Canada’s Syrian commitments

The Government made several commitments to resettle Syrian refugees. Below is a breakdown of the data behind each one.

Information is also available on the total number of Syrian refugees who have arrived in Canada since November 4, 2015. Additional data on Syrian refugee resettlement is available through the Open Government Portal.

Disclaimer: We will no longer be making regular updates to this page for the commitments that have been met. However this is preliminary information that is subject to change.

1) Welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February 2016 – completedFootnote *

Breakdown by category Number of refugees
Government-assisted refugees 14,994
Blended visa office-referred refugees 2,224
Privately sponsored refugees 8,954
Total 26,172

We also have information about the five phases in the process of resettling the first 25 000 Syrian refugees and about the other government departments and agencies that had a role to play in the initiative.

2) Welcome 25,000 government-supported Syrian refugees by the end of 2016 – completedFootnote *†

The goal includes all government-assisted and blended visa office-referred Syrian refugees resettled in 2016. This means that some of these refugees are also counted in the above commitment.

Breakdown by category Number of refugees
Government-assisted refugees 21,751
Blended visa office-referred refugees 3,923
Total 25,674

3) Processing of all privately sponsored Syrian refugee applications submitted up to March 31, 2016, by early 2017 – 100% of cases are complete or in process

By March 31, 2016, we received roughly 12,000 Syrian privately sponsored refugee applications. Our commitment was to finalize the processing of these cases by early 2017. All cases either have been completed or are in process to the extent possible at this time.

A small number of refugee applications are taking longer to complete due to factors beyond our control, such as an inability to contact individuals for an interview or security or medical complexities associated with their case. Applications will be completed as soon as possible.

For information on privately sponsored refugees going to Quebec, please contact Immigration, Diversité et Inclusion Québec.

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