New pathway to permanent residency for over 90,000 essential temporary workers and international graduates
What does this mean?
These special public policies will grant permanent status to temporary workers and international graduates who are already in Canada and who possess the skills and experience we need to fight the pandemic and accelerate our economic recovery.
The focus of this new pathway will be on temporary workers employed in our hospitals and long-term care homes and on the frontlines of other essential sectors, as well as international graduates who are driving the economy of tomorrow.
Starting from May 6, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will begin accepting applications under the following 3 streams:
- 20,000 applications for temporary workers in health care
- 30,000 applications for temporary workers in other selected essential occupations
- 40,000 applications for international students who graduated from a Canadian institution
The 3 programs will remain open until November 5, 2021, or until they have reached their limits.
Requirements:
To be eligible, workers must have at least 1 year of Canadian work experience in a health-care profession or another pre-approved essential occupation. International graduates must have completed an eligible Canadian post-secondary program within the last 4 years, and no earlier than January 2017.
As part of the eligibility criteria for the recently announced temporary pathway to permanent residence, applicants must receive a language level proficiency of at least benchmark 5 for international students who graduated from a Canadian institution or benchmark 4 for essential workers. These levels are set out in the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and the Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC).
Applicants can use a previous language test from a designated organization, as long as the test result is less than 2 years old when the application is received.
Language testing results will be accepted throught email or from testing orgranization’s online portal.