The government of Canada announced on April 5, 2022 that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has increased application fees for all permanent residence (PR) applications, including those under the economic, permit holder, family, and humanitarian categories.
For the first time since 2002, IRCC increased PR fees in 2020 to account for inflation. According to the government website, application fees are subject to increase every 2 years to adjust for inflation.
In addition, the Federal government supports a cost-effective approach to financing government programs, where individuals who receive the services and benefit directly from them are responsible for most of the costs.
Specifically, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the Regulations) are amended to ensure that the cost of managing and delivering permanent residence programs is distributed more equitably between the government of Canada and the applicants for permanent residence (i.e. permanent residents).
As part of its cost-effective approach to financing programs, the government of Canada encourages those who receive services and/or benefit from them to help offset costs. There is still a considerable imbalance between the fees paid by permanent resident applicants and the cost of providing services.