Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Honourable Sean Fraser announced recently that family members of temporary foreign workers will be eligible for open work permits starting January 2023. According to Fraser, expanding the eligibility of work permits to family members accompanying the principal applicant to Canada will help address labour shortages.
This is a temporary two-year measure that will allow spouses and working-age children of temporary foreign workers at all skill levels to work in Canada through a phased approach. This would include families of workers in health care, trades, and hospitality. IRCC estimates that family members of 200,000 temporary foreign workers will benefit from this new measure.
Before this announcement, spouses were only eligible for a work permit provided the applicant was working in a highly skilled occupation. IRCC aims to improve the emotional well-being, physical health, and financial stability of workers by keeping families together. As a result, they are hoping that the temporary foreign worker will better integrate into their overall work environment and community.
This is Canada’s new approach to address the increasing labour needs in the country.
This temporary two-year measure will be implemented in 3 phases.
- Phase 1 will enable family members of temporary foreign workers coming to Canada through the high-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or the International Mobility Program to apply for an open work permit.
- Phase 2 aims to expand the measure to the family members of workers from the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, following consultations.
- Phase 3 will include consultation with agricultural partners and stakeholders to assess the operational feasibility of expanding the measure to family members of agricultural workers.
Please note that if you are a Temporary Foreign Worker in Canada in a skilled occupation, your spouse is eligible to apply for the Open Work Permit. There are eligibility requirements that the Foreign Worker and the spouse must meet to be able to apply for the open work permit.
IRCC has not released specific guidelines for the spouses and working-age children of temporary foreign workers with low-skilled occupations. I am hoping that it will be released soon so kababayans can join their family members in Canada.
According to IRCC, it has issued over 645,000 work permits between January and October 2022-nearly four times more than the 163,000 issued over the same period in 2021.
If you have questions regarding the above article, you may contact Marjorie at [email protected]
Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
A word of caution: You should not act or rely on the information provided in this column. It is not a legal advice. To ensure your interests are protected, retain, or formally seek advice from a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) in good standing of CICC. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of RCIC’s.
