Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has put the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) on ice, halting new applications as of 19:38 EST on December 30, 2025. The five-year-old pilot was designed to help skilled refugees—engineers, nurses, trades people and other professionals—use Canada’s economic immigration streams to obtain permanent residence.
IRCC officials told participating employers and NGOs in a pre-holiday letter that the inventory of applications has swelled beyond the 8,000 places allocated in the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan. Only 970 principal applicants and family members have landed since the program’s 2018 launch, but more than 4,000 files remain in process, pushing some wait-times past 17 months.
For Canadian employers, the pause is jarring. TalentLift and other recruitment organisations had dozens of refugee candidates in late-stage hiring pipelines, including a Venezuelan auto-body technician slated for British Columbia and a Sudanese AI researcher recruited by Carleton University. Without a clear re-opening date, businesses must decide whether to hold positions or restart recruitment through mainstream foreign-worker channels.
![Canada Suspends Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot Amid Backlog Concerns]()
Amid the uncertainty, employers and applicants can lean on VisaHQ’s expertise to navigate alternative Canadian immigration and work-permit options. The firm’s Canada portal (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) aggregates live policy updates, eligibility checklists and online filing tools, allowing its specialists to assemble compliant applications quickly—whether for provincial nominee programs, visitor visas or temporary work permits—until the EMPP doors reopen.
Refugee advocates fear the decision undercuts Canada’s promise to expand complementary pathways for displaced talent. IRCC insists the hiatus will allow staff to design a “sustainable, permanent program,” yet offered no timeline beyond a commitment to clear the existing queue. In practical terms, employers should expect no new EMPP intakes until at least the second half of 2026, when revised criteria and faster digital processing are expected.
Companies that have already submitted complete applications should continue preparing settlement and onboarding plans; files will be processed under current rules. For refugees without files in the system, advisors recommend exploring provincial nominee streams or the federal Express Entry pool, while monitoring IRCC program-delivery updates through 2026.
IRCC officials told participating employers and NGOs in a pre-holiday letter that the inventory of applications has swelled beyond the 8,000 places allocated in the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan. Only 970 principal applicants and family members have landed since the program’s 2018 launch, but more than 4,000 files remain in process, pushing some wait-times past 17 months.
For Canadian employers, the pause is jarring. TalentLift and other recruitment organisations had dozens of refugee candidates in late-stage hiring pipelines, including a Venezuelan auto-body technician slated for British Columbia and a Sudanese AI researcher recruited by Carleton University. Without a clear re-opening date, businesses must decide whether to hold positions or restart recruitment through mainstream foreign-worker channels.
Amid the uncertainty, employers and applicants can lean on VisaHQ’s expertise to navigate alternative Canadian immigration and work-permit options. The firm’s Canada portal (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) aggregates live policy updates, eligibility checklists and online filing tools, allowing its specialists to assemble compliant applications quickly—whether for provincial nominee programs, visitor visas or temporary work permits—until the EMPP doors reopen.
Refugee advocates fear the decision undercuts Canada’s promise to expand complementary pathways for displaced talent. IRCC insists the hiatus will allow staff to design a “sustainable, permanent program,” yet offered no timeline beyond a commitment to clear the existing queue. In practical terms, employers should expect no new EMPP intakes until at least the second half of 2026, when revised criteria and faster digital processing are expected.
Companies that have already submitted complete applications should continue preparing settlement and onboarding plans; files will be processed under current rules. For refugees without files in the system, advisors recommend exploring provincial nominee streams or the federal Express Entry pool, while monitoring IRCC program-delivery updates through 2026.
