Tripping in Canada, but actually want to stay back for some more time? Keep looking! You might land up with a job.
The Canadian government has extended a temporary policy aimed at facilitating work permit applications for foreign nationals who are already in Canada as visitors. The policy, which was set to expire at the end of February 2023, has now been extended for another two years.
Under the policy, visitors who have held a work permit in the last 12 months can request interim work authorization to start working for their new employer more quickly.
"Leaving this temporary policy in place makes visitors an option for employers in Canada, as many are facing significant labour shortages during this period of economic expansion," the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said.
This method is starkly different from the traditional process where applicants would typically need to apply for their initial work permit before arriving in Canada, and if approved while in Canada on visitor status, would need to leave the country to be issued their work permit.
- have valid status in Canada as a visitor on the day they apply;
- have a job offer that is supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) or an LMIA-exempt offer of employment;
- submit an application for an employer-specific work permit no later than Feb. 28, 2025, and;
- meet all other standard admissibility criteria.
This temporary public policy first came into effect on Aug.24, 2020, smack in the middle of the first year of the pandemic when immigration to Canada was plummeting.
The extension of the temporary policy is aimed at addressing the labour shortages faced by many Canadian employers during a period of economic expansion. According to Statistics Canada data from December 2022, there was a decrease in the number of vacancies to 848,000 from over one million earlier in the year. Despite this, the country has created 326,000 jobs since September, pushing the number of employed Canadians to over 20 million for the first time. As of January, Canada's unemployment rate was at 5%.
