Many countries have permanent resident paths based on investment in the local economy. These are set up as policies to boost economic growth through local hiring, building facilities, and selling products and services. Canada used to have several passive investment programs that allowed for investors to be rewarded with permanent residency, but these have almost all been deprecated. Quebec alone runs one, but it is now on pause as well.
Investment in Canada must now be active, with either a start-up, or buying an existing Canadian business from someone else, and actual running it. In addition to the federal Start-Up Visa program, different provinces have different ways to invest in their economies. For example, the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have farm investment streams (all of which require active management), while other provinces have a variety of other types of businesses foreigners can invest in.
Because running a business is a major endeavour, applicants must show they have some language skills, available funds, and experience as business owners or managers in the past. Commitments to hire certain numbers of Canadians, and expectations of profit, are also important. Prior business trips to Canada are also important, not just for their benefit, but because some programs give additional points for doing them.
Since these immigration paths are overwhelmingly economy-focused, applicants are rewarded for investing in rural or otherwise neglected areas that do not receive much immigration or new employment opportunities. Incentives include lower net-worth or minimum investment requirements. These investment streams all require preparation, even more than employment streams do. Applicants should be prepared to have their business plans closely evaluated, along with market research, profit expectations, and other pertinent details.
Once a business is running for some time, it is evaluated by the provincial or federal government to ensure it has or will meet the promised goals.
Because of the great complexity of entrepreneur immigration programs, it is not recommended to apply without a great deal of planning. Speaking to an experienced immigration lawyer is the best way to minimize risk, in the absence of any passive investment path in the future.

Open Work permits are some of the most desirable work permits, as they avoid the time and expense of an LMIA while allowing the holder flexibility to work in almost any type of employment in Canada. The previous post discussed one kind of open work permit for those who graduate from a Canadian college or university, but a number of others exist. IRCC provides them for several different situations. Some permits will be limited depending on another persons status, while others can be long term and repeatedly renewed.
In a spousal sponsorship, the Canadian citizen or permanent resident spouse (or common-law partner) often desires their partner to work in Canada before the application is finished processing. For both inland applications, the sponsored person can submit an open work permit application that will allow them to work in Canada while the main application is processing. As open work permits are processed much more quickly than PR, often in a few months or even less, this is a strongly desirable option, and the majority of sponsors have no issue applying for both at once. It makes sense in policy terms that partners should be able to work (and thus pay taxes), rather than waiting idly for the year or more that processing will take.
A study or work permit holder’s partner can also apply for an open work permit, if they meet certain conditions, such as the work being of a certain skill level, and the main permit holder’s permit not expiring within the next 6 months. IRCC does not provide such short term work permits, so it is advisable to apply for the open work permit as soon as possible when he first work permit is approved.
The same holds for study permits; apply for the open work permit as soon as the partner’s classes start, to obtain the maximum period of time. They must be eligible for a PGWP (see prior post).
Both of these work permit applications will require other information, such as confirming the validity of the relationship, or the submission of the sponsorship application. The former can be difficult, as IRCC requests particular evidence of a relationship in their attempts to limit immigration fraud.
Open work permits can also be provided for refugees, refugee claimants, and other protected persons and their family. As the refugee and asylum processes can be quite long, this allows them to continue working while their claims are evaluated.
Because of the wide variety of options for obtaining an open work permit, it is recommended that you speak to an experienced immigration lawyer about them.
 

The advantages of studying for a higher education in Canada are known worldwide. With one of the best education systems, welcoming culture, and growing economy, international students come in very large numbers to study here. A major advantage, apart from the value of the education itself, is the opportunity to work in Canada for longer periods. This is not just part-time off-campus work, or co-op terms as part of the conditions of a degree. The Post-Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) is an open work permit that allows full-time employment by graduate students for up to 3 years in almost any occupation, which gives both flexibility and the opportunity to gain valuable Canadian work experience. It is a natural prior step towards applying for permanent residency through Express Entry (see the prior series of posts on that program for more details). A spouse or common-law partner may even qualify for their own open work permit, as well.
For students interested in this benefit (or even prior to being admitted to the school), certain details are very important.

