Indian students eyeing January and May intakes at Canadian colleges will need to pad their timelines. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s processing-time tool—captured by The Economic Times on October 21—the estimated wait for a new study-permit decision out of India has climbed to seven weeks, up from six in the previous weekly refresh. Work-permit applicants in India, by contrast, continue to face an 11-week estimate, while visitor-visa waits have inched down to 29 days. Although a one-week swing may appear minor, it lands during peak application season for winter-term programs, when volumes typically spike. Consultants warn that a seven-week median means 20 per cent of files will take longer, so prospective students should budget at least two months before firm travel dates. Institutions that admit large cohorts from South Asia may also need contingency plans—such as late arrival windows or hybrid starts—if visa delays push enrolment past orientation week. IRCC’s service standard for overseas study permits is 60 days, but the department rarely meets that target during high season. Officials processed 1.83 million temporary-resident applications between January and July 2026 and were still sitting on nearly 400,000 cases at the end of that period, underscoring the backlog challenge. For employers, the unchanged 11-week work-permit figure suggests continued friction in onboarding offshore hires. Technology firms that pledged to relocate talent under Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy may have to stagger start dates or use the visitor-visa-to-work-permit conversion pathway for urgent roles. The numbers also highlight the widening global disparity in processing: U.S.-based study-permit applicants see a five-week estimate, while Pakistan has jumped to eight weeks—the longest in four months. Such variability reinforces the need for HR teams and education agents to consult the tool weekly and build cushions into mobility timelines.
Source: The Economic Times
