Canada has launched a number of new pathways to permanent residence, which will be of benefit to many foreign workers and students, already in Canada (outside Quebec). The pathways, which will open on May 6, provide for the following groups:
- Foreign workers with at least one year of Canadian work experience in
- health-care (up to 20,000 applicants), or
- other designated essential occupations (up to 30,000 applicants).
- International graduates who have completed an eligible Canadian post-secondary program within the prior 4 years [no earlier than January 2017] (up to 40,000 applicants).
Details of the programs, and the definitions of health-care and essential occupations, can be found at https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/public-policies/trpr-canadian-work-experience.html.
A few highlights of program details:
- The health-care workers listed include some presumably obvious occupations such as:
- Physicians
- It should be noted that though generally, self-employment is not allowed as the basis for work experience in the program, self-employment may be allowed for physicians in some cases, notably, where the doctor is on a fee for service basis with a health authority.
- Nurses
- Certain technologists
- Physicians
but also include but also include some perhaps less obvious occupations such as:
-
- Housekeepers
- Orderlies
- The other essential workers also include occupations which may not seem obvious, such as:
- Cashiers
- Pest Control Workers
- Landscaping Labourers
- As such, it is important to review the full list of occupations, to determine if a pathway exists for a specific applicant.
- Language benchmarks of 4 in each skill area (reading, writing, speaking, listening), will have to be met in either English or French.
- Applications in these categories will be accepted only until the earlier of the filling of the quotas or November 5, 2021. As such, it is imperative that prospective applicants lodge their applications in a timely fashion.
In addition to the foregoing, another set of programs has been launched, with no intake caps, to facilitate permanent residence for French-speakers outside Quebec. Those programs are similar to the above programs, but of course, geared toward French-speakers. They will require:
- For essential workers (in health-care and other eligible occupations, in a list parallel to those found in the general program above), a French language benchmark of 4 (details at https://bit.ly/3e8PjXW), and
- For international graduates, a French language benchmark of 5 (details at https://bit.ly/2OWRZ2w).
The programs summarized above are an important opportunity for many foreign workers in Canada, as well as their employers, and as noted, if applicable, it is important to act quickly to take advantage of the programs.
The information in this article is for general purposes only, and not intended as legal advice for any particular situation.