With the decline in application processing, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has recently doubled the number of spousal applications it is processing.
Prior to the pandemic, Canada’s goal was to admit 70,000 new permanent residents under the Spouses, Partners and Children immigration category. This goal will be increased to some 80,000 annually, stated in the new 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan.
This category is mostly comprised of the wives, husbands, and partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents that sponsor them.
Following the slowdown in processing, IRCC announced in September it would expedite up to 6,000 spousal sponsorship applications per month for the remainder of 2020.