The Canadian government on August 28, banned visitors from applying for work permits while they are in the country. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has ended its temporary policy that once permitted those with visitor visas to apply for work permits from inside Canada.
The policy, initially set to end on February 28, 2025, has been advanced earlier. The IRCC stated that this change is part of their effort to adjust the number of temporary residents in Canada and maintain the integrity of the immigration system.
“The IRCC is also aware that some bad actors were using the policy to mislead foreign nationals into working in Canada without authorization,” the IRCC said in a statement.
This public policy was introduced in August 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It allowed foreign nationals in Canada as visitors to apply for work permits without leaving the country. Additionally, it permitted those who had held a work permit in the past 12 months and had changed their status to “visitor” to legally work in Canada while awaiting a decision on their new work permit application.
The IRCC has confirmed that applications submitted before August 28, 2024, will still be processed under the existing policy.
The ban aligns with the government’s efforts to address mass immigration, which many Canadians have criticized as a significant contributor in the housing crisis and high unemployment rates.
Furthermore, the government plans to suspend the processing of certain Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications for the Low-Wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) by September 26, 2024.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller has indicated that Canada is considering revising its permanent resident immigration levels, with a potential reduction to a more manageable number being actively evaluated.
“Now it’s time to take a look at them and put real options on the table for the prime minister and for other cabinet ministers to look at, and not cosmetic changes simply to deal with public opinion. Real significant change,” the minister said in an interview with the Canadian news channel CTV News.
“60 per cent of our immigration is economically driven. That is probably unprecedented with countries that we compare ourselves to. But we have to see if we’ve done this in the right way, and if that growth merits to continue, needs to be paused or even reduced,” he noted.
Under the new policy, Kenyans visitors in Canada can no longer apply for work permits from within the country. Individuals intending to relocate to Canada for employment must now secure their permits before arriving, necessitating more advance planning and organization.
