As of August 28, visitor visa holders in Canada are no longer eligible to apply for job-supported work permits from inside Canada. This concludes a temporary program that allowed visitors to join the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, originally set to expire in 2025.
Canada Stops Work Permit Applications from Visitor Visa Holders
The government created this policy in August 2020 to help companies meet immediate labor needs and assist tourists stranded in Canada due to border restrictions. If they obtained a legitimate employment offer, temporary residents on visiting visas may apply for a work permit under this clause. But that window has now closed.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) terminated the policy to “recalibrate the number of temporary residents in Canada and safeguard the integrity of the immigration system.” Although the policy was set to expire on February 28, 2025, IRCC chose to end it earlier.
It is noteworthy that certain temporary residents of Canada are still eligible to apply for other work permits. This includes Bridging Open Work Permits (BOWP), which need submission from within the nation. They will handle the applications received before to August 28th in accordance with the earlier guidelines.
Crackdown on Fraud and Policy Rollbacks
The early rollback was mostly caused by the IRCC’s increased awareness of fraudulent activity. The department said that “bad actors were utilizing the policy to deceive foreign people into working in Canada without authorization.” This choice is in line with the IRCC’s larger initiatives to lower immigration fraud and enhance population regulation for temporary residents.
This crackdown follows events similar to the finding of 700 Indian students in Canada last year who had fake acceptance letters. As a result, the IRCC has tightened regulations, mandating that Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) confirm every acceptance letter within ten days of receiving applications from overseas students. To better regulate immigration numbers, Canada has also placed a restriction on the number of overseas students admitted for the next two years.
Broader Changes to Temporary Foreign Worker Levels
This regulation on work permits for visitors expires at the same time as more significant adjustments intended to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada. By September 26, 2024, the IRCC stated on August 26 that it will suspend some Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program’s (TFWP) Low-Wage stream. Candidates from places with unemployment rates higher than 6% will be hit by this.
Additionally, under the TFWP, companies can now only hire 10% of their workers due to a quota imposed by the IRCC. Additionally, they have lowered the two-year maximum employment period for workers in the Low-Wage stream to one year. These changes are a reflection of the government’s slow withdrawal of pandemic-era regulations permitting a rise in the hiring of foreign labor to sustain vital sectors.
According to a statement by the Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault and Immigration Minister Marc Miller, at a joint news conference in May, these interim measures were no longer necessary due to changes in the labor market. The ministers also achieved a historic first by including levels for temporary residents into the Immigration Levels Plan.
As immigration has been a hot subject in Canada this year, these policy changes are a part of a larger plan to control the number of temporary residents in the nation. Minister Miller hints that the government is exploring further modifications to permanent residency quotas as Canada navigates its future immigration demands.
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