A Canadian goal of clearing a backlog of more than 30,000 applications from Hongkongers awaiting permanent residency is “encouraging” but questions remain about whether it can be achieved by 2027, advocates and immigration experts have said.
Experts and Canadian parliamentarians said on Saturday that Ottawa’s new one-off measure to add more quota spaces to clear the Hong Kong immigration pathways backlog would help address the uncertainty facing tens of thousands from the city still waiting for permanent residency.
Canada’s 2027-29 immigration levels plan, announced on Thursday alongside the budget, introduced a “time-limited measure” to allocate up to 100,000 additional spaces for permanent residency for specific humanitarian groups, including those under the Hong Kong pathways.