Urgent Processing
As of April 2026, IRCC estimates that applications sent from the US will take 10 months to process. For some of us, we can’t wait that long. Unfortunately, this is the subject that there is the least amount of clarity around. The IRCC provides limited guidance and we have the least amount of anecdotal examples to consult.
Who Qualifies for Urgent Processing?
IRCC offers official guidance on how to request urgent processing for people that meet certain criteria. Even if one or more of these factors apply to you, there is no guarantee that you will be provided urgent processing. The government has a finite capacity for processing applications and so even within those that have factors that are listed on the official website, it’s up to the IRCC’s discretion to decide which apps to prioritize for processing. That said, there’s no penalty for requesting urgent processing and only the IRCC makes the final determination about who receives expedited processing.
When I was deciding whether to apply for urgent processing, I asked myself whether I wanted to move to Canada urgently or if I just wanted to have it as an option for the future.
Here are some of the reasons given by the Canadian government that could allow someone to apply for you can apply for urgent processing:
Avoiding situations of potential harm / hardship due to:
Race
Religion
Nationality
Sexual Orientation
Gender Expression or Identity
Membership in Particular Groups
To help with a case of statelessness
If you’re unable to get another passport and you need to travel for death or serious illness in family
To attend a school, or avoid losing a job (for example, if you’re on a work visa that’s about to expire or have a job offer contingent upon legal eligibility to work by a certain date)
Applying for Urgent Processing
If you decide to apply for urgent processing, you will have two additional requirements for your application for proof of citizenship:
A letter explaining WHY you’re requesting urgent processing.
If you’re applying based on potential harm/hardship, you need to explain what the harm/hardship. Be direct, brief, and straightforward about your situation. They need to understand enough to know that your situation requires urgency, but they don’t need to know details of every harmful situation you’ve encountered.
If you have a job offer that is contingent on your ability to legally work in Canada by a certain date, or if you’re employed in Canada already and your work visa is about to expire, give the date of expiration.
Supporting documents to prove your situation
For hardship/harm, this could include, for example, letters from doctors, therapists, or religious leaders, records of name/gender changes to legal identity documents, police reports, etc.
For employment contingent on proof of legal right to work, you might include a letter from your employer stating that the your job is contingent on me having the legal right to work by a certain X date. If you already have had a Canadian work visa, I’d include a copy of the my visa with the expiration date.
It bears repeating: we have very little guidance from the IRCC in terms of what is enough proof, what is a good source of proof, and how they actually make prioritization decisions. It seems that at least some of the way that applications are reviewed depends on the individual reviewing it and there are stories of people with seemingly very similar situations with very different processing times.