Canada visitor visa applications in 2026: how many are approved, and from where
- 20231,223,230
- 20241,080,420
- 2025738,565
- 2026816,745
Source: IRCC open data (rounded). Visitor visa stickers only.
The short answer
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes how many visitor visas it approves every month. Its latest file covers January 2023 to August 2026.
From January to August 2026, IRCC approved 816,745 visitor visas. That is about 11% more than in the same eight months of 2025 (738,565). It is still about 33% fewer than in the same months of 2023 (1,223,230).
Applicants who are citizens of India received 252,145 of these visas, or about 31%. Citizens of China received 141,900, or about 17%. Together, the two countries account for almost half of all visitor visas approved so far in 2026.
What the numbers count
The file counts visitor visas approved for people, by country of citizenship and by month. IRCC's file calls these "V-1" counterfoils (a visa sticker). It says they are temporary resident visas (TRV) for people from countries that are not visa-exempt, who come to Canada as tourists or to visit family or friends.
Some things are not in this count:
- People from visa-exempt countries.
- Applications that were refused or withdrawn. The file only counts approvals.
- Visas issued to temporary foreign workers, foreign students and diplomats, according to the file's own note.
- Actual trips. The file counts visas issued, not the number of visits.
IRCC rounds the numbers in its open data to the nearest 5, so the monthly figures do not always add up exactly to the yearly total. The data is dated 1 September 2026, and IRCC says it is operational and subject to change. "China" in this article means the People's Republic of China, which IRCC lists separately from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Visitor visas approved, year by year
| Year | Full year | January to August |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,757,430 | 1,223,230 |
| 2024 | 1,458,045 | 1,080,420 |
| 2025 | 1,048,125 | 738,565 |
| 2026 | not yet published | 816,745 |
The full-year number fell two years in a row, from about 1.76 million in 2023 to about 1.05 million in 2025. For January to August, the number also fell in 2024 and in 2025. In 2026 it went up for the first time in this file.
Month by month in 2026, approvals rose from 82,400 in January to about 112,000 a month from April to June, then eased to 98,580 in August. In 2025, the highest month between January and August was May, with 112,470.
IRCC's file does not explain why the numbers changed. This article does not guess at a cause.
Which countries receive the most visitor visas
These are the ten countries of citizenship with the most visitor visas approved from January to August 2026, compared with the same months of 2025.
| Country of citizenship | Jan to Aug 2026 | Share of 2026 | Jan to Aug 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | 252,145 | 31% | 208,675 | +21% |
| China | 141,900 | 17% | 142,270 | about the same |
| Colombia | 35,605 | 4% | 27,900 | +28% |
| Ukraine | 27,040 | 3% | 14,840 | +82% |
| Nigeria | 26,210 | 3% | 34,360 | −24% |
| Mexico | 24,590 | 3% | 25,310 | −3% |
| Pakistan | 19,315 | 2% | 15,510 | +25% |
| Jamaica | 18,285 | 2% | 18,970 | −4% |
| Algeria | 16,165 | 2% | 11,640 | +39% |
| Philippines | 15,555 | 2% | 15,235 | +2% |
India and China were also the top two countries for the full year 2025. In 2025, India had 303,075 visitor visas approved and China had 195,115.
A larger number of approvals does not tell you about the chance of approval. A country can have many approvals simply because many of its citizens apply.
A wider view: all temporary resident applications
IRCC also publishes how many temporary resident applications it processed, and how many it approved, each month. These files mix visitor visas, visitor records, study permits and work permits, and they include both new applications and extensions. So they are not a visitor visa approval rate. To compare like with like, the table uses January to August of each year.
| January to August | Applications processed | Applications approved | Approved as a share of processed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4,193,440 | 2,952,290 | 70% |
| 2024 | 4,163,505 | 2,468,010 | 59% |
| 2025 | 3,307,215 | 1,931,815 | 58% |
| 2026 | 3,298,580 | 2,197,565 | 67% |
IRCC's file says "processed" includes approved, refused and withdrawn applications. The share approved across all these applications fell in 2024, stayed about the same in 2025, and went back up in 2026, though not to the 2023 level.
What this means for you
- If you are from a country that needs a visitor visa, these numbers show that IRCC is still approving hundreds of thousands of visas each year. They do not show what will happen with any one application.
- These totals cannot tell you how any single application will be decided.
- Before you apply, read IRCC's official visitor visa page, linked in the sources above, for the current requirements.
About this article
This article was written by SK for Newcomer Board with the help of AI tools. All numbers come from IRCC's open data files on visitor visas approved, temporary resident applications approved, and temporary resident applications processed (data as of 1 September 2026), checked on 2 November 2026. Shares and changes were calculated from those files and rounded. This is general information, not legal advice.