Work Permit Cases not Presently Being Accepted at Damascus Visa Office

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Due to the current violence in Syria, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has elected to temporarily cease services at the visa office in Damascus. Applicants from Syria wishing to submit work permit applications must presently send these to the visa offices in either Amman, Jordan, or Beirut, Lebanon. Syrian nationals outside of Syria may use the visa office normally responsible for the jurisdiction of the country in which they have been legally admitted.

There is presently no indication as to how long the temporary termination of Canadian work permit services will last.

Impact of Canada-USA Border Deal for Work Permit Holders

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In December of 2011, the Prime Minister of Canada and President of the USA made a joint announcement regarding plans to implement a cooperative effort to improve security and efficiency at the ports of entry (including border crossings and airports) between the two countries. The effort has numerous facets, which may see RCMP and US police officials obtain jurisdiction on either side of the border, improved airport security, sharing of infrastructure between certain border crossings, harmonization of rules, sharing of information, and more.

The prospect of sharing of information has certain advantages and disadvantages to holders of Canadian work permits. A principal goal of the effort would be to have better information on the movement of temporary residents relative to their permission to stay in Canada. For example, there would be more knowledge of whether or not a given individual respected the conditions of a temporary stay in Canada, leaving or otherwise renewing status within the time permitted. If implemented, an individual who overstays could face negative consequences in the case of any future effort to seek admission to Canada.

In certain cases, work permit holders are constrained by time limitations associated with the issuance of a Canadian work visa. For example, intra-company transferees may be  permitted stays of between five and seven years, but such time is assessed only against the duration of time actually spent in Canada. In such a case, better exit controls may serve the purpose of facilitating demonstration of the duration of the actual stay of such a work permit holder, permitting the maximum actual duration of validity of the immigration document.

It is not yet clear how or if this effort will be implemented. There are also differing accounts of the extent and purpose of information sharing. However, this could be a very important development for the two countries.

Facilitated Processing of IT Workers Visa Program Terminated in BC

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Effective for cases submitted on January 1 2012 and thereafter, work in the province of British Columbia is no longer subject to the Facilitated Processing of Information Technology Workers Program. Other than Quebec, all other provinces in Canada terminated the same program in September 2010.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada will therefore require Labour Market Opinions (i.e., Confirmations) for temporary work permit applications which had been earlier subject to the Facilitated Processing of Information Technology Workers provisions. The only exception at present is for cases in which the work is in the province of Quebec, where the program remains active for an undefined period; it should be noted that those cases are however subject to the requirement of a Certificat d’acceptation du Québec prior to seeking the work permit.

The Facilitated Processing of Information Technology Workers program was a collaboration between Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), and the Software Human Resources Council (now defunct). It was intended to expedite the admission of foreign workers in certain defined information technology occupations, primarily those in software development, by allowing admission in the absence of a Confirmation Letter from HRSDC. Those eligible were deemed to be admissible under what was termed a National Confirmation; i.e., no negative labour market impact was automatically determined by HRSDC. The program was enacted at a time, in the late 1990’s, when there was a perceived critical shortage of such IT professionals.

HRSDC issued notice in 2010 that this program would be terminated on September 30 2010, with the exception of the provinces of British Columbia and Quebec. Quebec and BC were the only provinces to extend the program at that time. Quebec did so for an undefined duration, and BC did so for incremental periods. As BC has now terminated the program, only Quebec is still subject to these provisions; all other cases must first obtain a LMO Confirmation prior to proceeding with the work permit application. Any case submitted for work in the province of BC prior to January 1 2012 will be processed to its conclusion and could be eligible for a work permit of up to one year from the date of its issuance.

Open Work Permits for Live in Caregivers

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Citizenship and Immigration Canada has implemented a new policy, effective immediately,  that allows for the issuance of open work permits to live-in-caregivers who have fulfilled their conditions and have submitted a permanent resident application. The open work permit in this circumstance may be valid for a period of up to four years, depending on the validity of the passport of the candidate.

In the past, these candidates would have to have passed approval-in-principle prior to being eligible to seek an open work permit. However, this may take many months, forcing the individual to continue to reside in the home of the employer. Recognizing that this is a potential inconvenience, and due to increases in backlogs for approval-in-principle, the government has adopted this new policy to reduce the burden on candidates and employers.

Facilitated Processing of IT Workers Extended in BC

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The province of British Columbia has extended the Facilitated Processing of Information Technology Workers program until December 31, 2011. The program has been terminated in all other provinces.

