Term: Intended Destination

Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2025-07-21

Definition:

The Canadian jurisdiction indicated on an IRCC immigration application as the intended destination. An immigrant may eventually settle in a different province or territory other than their intended region after landing or arrival. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Registry Database has fields for province and municipality of intended destination. However, an immigrant may land and settle in a place other than the place of intended destination upon arrival, or remigrate afterwards. Immigrant retention refers to the ability of a province to retain the applicants intending to migrate to that province.

NOTE: The Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) – Registry Database in the Repository has two versions of two sets of files containing immigration data that cover different time periods, with different variables containing different values / codes for identifying intended destination. The LEGACY time period is 1985-1999 for permanent residents, and 1980-1999 for temporary residents. We refer to the time period from 2000 onward as the "current" time period.

2023 and later data, permanent and temporary residents:

• the LEGACY LANDING, MP, SP, and WP files have the variable INTENDED_DEST_ENG which identifies the intended destination municipality by English name, and the variable INTENDED_DEST_REGION_CD which identifies the intended province or territory using Census region codes (a value of '46' for Manitoba); and
  
• the (current) LANDING, MP, SP, and WP files have variable INTENDED_DEST_MUNICIPALITY_ID which identifies the intended destination municipality, and the variable INTENDED_DEST_PROV_CD which identifies the intended province or territory using Census region codes (a value of '46' for Manitoba).

• the LEGACY LANDING file variable INTENDED_DESTINATION_CD identifies the intended destination municipality and the variable INTENDED_DESTINATIOON_REGION_CD [sic] identifies the intended province or territory using Census region codes (a value of 46 for Manitoba); and
  
• the (current) LANDING file variable INTENDED_DESTINATION_MUNICIPALIT [sic] identifies the intended destination municipality and the variable REGION_CD identifies the intended province or territory using Census region codes (a value of 46 for Manitoba).

Related concepts 

• Immigration / Migration Overview - Links to Immigration / Migration Data and Related Concepts and Glossary Terms
• Retention - Immigration / Migration related

Related terms 

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Registry Data
• Landing Date
• Migrant / Migration
• Permit Type
• Sign Date

References 

• Urquia M, Walld R, Prior H, Detillieux G, Eze N, Koseva I. The Diversity of Immigrants to Manitoba, Migration Dynamics and Basic Healthcare Service Use. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2020. [Report] [Summary] [Additional Materials] (View)

Term used in 

• Urquia ML, Walld R, Wanigaratne S, Eze ND, Azimaee M, McDonald JT, Guttmann A. Linking national immigration data to provincial repositories: The case of Canada. Int J Popul Data Sci 2021;6(1):1412. [Abstract] (View)