Issue#26 We need to talk about the Levels Plan
What you need to know to plan your journey in 2025
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This issue required significant work - gathering and synthesizing information across multiple sources. This included written materials, podcasts from immigration professionals, ministry announcements, reputable video sources and more.
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This issue starts with a joyful acknowledgement: This is a piece that I would not have been able to confidently publish without the support of Josh Schachnow (immigration lawyer) and Matthew McDonald (Registered immigration consultant).
With busy lives and thriving businesses to run they both made time to review this issue and provide valuable input.
I’m very grateful!
Their LinkedIn profiles are hyperlinked to their names. Both Josh and Matthew are deeply knowledgeable on Canadian immigration, who I learn from on a regular basis!
My last acknowledgment is to the Borderlines podcast and its creators Deanna Okun-Nachoff and Stephen Meurrens. Their discussion on the levels plan greatly furthered my understanding.
The 2025-2027 levels plan was announced in October. This issue of the newsletter will be a deep dive into the levels plan.
Let me first set the table. This is NOT a comprehensive evaluation of the levels plan. The idea here is to pick out the details most relevant to high-skilled, economic immigrants and present them in an easy-to-digest way.
I will also only be talking about 2025 for now. Canadian immigration is in flux and talking about 2026 (or beyond!) is meaningless at this time.
We will prioritize relevance, not completeness here. Ok, with all that out of the way, let’s dive in.
What is the Levels Plan?
The Levels plan is to Canadian immigration, what Apple’s WWDC is to the tech world! 🍎
The Canadian government releases an annual plan projecting its immigration targets 3 years into the future. The latest released plan lays out Canada’s immigration vision for the period of 2025-2027.
This particular immigration plan is a particularly charged one because for the first time, the Canadian government has been more or less forced to cut back on immigration after a fairly generous period.
We won’t get into the reasons too much here, but the main factor is that the Canadian public - newcomers included - feel like the infrastructure (housing, healthcare, education) is not able to support the volume of incoming immigration.
Why should you care about the Levels Plan?
The levels plan gives you a sense of what is to come in 2025. It tells you what to expect, at a high-level.
When a country is cutting back its PR targets, as is the case with the current plan, it is safe to assume that PR is going to become harder, right?
For whom exactly is it becoming harder? How much harder?
Knowing the government’s plan allows YOU to ask the right questions.
Here’s a clear example of why knowing about the levels plan matters -
Earlier this year, I hear recommendations floating around in Canadian immigration, that aspirants should learn French to boost PR chances. Sounds sensible, right?
I had a simple question -
It takes 12-18 months of time, energy and money to become proficient enough at French for PR purposes. What if the policy on immigration of French speakers changed by then?
The levels plan has addressed this, to some extent.
French language immigration will remain a priority for 2025.
This is the sort of thing you want to know before jumping in with both feet into an immigration decision, right?
What do you need to know about this plan?
First, this immigration levels plan should be treated with some caution.
Canada is on the verge of an election. And the current government, led by Justin Trudeau is very likely not coming back.
That means this plan may change, given the election outcome in 2025.
We don’t know if such change is certain. We don’t know what direction such changes may take, with any certainty. We basically don’t know much of anything about what a future Conservative government would do on immigration.
Anything you read online about how things might change in the future are speculative.
So, please treat those “predictions” as such.
Back to the current plan…
To understand its impact it is worth asking this: What is the GOAL of Canadian immigration in 2025? The answer is surprising and VERY different from years past.