2023). We are doing everything we can to help, including processing applications and moving Afghans approved for resettlement to Canada, as quickly and safely as possible.