Immigration Levels Plan Targets for Express Entry Candidates, 2023 Through 2028
November 2022. Ottawa tables an Immigration Levels Plan that assumes steady growth for years to come. By November 2025, three plans later, the numbers have been cut, restructured, and partly restored — and the shape of those changes explains a great deal about why Express Entry draws have looked the way they have.
Here is the immigration levels plan Express Entry targets by year timeline, plan by plan.
2022: the plan that assumed growth
The Immigration Levels Plan 2023–2025, tabled 1 November 2022, set the Federal High Skilled line — the Express Entry admissions target — at 82,880 for 2023, rising to 109,020 in 2024 and 114,000 in 2025. PNP targets over the same period ran 105,500, 110,000 and 117,500. Everything in this plan pointed upward.
2023: the plan that kept climbing
The following year’s plan, 2024–2026, pushed the Federal High Skilled admissions target by year further: 110,770 for 2024, then 117,500 for both 2025 and 2026 — the first sign of a plateau rather than continued growth, but still no cut. PNP numbers matched at 110,000, then 120,000 for 2025 and 2026.
2024: the plan that cut sharply
The Immigration Levels Plan 2025–2027, tabled 24 October 2024, reversed course. Overall PR admissions were cut to 395,000 for 2025, falling further to 380,000 by 2027. The Federal High Skilled line was split into two separate categories — Federal Economic Priorities and In-Canada Focus — combining to 124,680 for 2025. Provincial nomination took the sharpest hit of all: PNP allocation cut and restoration 2025 to 2026 starts here, with the national PNP target halved to 55,000 for every year of that plan, down from 110,000 the year before.
2025: the plan that restored some of it
The most recent plan, 2026–2028, tabled 5 November 2025, kept overall admissions flat at 380,000 but reshaped the internals again. The Federal High Skilled line returned to a single figure — 109,000 for 2026, rising slightly to 111,000 for 2027 and 2028 — abandoning the two-line split from the previous plan. PNP was restored sharply, to 91,500 for 2026 and 92,500 for 2027 and 2028, a large increase from 55,000 but still below the 2024 peak of 120,000.
What shows up in the draw record itself
None of these figures guarantee a specific number of draws or a specific cut-off — they set the ceiling IRCC is working toward across an entire year, not a weekly quota. But how levels plans have moved the draw calendar is visible in the draw record itself: the last general Express Entry draw ran in April 2024, right as the sharp 2025–2027 cut was taking shape, and no general draw has run since. The PNP cut through 2025 shows up directly in that year’s PNP-round cut-offs, which sat consistently between 667 and 855.
That’s the shape of how each plan has steered Express Entry admissions year by year — four plans in four years, and the draw calendar moving underneath every one of them.
A newer plan replaces the last one every autumn, so check Cape2Canada’s Express Entry Explained guide for the current-year numbers rather than relying on this timeline alone.