Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced a temporary public policy on September 9, 2026 that allows foreign nationals holding a valid work permit to enrol in a course of six months or less without applying for a study permit, even if the course ends after the period of stay authorized on their first entry to Canada. Signed by Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Lena Metlege Diab on August 5, the policy took effect on September 4, runs until December 31, 2027, and may be revoked at any time. It revives a measure of the same name introduced in June 2023 that expired on June 27 of this year, but with a narrower reach: the earlier policy let eligible workers, including those on maintained status, study programs of any length without a study permit, whereas the new one requires applicants to hold a valid work permit and waives only the requirement that a course be completed within the initial authorized period of stay. As of June 30, 2026, roughly 1.55 million foreign nationals in Canada held a work permit only, and about 630,000 held a study permit. IRCC says the measure is intended to help workers already in the country, such as tradespeople, nurses and laboratory technicians, upgrade their skills and credentials to fill gaps in critical sectors, and that it does not change the government's overall target of reducing temporary residents to less than 5 percent of the population.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has raised the study permit proof-of-funds requirement as of September 1, 2026, with a single applicant studying outside Quebec now required to show at least $23,448 CAD for a first year of living expenses, up $553 from the previous $22,895, and with the thresholds for larger families rising in step. Alongside the higher dollar figures, IRCC has updated its guidance to make clear that officers will assess not only how much money an applicant has but where it came from and whether it will remain available throughout the period of study, with applicants expected to supply six months of bank statements and documents explaining the source of the deposits shown in them; those enrolled in programs longer than one year must also set out how they intend to pay for the remaining years. The threshold covers living costs only, meaning tuition and round-trip transportation must be demonstrated separately, and Quebec continues to apply its own financial capacity standard through the CAQ, set at $24,617 for a single applicant. The increase extends a policy direction Canada has followed since 2024, combining sharply higher financial requirements with a shrinking study permit cap, which falls to 408,000 for 2026, a 7% reduction from 2025.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) confirmed in a notice issued from Ottawa on August 28, 2026 that the two temporary permanent residence pathways created for Hong Kong residents stopped accepting new applications after August 31, 2026, while applications already submitted continue to be processed. The deadline was not a late decision but the expiry date written into the temporary public policy when it took effect on June 1, 2021, and the pathways themselves were never extended over the following five years; the only two changes in that period were the February 2023 extension of the companion open work permit and the August 2023 removal of Stream B's education requirement. Official figures show that as of June 30, 2026, IRCC had received roughly 30,315 applications covering 48,560 people, of which more than 8,600 applications (13,485 people) were approved and about 13,370 people had actually landed as permanent residents, leaving more than 35,000 people still waiting in the queue. Because the pathways never had a dedicated immigration allocation of their own, their PR spaces had to be drawn from the "Humanitarian and Compassionate and Other" (H&C and Other) category shared with Ukrainian, Sudanese and other groups, and that category's annual target has been cut year over year from 13,750 in 2024 to 6,900 in 2026, slowing processing markedly; documents IRCC submitted to a parliamentary committee had already warned that most applications still in process are not expected to be finalized until after 2027. As a transitional measure, eligible applicants awaiting a decision can apply for an open work permit of up to three years under a separate public policy that took effect on May 27, 2024 and runs until May 2029, allowing them to live and work in Canada legally through the long wait.

The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) held its 278th Expression of Interest (EOI) draw on August 27, 2026, issuing 741 Letters of Advice to Apply (LAA) to foreign nationals, of which 600 went to people already working in Manitoba in National Occupational Classification (NOC) major group 72, "technical trades and transportation officers and controllers," at a minimum ranking score of 731 points; a further 62 were targeted at bus drivers (NOC 73301) and general practitioners and family physicians (NOC 31102), 21 went to Francophone candidates, and 58 went to skilled workers invited directly through strategic recruitment channels. Occupation-targeted selections accounted for 89.3 per cent of all invitations in the round, underscoring how Manitoba has concentrated its places on workers already in the province and on shortage occupations since its federal allocation was cut. Of the 741 candidates, 150 reported a valid Express Entry profile number and job seeker validation code, which means a provincial nomination would give them an additional 600 points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Notably, Manitoba's 2026 allocation of 6,239 nominations is unchanged from its 2025 total after a federal top-up, even as the national provincial nominee allocation has rebounded from 55,000 in 2025 to 91,500 for 2026 - a contrast that is the practical backdrop to how narrowly this round was drawn. Candidates who receive an LAA have 60 days to submit a complete application to the MPNP.

