Military-Focused Immigration Stream Seen Falling Short of Labour Needs
Ottawa’s move to revamp a key immigration program to prioritize foreign military recruits is likely to play just a small role in solving long-standing staffing challenges at the Canadian Armed Forces, according to several defence experts.
On Wednesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced new categories for selecting immigrants through the Express Entry program, a points-based system that is the main gateway for skilled workers seeking permanent residency. One of those categories targets “highly skilled foreign military applicants” recruited by the Canadian Armed Forces in roles such as military doctors, nurses and pilots.
IRCC did not say how many people it intends to offer permanent residency to when draws begin for this category.
A consultation report published by IRCC last September to evaluate the Express Entry system stated that Canada would benefit from having foreign recruits from “allied countries” to help build its military capacity.
The department did not respond to questions on whether there would be country-based restrictions for prospective applicants.
Defence policy experts say that the CAF doesn’t struggle to attract Canadian citizens interested in serving in the military. Instead, they argue, there are significant bottlenecks in the recruitment process that result in applicants frequently being rejected or waiting unduly long periods to obtain responses to their applications.
Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, vice-president of Ottawa operations at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, described the recruitment of foreign service members as a new move for the country.
She cautioned, however, that the success of this immigration pathway will depend on improving a recruitment system that’s struggled domestically.
In October, 2025, the federal Auditor-General’s office published a scathing report on the CAF’s recruiting problems, stating that “ineffective” decision-making and “disjointed” ownership of the recruiting process between various committees and groups had affected its operational readiness and ability to respond to threats.
The report found that in the period between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2025, almost 192,000 people applied to the CAF, but only 15,000 were accepted. The CAF had planned to recruit roughly 19,700 people in that period.
Moreover, it often took twice as long to recruit than the target of between 100 and 150 days, leading to more than 100,000 applicants voluntarily withdrawing from the recruiting process.
“The system is broken. Recruiting has been a chronic, ongoing problem for many years. Young people are coming to CAF’s doors, they are just not getting through,” said Grazia Scoppio, professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada.
Interest in joining the CAF has increased tremendously in the past three years, according to new data from the Department of National Defence provided to The Globe and Mail. In the 2022-23 fiscal year, there were 43,934 applicants to the CAF, and in 2024-25, that number jumped to 77,431.
Federal government data from March, 2025, showed that there were 65,700 regular armed forces members, and 23,450 primary reserve force members, 12,350 short of current overall targets.
The CAF is particularly short of fighter pilots, according to a September, 2025, report from the DND that evaluated the retention strategy of the CAF. In 2025, the Canadian Army had an intake goal of 3,178 personnel but successfully recruited only 64 per cent of that.
Prof. Scoppio also noted that the culture within the military has not been particularly welcoming of immigrants, which often led to a lack of recognition of credentials of permanent residents and more difficulty for this group in progressing through the ranks. She said that the government’s plan to use the Express Entry system to attract highly skilled military personnel will do very little to boost Canada’s military capacity if the recruitment problem is not fixed first.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has been on a campaign to augment Canada’s defence capabilities in the midst of the trade war in the U.S. and President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to infringe on Canada’s sovereignty. This week, the federal government unveiled a $500-billion investment plan through its defence industrial strategy. The skilled foreign military applicant category within Express Entry is in line with this strategy, according to Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab.
Canada opened its doors to foreign military recruits only in late 2022, when the CAF began hiring permanent residents after its top commander at the time, General Wayne Eyre, warned of a critical shortfall in personnel. Since then, more than 30,000 permanent residents have applied to join the CAF, according to federal government data. As of last March, fewer than 500 CAF members were PR holders, with the remainder being Canadian citizens.
Globally, there is much precedent for foreign recruitment of military personnel. The British Army has recruited people from Commonwealth nations for decades, and countries in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance frequently recruit specialized military workers from each other, Prof. Scoppio said.
Immigration experts, meanwhile, questioned the government’s decision to prioritize military recruits through Express Entry, a points-based system for economic immigration.
“I’m concerned that the government is continuing with ‘category-based selection’ in Express Entry given that it allows for PR invitations to be issued to those with lower overall scores. Economic immigrants are supposed to be selected for their ability to become economically established and for contributing to Canada’s economy,” said Ravi Jain, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer.
Daniel Bernhard, chief executive of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, said that there should be no need for these boutique immigration categories. “A well-functioning Express Entry system would already be elevating candidates with the most in-demand skills to the top of the pile.”
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
