IRCC extends its measure to give temporary residents access to work legally in Canada

Temporary residents who are in Canada holding a valid visitor status have been allowed to apply for an employer-specific work permit within Canada since August 24, 2020. Recently, Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship and Canada (IRCC) has announced that the said temporary policy that they introduced a year ago has been extended until February 28, 2022; a COVID-19 related measure that allows visitors to acquire work permits in Canada.

This measure was introduced by the IRCC with the intent to allow foreign visitors having visa status issues due to the global pandemic to enter Canada’s labor market as well as help Canadian employers who are having a hard time finding workers. Due to the pandemic, air travel has been limited worldwide and some visitors even had to change their status to “visitor” because of their expired work permits. Some were not able to apply for a new one due to lack of employment opportunities.

Originally, visitors who arrived in Canada before August 24 and are still in the country having a valid temporary resident status were allowed to apply for a work permit. Now, the IRCC has expanded the eligibility criteria and included all visitors no matter when they have arrived in Canada. However, for all the people with visitor status to be eligible for an employer-specific work permit, one must:

• Submit their application no later than February 28, 2022
• Have submitted their employer-specific work permit application
• Be living in Canada having a valid temporary resident status as a visitor that includes maintained status by the time of the submission of their work permit application
• Remain in Canada having a valid status
• Complete the form from IRCC Web
• Have valid temporary status during the time of the submission of their application and remain in Canada with status
• Intend to work for their employer and in the specified occupation on their work permit application

Since August 2021, travel restrictions have begun to ease. The border has been reopened to all vaccinated US citizens and with this extension, visitors who were able to come to Canada in spite of COVID-19 related travel restrictions will be able to benefit from this. Economic and social impact due to the pandemic has continuously affect Canada despite being in a better position compared to other countries. With that, Canada is doubling its efforts for its workforce to strengthen. As a result, a total of 815,800 jobs have been opened in June making it the highest rate of job openings since Statistics Canada has begun collecting their data in October 2020.