As perhaps his last act as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, on March 11, Marc Miller signed a Ministerial Instruction making good on his earlier promise to eliminate points for job offers with respect to Express Entry, Canada’s system for selecting economic immigrants for permanent residence. Effective March 25, 2025, candidates will no longer receive […]
Reminder to Employers on LMIA and LMIA-Exempt Work Permit Obligations Kicking this bulletin off, we’d like to remind employers who have workers on Labour Market Impact Assessment (“LMIA”)-based work permits as well as LMIA-exempt work permits that they have ongoing obligations to report changes in conditions of employment to Employment and Social Development Canada (“ESDC”) […]
Permanent Residence – Category-Based Express Entry Draws Express Entry is the system under which the profiles of PR hopefuls are assigned points based on factors like age, education, official language skills, and work experience. Over the past few years, the government has been conducting targeted draws to meet immigration targets and boost certain economic sectors. […]
One of the objectives of Canada’s immigration legislation, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (“IRPA”) is “to see that families are reunited in Canada” (IRPA, s. 3(1)(d)). In relation to family-class immigration, the government has not conducted a draw to allow Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their parents or grandparents since 2020. This […]
Newcomers to Canada typically settle in large urban areas in the south which creates challenges in terms of the development of the vast expanses of the country away from the major cities. Most immigrants to Canada are also English-speaking, despite Canada’s official languages being English and French, with both languages having equal status at the […]
After record numbers of newcomers in 2022 and 2023, last year the government changed tack and announced major changes aimed at reducing the number of temporary residents and new permanent residents amidst the high cost of living and housing shortage. In all likelihood, 2025 will see the government continue to implement measures which will have […]
Employers in Canada with foreign worker(s) employees hired under the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program must meet certain compliance obligations. One such obligation is to conduct an annual review of the salary being offered to foreign worker(s) on work permits issued under a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). As part of the compliance obligations, employers […]
Back in April 2024, the government announced that in the fall, it would allow full-time international students to work up to 24 hours per week off-campus. This 24-hour per week limit was settled on to strike a balance between allowing students to pay for their studies and living expenses and focusing on their studies as […]
Supplementing changes this year to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada, the federal government has now announced that the number of new permanent residents (“PRs”) from 2025 to 2027 is to be significantly reduced[1]. In 2023, the government announced that its goal would be 500,000 new PRs in the year 2025. Instead, the […]
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) have announced major changes regarding eligibility for intra-company transfer (“ICT”) work permits, low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessments (“LMIAs”), and Post-Graduation Work Permits (“PGWPs”) which will further reduce the number of workers in Canada. Here’s what you need to know: Limits to Intra-Company Transfer Work Permits The changes to ICT […]
