As of August 28, temporary residents in Canada on a visitor visa are no longer permitted to register for a work permit from within the country.
In August 2020, the policy was implemented to aid Canadian visitors who were unable to return home due to border closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The policy permitted them to register for a work permit without departing Canada. Additionally, individuals who had previously held a work permit within the previous 12 months but had subsequently changed their immigration status to “visitor” were granted the ability to “work legally in Canada while awaiting a decision on their new work permit application.”
The policy was originally intended to expire on February 28, 2025. Nevertheless, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that it is discontinuing the policy as “part of our comprehensive efforts to rebalance the number of temporary residents in Canada and safeguard the integrity of the immigration system.”
The Department has stated that applications submitted under the policy before August 28 will continue to be processed.
Strict enforcement of improper behaviour
IRCC has acknowledged that a portion of the reason for this early retraction is that it has become aware that “bad actors were using the policy to mislead foreign nationals into working in Canada without authorization.”
This is in accordance with the department’s ongoing endeavours to mitigate the prevalence of immigration fraud and decrease the number of transitory residents.
For instance, 700 Indian international students were discovered in Canada last year due to fraudulent acceptance letters from Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs). Numerous individuals were oblivious that their letters needed to be more authentic.
In response, IRCC now mandates that DLIs verify all letters of acceptance within 10 days of receiving an international student application. It has also established a limit on the number of international students Canada will admit over the next two years.
Significant changes to temporary foreign worker levels in Canada
The cessation of the temporary policy that permitted certain visitors to apply for a work permit coincides with a week of significant changes that are intended to decrease the number of transient foreign workers in Canada.
The Department announced on August 26th that it would suspend the processing of certain Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications for certain petitioners under the Low-Wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) until September 26th, 2024. This will affect registrants in Census Metropolitan Areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.
IRCC also announced that the maximum term of employment for workers in the Low-Wage stream would be reduced from two years to one year and that the number of foreign workers that employers in Canada can engage under the TFWP would be restricted to 10% of their total workforce.
The modifications mentioned above are comparable to the announcement made today in that they reflect a significant number of reversals of immigration policies that were implemented during the pandemic to address labour shortages.
For instance, during the pandemic, IRCC (in partnership with Employment Social Development Canada (ESDC)) implemented temporary policies that enabled Canadian workers to employ up to 30% of their workforce through the Low-Wage stream of the TFWP. Additionally, the validity period of an LMIA was extended to 12 months.
Following a joint press conference conducted by Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault and Immigration Minister Marc Miller in May of last year, IRCC and ESDC commenced the process of repealing these pandemic-era policies.
Minister Miller announced the historic inclusion of temporary resident levels in the annual Immigration Levels Plan at the same press conference, marking a first in the annals of Canadian immigration.
In Canada, immigration has emerged as a critical issue, with numerous pronouncements concerning the management and reduction of temporary residents throughout the year. Minister Miller has also declared his intention to evaluate modifications to Canada’s permanent residence requirements in the years ahead, as of this week.
