Canada sets 2027-2029 immigration targets while trying to blunt the housing and public-service crisis
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The 2026 federal budget caps annual temporary admissions at 370,000 and permanent admissions at 380,000 through 2029, while also proposing a pathway for up to 200,000 current temporary residents to gain permanent status by the end of 2027.
Canada’s government said that, starting in 2027, it will admit 370,000 new temporary residents each year and hold permanent-resident admissions to 380,000 annually through 2029, according to the 2026 federal budget released on Nov. 5, 2026. The plan also creates a route for up to 200,000 temporary residents already in the country to secure permanent residency by the end of 2027.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration said the measures are intended to reflect labour-market needs without further overwhelming housing affordability, health-care capacity and other strained public services. The temporary resident quota for 2027 will be split between 150,000 international students and 220,000 workers, with the worker portion made up of 170,000 arrivals under the International Mobility Program and 50,000 through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
The budget says recent drops in new international student arrivals (71% lower than the same period in 2024), worker arrivals (down 57%) and asylum claims (down 68%) justify a slower pace of immigration than the higher levels seen earlier in the decade. Economic immigration is expected to account for about 64% of permanent-resident admissions, with family immigration and refugee categories filling the rest.
A separate initiative will move 100,000 workers eligible for Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program to permanent status by the end of 2027, alongside processing room for workers and their families already in Canada and for long-standing humanitarian cases. The budget also extends the foreign-buyer ban on existing homes to Jan. 1, 2029, while exempting new residential properties in an effort to encourage new housing construction.