IRCC has brought the Application Status Tracker back online. It is a tool separate from your IRCC account that shows what stage your application is at: eligibility, medical exam, background verification and biometrics, each with its own status. It is updated daily, covers five types of application and only works once you have received your acknowledgement of receipt (AOR).

Which applications it covers

According to the official page, the tracker currently supports these applications:

• Express Entry: Canadian Experience Class, Provincial Nominee Program, Federal Skilled Worker Program and Federal Skilled Trades Program.
• Family sponsorship: spouse, partner or dependent child.
• Study permit.
• Work permit.
• Visitor visa (temporary resident visa).

It can be used by the principal applicant, including the person being sponsored, by the sponsor, by representatives, and by a designated individual with written consent to access the application. If you applied for something else, such as parents and grandparents, a PR card or refugee protection, you check your status the usual ways; citizenship has a tracker of its own.

Source: IRCC, Application Status Tracker, page updated October 26, 2026.

What it shows

At the top you see one of three overall statuses: Received, In progress or Closed. Closed covers an approval, a refusal, or an application you withdrew or abandoned, and IRCC contacts you before closing it.

Below that are the four sections IRCC reviews: Eligibility, Medical exam, Background verification and Biometrics. Each one is marked Not started, In progress, Completed, Exempted or Waiting on you. The last two are the ones to watch: Exempted means that section does not apply to your application, and Waiting on you means IRCC needs more information or documents from you.

Source: IRCC, Help Centre, “What does my status mean in the application status tracker?”.

You also see your application history, your contact details, the status of your documents (medical exam, confirmation of permanent residence, visa, study permit or work permit, depending on the application) and a next steps section. That is where IRCC asks for things like police certificates, passports, fee payments or biometrics. IRCC recommends checking that section regularly.

Three tools, three different questions

• Your IRCC account answers what IRCC has told you: messages and letters about your application arrive there.
• The tracker answers what stage each part of your application is at. IRCC says it may include more detail than your main account, and that you need a separate account to use it.
• The processing times page answers how long is left. For work permit extensions, PGWPs and study permit extensions it calculates from your submission date; we explained it on October 7.

How to create the account

If you cannot create the account

IRCC gives three reasons: your application is not in its system yet, what you applied for is not among the applications the tracker covers, or the details you entered do not match your application. In the first case, you have to wait. If you lost the email you registered your GCKey with, IRCC says to sign up for a new GCKey and create a new tracker account; you may have to re-enter your application details. If the problem is signing in, the page itself points to the other ways to check your status and says it continues to make improvements to the service.

What it does not tell you

• It does not bring the decision forward or change the processing time. It shows what has already happened, and the information is updated once a day.
• Completed in a section is not an approval. It means IRCC has finished reviewing that part. And Closed does not tell you the outcome either: it marks an approved application the same way as a refused or withdrawn one. The decision itself reaches you through your IRCC account.
• It does not replace your account. IRCC messages and letters still arrive there.
• The GCKey help desk cannot see your application. It only resolves username, password and two-factor authentication issues.