As of August 26, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has begun accepting study permit applications under a new cap year of the Francophone Minority Community Student Pilot (FMCSP), with a ceiling of 2,970 applications and an intake window running until August 25, 2027 or until the cap is reached. The pilot is open to citizens of 33 francophone countries and territories and covers 17 francophone and bilingual post-secondary institutions outside Quebec, and its defining feature is that applicants who enter Canada on a pilot-specific study permit, graduate and meet the conditions can apply for permanent residence (PR) directly, without competing for the limited invitations handed out to other international graduates through Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) — the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draw of August 18, 2026 carried a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off of 523, and provincial nomination allocations have been cut by roughly half since 2025, which makes an all-but-uncontested pathway a rare commodity. Uptake, however, has been thin since the pilot launched in August 2024: a report by the Auditor General shows that only 780 study permits were issued against the first year's cap of 2,300, and as of July 2026 just 515 students and 150 accompanying family members had arrived through the stream — the direct reason Ottawa opted in July to extend the pilot by a single year rather than make it permanent, as francophone institutions had urged.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) revised its officer instructions on August 21, 2026 to extend the deadline for submitting a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) under concurrent processing of inland work permit applications from 60 calendar days to 90 calendar days, giving foreign workers in Canada an additional 30 days of buffer when an employer's LMIA has not yet been decided and their status is at risk of lapsing. The change was not accompanied by a news release or policy announcement, and surfaced only through a revised update date on the officer guidance page titled "Labour Market Impact Assessment Review – Temporary Foreign Worker Program". The immediate backdrop is a sustained increase in Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) processing times: the high-wage stream rose from 46 business days in November 2025 to 88 business days in July 2026, while the low-wage stream rose from 44 business days to 73. Critically, ESDC reports processing times in business days while IRCC counts the 90 days in calendar days, and 90 calendar days converts to roughly 64 business days — still well short of the current high-wage average. Concurrent processing is also expressly framed in the guidance as an arrangement assessed on an exceptional basis rather than an entitlement available to every inland applicant, and applicants must meet four preconditions, including holding a work permit that expires in two weeks or less.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) launched a new public consultation on August 4, 2026, to gather input on category-based selection in Express Entry for 2027. The survey will remain open until September 1. It focuses on four potential talent areas: candidates working in occupations listed under the Global Talent Stream (GTS), researchers, candidates aligned with the priorities of the International Talent Attraction Strategy, and U.S. H-1B visa holders. It also asks whether existing categories should continue, whether the range of labour-shortage occupations should be narrowed, and whether selection should focus on talent inside or outside Canada. The consultation does not mean that any new categories have been approved. The feedback will inform policy-setting for 2027, but the final categories will still require ministerial approval and formal publication.

Manitoba held its 276th Expression of Interest (EOI) draw on July 30, 2026, issuing 766 Letters of Advice to Apply (LAAs), of which 605 went to candidates currently working in manufacturing and utilities occupations in the province at a cut-off score of 632, a single category accounting for nearly 80% of the round; a further 74 went to workers in seven targeted occupations including aerospace engineers, air pilots, aircraft mechanics and family physicians, 17 went to candidates who communicate with the province in French, and the remaining 70 were issued as direct invitations under the strategic recruitment initiative, led by the Francophone Community with 25. Of the 766 candidates, 94 declared a valid Express Entry profile number and job seeker validation code, meaning that once they receive a provincial nomination they will pick up an additional 600 points under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Notably, almost every invitation in this round went to people already working or living in Manitoba, continuing the province's "keep the people we already have" posture adopted in 2025; as of July 30, Manitoba has held 15 draws in 2026 and issued 4,822 LAAs, roughly 3.4 times the 1,424 issued over the same period in 2025, even though its federal nomination allocation for this year stands at 6,239, still more than 30% below the 9,500 allocated in each of 2023 and 2024.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published updated officer guidance on July 29, 2026 confirming that applicants for a C20 reciprocal employment work permit must already be employed by the company abroad at the time they apply, and that arrangements in which the foreign national only begins working for the company after arriving in Canada no longer qualify for an exemption from the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), on the reasoning that such arrangements cannot deliver the exchange of knowledge and experience the category is built around; at the same time the new guidance deletes the "neutral labour market impact" language that ran through the previous version and clarifies that reciprocity need not run between Canada and one specific other country, allowing a multinational to satisfy the test by showing it creates comparable opportunities for Canadians across its offices worldwide. The change lands against a federal push to shrink the temporary resident population: work permit holders under the International Mobility Program (IMP) grew by more than 153% between 2019 and 2025, from roughly 500,000 to over 1.23 million, while the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan cuts annual temporary resident arrivals to 385,000, about 43% below the 673,650 target for 2025, with the IMP work permit target compressed from 285,750 to 170,000. For employers who cannot use C20 or another IMP exemption, the only alternative is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and an LMIA, where as of June 2026 processing times had climbed to 79 days for the high-wage stream and 71 days for the low-wage stream, on top of a non-refundable CAD $1,000 fee per position.

On July 22, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published new operational guidance making clear that immigration officers have no authority to grant humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) exemptions from the conditions set out in a temporary public policy: where an applicant seeks in-Canada permanent residence (PR) under a temporary public policy but at the same time asks, on H&C grounds, to be excused from a condition they do not meet, the officer must refuse, and the applicant is not entitled to a separate, additional decision on whether PR should be granted on humanitarian grounds; anyone who still wants an officer to weigh their humanitarian circumstances must file a fresh, standalone H&C PR application and pay the fee. The guidance puts in writing a legal position the department has long held: the H&C authority in subsection 25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (A25(1)) permits relief only from requirements imposed by "the Act," whereas the conditions of a temporary public policy are set separately by the minister under section 25.2 and are not requirements of the Act, placing them beyond the reach of H&C relief. The move lands as Canada sharply contracts PR spaces in its "H&C and Other" category (cut step by step from 13,750 in 2024 to 4,300 in 2027) and as the in-Canada H&C backlog climbs, leaving groups that depend on temporary public policies -- Hong Kong residents PR pathway applicants, home care workers and out-of-status workers -- most exposed.