Sources and methodology

Primary sources

Our first source is always the Government of Canada. That means the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada programme pages, the ministerial instructions and programme delivery instructions, and the relevant Acts and Regulations.

For provincial programmes, the primary source is the province's or territory's own immigration pages.

Secondary sources

Statistics Canada and official provincial statistical agencies are used for context such as population or labour-market data. We name and link them wherever we use them.

Changing figures

Fees, cut-off scores, invitation counts and processing times change. Where we publish one, it carries:

• the name of the source
• a direct link to the source
• the date we last checked it
• the period the figure refers to, where that matters

If we cannot supply all of those, we do not publish the figure.

Review cycle

Guides covering fast-moving areas — Express Entry, study permits, work permits — are re-checked more often than stable explainers. Every article shows the date of its last review so you can judge for yourself.

What we do not use

We do not use immigration forums, social-media posts, unattributed news aggregation or consultant marketing material as sources for factual claims.