Canada's 2027 Measure for 200,000 People: Do You Apply?

On November 5, 2026, with its 2027 to 2029 Immigration Levels Plan, IRCC announced a new time-limited measure. It is meant to help up to 200,000 people already living in Canada become permanent residents, through extra admissions space to process applications under select pathways in 2027.

There are two cohorts, a workers cohort and a humanitarian cohort, each for up to 100,000 people. IRCC describes the measure as time-limited and says it applies to people already living in Canada.

IRCC says it will work with provinces and territories to move up to 100,000 people already in Canada, as well as their families, to permanent residence. It names two routes. Provinces and territories get additional space through increases to their Provincial Nominee Program allocations, which they can use to nominate workers who meet their regional needs.

Provinces and territories will also be able to identify workers who have already submitted an application under select federal programs. IRCC lists the Atlantic Immigration Program, and programs that are closed to new applications: the Start-up Visa Program, the Self-Employed Persons Program, the Agri-Food Pilot and the home care worker programs.

IRCC says its goal is to process all remaining applications under the Hong Kong permanent residence pathways and the Ukraine Family Reunification Pathway, and to finalize applications from people already found eligible for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

The space will also be used for permanent residence applications from spouses, common-law partners and dependent children of Canadians and permanent residents who are already living in Canada. IRCC says this will help bring wait times closer to 12 months for spouse and common-law partner applications destined outside Quebec. Our note on spousal sponsorship processing times explains what moves that clock.

No. IRCC has published no form, no intake and no eligibility rules for individuals. As described, the measure reaches people in two ways: a provincial nomination, which you get through a province's own program, or an application IRCC already has.

IRCC has not said how the extra provincial space will be shared between provinces, or how a province will choose workers. It has not announced an open pathway like the one it ran in 2021. Be careful with anyone who offers to file an application under this measure, because there is nothing to file.

The In-Canada Workers Initiative is an earlier one-time measure for up to 33,000 work permit holders, and IRCC says it will complete it in 2027. The new measure is separate and larger, and it includes people the initiative does not, such as spouses and partners in Canada and humanitarian applicants.

Whether you already have an application in one of the named programs, whether a provincial nomination is realistic for your occupation and province, and whether your temporary status will last while you wait. PNP or Express Entry covers how the two routes fit together.