May 26, 2010

Update to Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada

Canadian Immigration officials recently announced that on September 30, 2010 they will be terminating the facilitated processing for IT specialists in high demand occupations, except for Quebec, where the facilitated process will remain in place for a limited time after September 30, 2010.  The seven high demand occupations are: Senior Animation Effects Editors, Embedded Systems Software Designers, MIS Software Designers, Multimedia Software Developers, Software Developers - Services, Software Products Developers, and Telecommunications Software Designers.

Under this expedited process, since these jobs are presumed to not have a negative impact on Canadian or permanent-resident job seekers and workers employers, employers are not required to obtain a labour market opinion in order to hire foreign workers in Canada in the specified seven IT occupations.  In turn, a foreign worker to be hired in one of the seven IT occupations is not required to submit a copy of the labour market opinion to Citizenship and Immigration Canada as part of their work permit application or at the Canada Border Services Agency at a port of entry. This expedited process has proven to reduce the amount of overall processing for the qualified foreign IT workers in Canada since an employer must, among other requirements, actively attempt to recruit for the position before applying for a labour market opinion. On and after  October 1, 2010, employers who wish to hire foreign workers, previously eligible for IT facilitated processing, will be required to apply for a labour market opinion.

Effective October 1, 2010, work permit applications received by Citizenship and Immigration Canada or by the Canada Border Services Agency at a port of entry, will require a copy of the labour market opinion for the seven specific IT occupations that were previously under the facilitated process.

GT encourages any employer who is considering sending an IT worker to Canada in the upcoming months to contact our office immediately. If your potential worker in Canada qualifies under the IT Worker category we will try to submit their application before September 30, 2010.