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When a war or a disaster makes it unsafe for people to stay where they are, Canada sometimes adds a temporary set of rules on top of its ordinary immigration programmes. IRCC, Canada's federal immigration department, calls these special measures, and says they "go beyond our regular immigration programs to address the urgent needs of people facing extraordinary circumstances" (IRCC: Canada's immigration response to situations abroad). They are temporary by design: each one opens on a date, each one closes, and some close the moment a fixed number of applications has been reached. That is why this page carries a date: it describes where each measure stood on 17 July 2026, and nothing here replaces the official page linked beside it.
This page is for someone affected by one of these crises, and for family in Canada trying to help, who needs to know whether a measure is still open and who it covers. Our questionnaire and our report do not assess any of the measures on this page. Everything here is free to read, and the help listed at the end costs nothing.
An ordinary immigration programme changes slowly. A special measure can be announced in a week, capped at a number of applications, extended twice, and closed. A page you found through a search, or a message forwarded in a family group, may be describing one that closed a year ago.
Do two things with anything you read, this page included: open the official link and read the status at the top, then check the "date modified" line at the bottom.
This is also where fraud finds people. Nobody can add you to a closed intake, move you up a queue, or "register" you for a measure nobody has announced. Our guide to spotting immigration scams explains the promises that should end a conversation.
Most of the Ukraine measures have closed. The Canada to Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET), the emergency route that let Ukrainians come quickly on a temporary visa, ended on 15 July 2023. The permanent residence route for Ukrainians with family in Canada closed to new applications on 22 October 2024, and IRCC continues to process applications submitted before that date.
What remains is for people already in Canada. Someone holding an open work permit issued under a Ukraine public policy can apply to extend it for up to three years, with a deadline of 31 March 2027. Visitors, students and temporary resident permit holders extend through the ordinary process (IRCC: the Ukraine measures).
Canada opened a family-based permanent residence pathway for people affected by the conflict in Sudan, which began on 15 April 2023. It was for people living in Sudan then who have extended family in Canada, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, willing to support them. IRCC's page states that it is closed: it stopped accepting applications on 17 April 2025 and is assessing what it already received against a limit of 1,700 places, returning anything beyond that limit (IRCC: the Sudan family pathway).
The Haiti measures are not a route to permanent residence; they help people already here. They cover Haitian nationals and passport holders in Canada holding valid temporary resident status, and family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents who left Haiti on or after 1 March 2024 and arrived in Canada on or before 26 April 2024.
Someone covered can apply for an open work permit, a study permit, a visitor record or a temporary resident permit, or extend the status they hold, without paying the usual fees, and may get limited health coverage through the Interim Federal Health Program. These measures were in place on 17 July 2026 and have been extended more than once, most recently by a notice dated 20 November 2025, so read the end date on IRCC's own page (IRCC: the Haiti measures, and the extension notice).
Canada's measure for extended family members in Gaza offered a temporary resident visa, which is a visitor visa, not permanent residence. If that distinction is new, our guide to visas, permanent residence and citizenship explains what each gives you. It needed a family member in Canada, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, who signed a declaration promising a year of support.
The intake is closed. In IRCC's words, "as of March 6, 2025, we received enough temporary resident visa (TRV) applications to fill the available spaces", the space available being 5,000 applications. Applications accepted before then are still being processed (IRCC: the Gaza family measures).
Separate supports remain for people affected by the crisis who are already in Canada: work and study permits under a public policy, settlement services, temporary health coverage and financial assistance (IRCC: crisis in Palestine).
This one is narrower than most people expect. Under a public policy in effect since 1 March 2026, the measures for Iranian nationals cover only people in Canada holding a work permit issued no later than 28 February 2025. Someone covered can apply to extend their status for up to two years, with a deadline of 31 March 2027, and cannot get a second extension under this policy. IRCC's page is explicit that no other temporary measures are in place for Iranian applicants, so Iranian visitors and study permit holders use the ordinary programmes (IRCC: the Iran measures).
Canada runs two public policy routes to permanent residence for Hong Kong residents holding a Hong Kong SAR passport or a British National (Overseas) passport. Both are for people already in Canada with valid temporary status who intend to live outside Quebec, and both need an approved language test result. Stream A is for people who graduated from a Canadian school in the past three years; Stream B is for people with at least a year of full-time work in Canada in the past three years.
On 17 July 2026 both streams were open, and IRCC's page states that applications are accepted until 31 August 2026. If you are reading this after that date, treat them as shut until the page says otherwise (IRCC: the Hong Kong pathways).
This programme offered permanent residence to nationals of Colombia, Haiti or Venezuela living in South or Central America, Mexico or the Caribbean who had a family member in Canada willing to support them. It is closed: IRCC's page states that it is not accepting applications, having received enough to fill the available spaces, and it gives no closing date (IRCC: the closed family-based humanitarian program).
IRCC keeps one list of the situations it currently has measures for. On 17 July 2026 that list also named Afghanistan and an Ebola outbreak, and it separately names ended measures, such as those for Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Türkiye (IRCC's list of situations abroad).
If your country is not on that list, there is no special measure, and nobody can put you on one. What may still apply are Canada's standing protection routes, which exist whether or not a crisis has been named: see our guide to refugee protection and humanitarian applications. If the danger is inside your own home rather than your country, separate protections exist for people facing family violence in Canada, explained in our guide to immigration options after family violence.
Our questionnaire and our report assess work, study, family and business routes to Canada. They do not assess special measures, and that is deliberate. They change on their own timetable, several start with a relative in Canada rather than with the applicant, and a report telling you a capped intake was open would be worse than no answer. Read the official page and the free help below instead.
IRCC's crisis-response pages and its client support centre, your province's legal aid plan (for example Legal Aid Ontario's immigration and refugee service) and the settlement agencies you can find through IRCC's free newcomer services finder can help you with this at no cost. You do not need to pay anyone to ask for the protections on this page.
Before you pay anyone for immigration advice, ask for their licence or registration number and check it with the regulator for the country you are applying to. IRCC explains who may be paid to represent you.
Our free questionnaire and our full report do not assess the routes on this page. We wrote it because people arrive asking about them, and everything here is free to read.