Why does IRCC not publish an approval rate by country?
IRCC publishes approval counts by country and an overall national approval rate. It does not publish a current, official approval rate broken out by country. The tidy per-country percentages you see on many websites, such as "India 60%, Nigeria 48%", are third-party estimates, not government figures, so treat them with care. The only way to get a precise, current per-country rate is an Access to Information (ATIP) request to IRCC, which is why reliable country percentages are so hard to find.
The last reasonably authoritative per-country snapshot came from a 2020 House of Commons committee brief. It put the overall visitor visa approval rate for countries whose citizens needed a visa at 66% in 2020. That figure is five years old and predates the recent tightening, so it cannot stand in for today's odds. What holds up is the official national rate of 49% in 2025 and the decline in approval volumes shown above. See the House of Commons CIMM committee brief on visitor visa approval rates for the 2020 context.
How was this data sourced? (methodology)
Here is exactly what these numbers are and where they come from. The national approval rates are the percentages in IRCC's committee data summary, current as of April 30, 2025. The country figures are approval volumes, meaning visitor visas issued counted from IRCC's monthly open data releases, covering full years 2023, 2024, and 2025 plus January to March 2026. We did not compute any per-country approval rate, because IRCC does not publish the denominator, applications received, cleanly by country. Where a number is a volume we say so, and where it is a national rate we say so.
- What the rates are: national category approval rates (visitor visa, study, work, PGWP) from the IRCC committee data summary, as of April 30, 2025.
- What the country numbers are: counts of visitor visas issued by source country, from IRCC monthly open data.
- The honest caveat: IRCC does not publish a clean per-country approval rate. Any exact country percentage elsewhere is an estimate, not a government figure.
- Dates covered: full years 2023 through 2025, plus January to March 2026; national rates as of April 30, 2025.
What actually affects your visitor visa odds?
A visitor visa officer is deciding one thing, whether they believe you will leave Canada at the end of your authorized stay. The published eligibility to apply for a visitor visa rules and the official how to apply for a visitor visa guide set the baseline, but refusals cluster around a handful of weaknesses that no checklist fixes on its own.
- Weak ties to your home country, with no steady job, property, or family reason to return
- Funds that fall short, or money that appears suddenly and cannot be traced to you
- A purpose of travel that is vague or does not fit your profile
- Documents that are incomplete or contradict each other
- A prior refusal you reapplied over without fixing
Two practical points round this out. Most applicants must give biometrics for visa applicants, and wait times vary, so check the current IRCC processing times before you book travel. In February 2024 IRCC stopped issuing 10-year multiple-entry visas by default, so officers now set entry type and validity case by case. If you are already in Canada and want to stay longer, a separate process lets you extend your stay in Canada (visitor record).
Can an immigration consultant guarantee my visitor visa?
No. No immigration consultant, lawyer, or agency can guarantee a visitor visa or a study permit. A temporary visa is a discretionary privilege, not a right. An IRCC officer makes the final call, and any promise of guaranteed approval is one of the clearest signs of a dishonest representative. Only a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC), a Canadian lawyer, or a Quebec notary can lawfully represent you for a fee.
What professional help changes is the strength of your file. Good guidance catches the mistakes that sink applications, incomplete forms, thin proof of ties, money you never explained, a weak statement of purpose, a previous refusal nobody addressed. As scrutiny rises, the gap between a careful application and a rushed one counts for more.
