IRCC Strike Update: Worker Unions and Government Agree to End Strike -

Good news for all! There’s a new IRCC Strike Update! The Government of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) have tentatively agreed to end the IRCC strike that has impacted over 155,000 public servants, including those at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Upon ratification, the impacted employees returned to work on Monday, May 1 2023.

The Labour strike began on April 19, with the striking employees demanding higher wages to cope with inflation, and flexible working conditions, among other favourable provisions for its members.

The Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board, had this to say in an official statement:

“We are pleased to have reached tentative agreements with the Public Service Alliance of Canada for the Core Public Administration after many weeks of hard work, negotiation, and compromise. The best deals are reached at the bargaining table—we respect the right to negotiate and appreciate Canadians’ patience and understanding over the past two weeks. We are deeply grateful for public servants who work hard across the country to serve Canadians and look forward to welcoming them back. These deals are fair, competitive, and reasonable, and bring stability to public servants and Canadians.”

The IRCC social media team also confirmed resumption via their official Twitter account:

The IRCC Social Media team has returned to full capacity and will answer questions received via Direct Message (DM) as of May 1 at 9:00 am EST.

— IRCC (@CitImmCanada) May 1, 2023

IRCC held its regularly scheduled Express Entry draw last Wednesday despite the strike, inviting 3,500 candidates to apply for permanent residence via Canada Express Entry. From now, we will see the return to work of the IRCC employees, which will restore application processing.

Other significant IRCC services suspended due to the strike, such as passports and other non-essential government functions, will be resumed. Processing applications, citizenship ceremonies, and in-person appointments will still likely experience delays because of more than 1 week of backlog.