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Every application to move to Canada comes with a bill from the Canadian government. IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the department that decides immigration applications) publishes one official fee list, and everything you pay the government appears on it. This post walks through that list route by route, says which fees you can get back, and says when in the process each one is due. It then names the other costs an applicant meets that are not government fees at all. Every figure below is in Canadian dollars, is taken from IRCC's fee list as it stood on the day we published, and can change, so treat the list itself as the place to check before you pay.
You are early in planning a move to Canada and want to know what the government will actually charge you, for yourself and for a spouse or child, before you commit to anything. You may also have seen a much larger total quoted by an agency and want to know how much of it is the government's fee and how much is somebody else's. Our Canada page lists the routes we assess; this post is about the price of applying under them.
Permanent residence is the status that lets you live and work in Canada indefinitely. For the economic routes, which include Express Entry (the online system that ranks skilled-worker candidates and invites the highest-ranked to apply) and the Provincial Nominee Program (the route where a province picks you first), the government charges two separate fees per adult, and the fee list shows them combined and apart.
So the fee list shows $1,590 per adult with the right of permanent residence fee included, or $990 without it. Add biometrics, covered below.
For Express Entry, none of this is due while you sit in the candidate pool waiting for an invitation. The fees are paid when you submit the permanent residence application itself, after an invitation to apply. IRCC's page on paying Express Entry fees says that at a minimum you must pay the processing fee when you submit, and that you can pay the right of permanent residence fee later, though it advises paying everything at once to avoid delays. Fees are a separate matter from the settlement money some routes ask you to show you have; that is explained in our post on proof of funds.
Permanent residence fees are not fixed. IRCC's notice on the April 2026 increase states that under Canada's immigration regulations permanent residence fees are adjusted every two years, and that applications received on or after 30 April 2026 pay the new amounts. That notice is where the figures above come from: the right of permanent residence fee went from $575 to $600, and the Provincial Nominee Program processing fee from $950 to $990, with the fee list showing the same amounts for Express Entry. Expect another adjustment two years on, and read the amount off the fee list on the day you pay rather than off any blog post, including this one.
Biometrics means your fingerprints and a photograph, taken in person at an official collection point. IRCC's biometrics facts page puts the fee at CAN$85 per person, with a maximum of CAN$170 for a family applying together, and lists who does not have to give them at all, including children under 14. It is paid with your application, alongside the processing fee: IRCC's Express Entry fee page lists it as one of the three fees you pay when you apply.
A permit is permission to stay in Canada temporarily for one purpose. On the fee list, a study permit is $150 per person, including extensions, and a work permit is $155 per person, also including extensions. Someone applying for an open work permit (one not tied to a single employer) also pays an open work permit holder fee of $100. Biometrics apply here too. A visitor visa is $100 per person.
Sponsorship is the route where a Canadian citizen or permanent resident applies to bring a relative. The fee list prices sponsoring a spouse or partner at $1,260, which it states includes the sponsorship fee, the processing fee and the right of permanent residence fee together; the same application without the right of permanent residence fee is $660. Each dependent child included is $180. Sponsoring a parent or grandparent carries the same $1,260 figure.
IRCC's refund page draws one clear line. If you withdraw before IRCC starts processing your application, you get a full refund. Once processing has started, the processing fee is gone whether the answer is yes or no. The fees IRCC will still refund after that point are the right of permanent residence fee, the right of citizenship fee, the open work permit holder fee (for workers exempt from the labour market test employers otherwise have to pass), and a fee employers themselves pay. The fee list says the same about the right of permanent residence fee: it is refunded if you withdraw or if IRCC refuses the application, and it is the only fee that can be refunded once processing is under way. In practice this means a refused permanent residence application costs you the processing fee and the biometrics fee, and returns the $600.
The government's list is only part of the bill. These costs go to test centres, doctors, police forces and translators, and each has its own price that we do not repeat here because it varies by provider and country.
No. Applying yourself is always allowed, on every route, and IRCC's fee list is the whole of what the government charges. A licensed representative's fee is an optional extra on top, never a requirement, and nobody can shorten a queue or guarantee a result by being paid. If someone quotes you a single "total cost" that folds their own fee into the government's, ask for the split. Our post on how to spot immigration scams covers the warning signs, including anyone who asks you to pay a government fee to them rather than to the government.
Our report states no government fee, because the amounts change on the schedule above and a number printed in a report would go stale. What it does carry, on the routes that need them, is a checklist step for the paid documents you must obtain yourself: a credential assessment where the route requires one, and a language test result that is still within its validity period. Those are the two costs above that come before you apply, so you can budget for them in order. The report does not carry a checklist step for the medical exam or for police certificates, and it never tells you whether you qualify.
Before the fees matter, you need to know which route you would be paying for. Our Canada page lists the routes we assess. To see how you measure up, take our free questionnaire: a few minutes, a free results summary, and then your choice whether to unlock the full report.
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