At present, although employers do not need to first apply for a Labour Market Opinion in order to employ an eligible IT worker, they are required to notify Service Canada and the Ministry of Regional Economic and Skills Development of an intent to offer the position to a foreign worker prior to being able to proceed with an application to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Transferees may ‘Re-Capture’ time spent abroad

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The provisions of intra-company transfer allow executives, senior-managers, and specialized knowledge workers to seek work permits in Canada without the requirement of a Labour Market Opinion. There are however caps on the maximum duration of such permits: 7 years for executives and senior managers; and 5 years for specialized knowledge workers. The candidate is then required to spend 12 months abroad prior to eligibility for a new permit under the same provisions.

A new direction has been issued by which time spent abroad will not be counted towards these caps. For example, if an executive is spending only 50% of his or her time in Canada as a Transferee, then only 6 months out of a given 12 month period would be counted towards the 7 year cap.

Canada Colombia Free Trade Agreement Enacted

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The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which was signed on November 21 2008 was enacted on August 15th 2011. Similar to other FTAs currently in effect (e.g, NAFTA, Peru, Chile), this program includes provisions for the reciprocal admission of business visitors and foreign workers. Nationals of Colombia are therefore newly eligible to seek work permits with exemptions from the requirement of a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) if they are considered Professionals, Traders, or Investors. Although this FTA also includes provisions for intra-company transferees and spouses, these are essentially mirrored in existing categories under Significant Benefit to Canada.

Until the program is further elaborated, the Canada-Peru Free Trade provisions are being used as a template for assessment of candidates. This includes the lists of excluded and included Professionals, Technologists, and Technicians. The Colombia FTA is the first to include provisions specific to spouses, whereby spouses of foreign workers admitted under the program can seek admission under a newly coded LMO exemption.

British Columbia Pilot Project Facilitates Open Work Permits

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The province of British Columbia and Citizenship and Immigration Canada have announced a program which expands the availability of open work permits to family members of foreign workers in that province. Under the newly announced Pilot Project, in effect from August 15 2011 to February 15 2013 and with a cap of 1800 open work permits, the spouses, common-law partners, and working-age dependants of holders of most classes of occupation-specific work permits.

In all provinces at present, the spouses and common-law partners of highly skilled work permit holders, those classified as doing work in NOC 0, A, or B categories, are eligible for such open work permits without any caps. The Pilot project therefore expands this to include most NOC C and D classified occupations (exceptions are Live-In-Caregivers, Seasonal Agricultural Workers, and International Experience Class youth program workers), and to allow dependent children of working age to participate.

New Work Permit Forms in Effect August 1 2011

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Following the introduction of a new version IMM1295 application form on February 15th of this year, the Department has announced that effective August 1 2011, no other application forms will be accepted (with the exception of SAWP cases in Mexico and Jamaica until September 30 2011). The forms contain a bar coding system that requires validation prior to finalization; this validation makes correct completion of the form mandatory.

This version of the form does contain additional fields that require a greater depth of information as compared to the prior version. New sections include details on education and work history.

Candidates should ensure that the version 01-2011 or later form is used in any submission on or after August 1 2011.

Specialized Knowledge Intra-Company Transfers

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Foreign nationals seeking transfer from a foreign company to a parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate of that company in Canada may be eligible to seek a Labour Market Opinion exemption and work permit through the Intra-Company Transfer provisions, including the Specialized Knowledge Category. This has historically been a subcategory that has been more vague, as clear and concise definitions of eligibility do not exist. Unlike an “executive” or a “senior manager” for example, the ability to pinpoint the definition of a specialized knowledge worker is more difficult.

Following the termination of the Facilitated Processing of Information Technology Workers Program in most provinces in Canada, an increase in the volume of these Transfer applications has been noted, and there has been a desire to more clearly define the requirements of eligibility. Beyond the fundamental definitions, factors that may be considered in assessing a specialized knowledge worker include the following:

Education and Skill: An assessment of the education credential needed to perform the work is a consideration, and often the corresponding assessment of skill classification is a critical factor. Generally, positions requiring college credentials or higher are considered suitable. Beyond education credentials, consideration is given the to skill classification of the occupation in both Canada and abroad. Barring exceptional circumstances, that skill classification for the position in Canada should be the same as, or higher than, the position held by the candidate abroad.

Knowledge and Experience: Candidates should typically possess specialized or advanced knowledge specific to a given industry, which would generally extend beyond what may be common in that particular industry. It is not necessarily the case that such knowledge must be proven absent from Canada, however. Specialized Knowledge transfers would favour candidates who have extensive industry experience, and such experience is sufficiently complex that it would be difficult to acquire or otherwise imbue into another worker.

Wage: The wage of the candidate should be in line with the average wage of the comparable occupation in Canada. Although prevailing wage statistics would not necessarily be applied as rigorously as in a LMO application, officials are recommended to give consideration of the comparability of the wages.