Canada Closes Hong Kong PR Pathways After Five Years

Canada has closed its special permanent residence pathways for eligible Hong Kong residents, ending a route that allowed applicants to seek permanent residence based on Canadian work experience or post-secondary education.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) confirmed that the final day to submit applications was August 31, 2026. Applications submitted by that date will continue to be processed.

Applications Already Submitted Will Continue

The federal government launched the Hong Kong permanent residence pathways in June 2021. The programs offered eligible Hong Kong residents a direct route to permanent residence if they met requirements related to Canadian work experience or education and had basic official language skills.

Since their launch, Canada has admitted 13,370 new permanent residents through the pathways.

However, the programs attracted significant demand. More than 46,000 applications have been received, with more than 33,000 still in the backlog, according to an IRCC official cited by OMNI News.

The large backlog has pushed estimated processing times beyond 10 years. The lengthy waits are largely linked to the limited number of permanent residence admissions available rather than a lack of processing capacity.

Work Permit Option Remains Open

Although the permanent residence pathways have closed to new applicants, some Hong Kong residents can still access a special three-year open work permit.

IRCC will continue accepting applications for this work permit until May 2029. The permit is available to foreign nationals who have applied for permanent residence through the Hong Kong pathways.

The federal government previously indicated that many people who have already submitted permanent residence applications may not have their files processed until after 2027.

Limited Admission Spaces Affect Processing

For 2026, admissions for Hong Kong applicants will come from a pool of 5,800 places under an “Other” category. That category also covers Canada’s immigration responses to situations in Ukraine and Sudan.

Canada plans to welcome 446,000 permanent residents in 2026.

The limited number of spaces means applicants may wait years before an immigration officer can finalize a permanent residence decision. A decision cannot be finalized until an available admission space exists under the federal government’s annual targets.

Pathways Changed Over Time

IRCC originally created two Hong Kong permanent residence pathways in 2021 through a temporary public policy. Both initially included education requirements.

In August 2023, however, IRCC removed the post-secondary graduation requirement from the work experience pathway.

Canada also introduced a separate three-year open work permit policy in February 2021 for eligible foreign nationals with ties to Hong Kong and qualifying post-secondary education. That policy was initially scheduled to end in 2023 and was later extended to 2025.

With the permanent residence pathways now closed, foreign nationals facing long waits can consider other routes, including economic immigration, family sponsorship and humanitarian and compassionate pathways.

IRCC allows eligible applicants to submit more than one permanent residence application at the same time. However, only one application can ultimately be finalized. Once one application is approved, the others must be withdrawn before a permanent resident visa can be issued.