• Is the school a Designated Learning Institution (DLI) Some colleges and universities are not accredited, and so studies at them are not recognized by IRCC. The list is publicly available from their website, and an admission letter will usually list the DLI number
  
• Maintain status as a student full-time (there are limited exceptions for going on leave)
• Studied for at least 8 months (short courses are not eligible, nor are ESL/FSL programs).
• Passport expiration: normally a PGWP is not valid past the validity of a graduate’s passport, so it is important for a student to make sure they get the maximum possible length of their PGWP.
• Proof the program was completed. Since there’s often a gap between the last day of classes and the awarding of a diploma, students have 180 days (6 months) to submit the PGWP application after graduation. Students can work, if the conditions on their study permit allow, in the interim period.

There are several other exceptions for the issuing of a PGWP; it is strongly recommended that you speak with an experienced immigration lawyer to ensure that you can apply for and obtain a work permit successfully the first time.
Normally, the work permit cannot be extended beyond the initial validity period, but in 2022 and 2023, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, IRCC made policy changes to allow extensions of 18 months, along with interim authorization. The normal 90 day limit on restoring status is also waived in order to allow those who left Canada when their permit expired to return and thus continue contributing to the Canadian economy.
It is self-evidently good policy to allow former students who obtained an education, often over several years in Canada, and then worked for perhaps just as long to be allowed to remain in Canada to prevent any gap in employment between the expiration of the work permit and the submission of an application for a bridging work permit as part of a PR application.
More information about bridging open work permits will be detailed in the next blog post.

LMIA Exemptions Blog Post
 
Given that LMIAs can be costly and time-consuming to obtain, for both the worker and their potential employer (see prior post), finding a proper exemption is quite important. IRCC gives exemptions from the LMIA process for some kinds of work permit applications, based on practicality, fairness, and national/international interest.
LMIA exemptions are organized into codes, which are put in the work permit application, to denote the kind of exemption for which the worker qualifies. Officers will, of course, review the circumstances and determine if the exemption is valid or not.
Some of these codes are self-evident; an open work permit allows a worker to choose any employer in Canada (with a few minor exceptions). It would make no sense to do a Labour Market Impact Assessment in this situation). The work itself sometimes also precludes the need for an LMIA; pilots of aircraft, foreign security guards, US border agents (such as at the Canada-US border posts) are also self-evidently not part of the Canadian labour market. Athletes and coaches visiting Canada for a game, short-term business visitors, investors, and others also have their own codes. International students doing work co-op, medical fellows, religious/charity workers, and many others fall under such limits.
Other codes are dependent on the prospective worker themselves; do they have a specialized skillset or education that cannot easily be found in Canada? If so, the specialized knowledge code can be used, but the applicant and the employer must be prepared to show evidence that they are in fact qualified and have the education/experience they claim.
Another major exception to LMIAs is the Intra-Company Transferee (ICT), which is for foreign workers being moved to the Canadian subsidiary or branch of a foreign company. The application must still show that the employee is necessary, and the employer will need to provide the appropriate background information.
If the employee is an executive/manager, it should be easy to demonstrate such, but specialized knowledge can be more difficult. Showing that they are critical to the Canadian portion of the business may be more difficult, since it must be shown that the knowledge is unique or uncommon in Canada with the existing employees and any potential Canadian employees.
For any work permit, regardless of LMIA or not, having an experienced lawyer is important, to ensuring that a work permit or an extension is successful despite any complexities that may arise.
 
 
 

 
The majority of foreign workers in Canada require a work permit; there are limited exceptions for special scenarios and types of work, usually situations where it would be impractical or impossible to go through the same process. For the rest, a work permit may either require an earlier step (Labour Market Impact Assessment, or LMIA) or not. This post will be a brief overview of the former.
The Temporary Foreign Worker program is designed to help employers with labour shortages in Canada that they cannot meet with recruitment from Canadian citizens (or permanent residents). To verify that this is the case, the employer must provide details of the position and the person/people being hired to a government agency (Employment and Social Development Canada).
ESDL will evaluate the position based on the provided details, to determine whether the effects of hiring them will have a positive, neutral, or negative effect on the Canadian labour market. In other words, they check if the hiring is truly necessary, or whether a Canadian or permanent resident could have filled the same role instead.
The types of applications are divided by whether the wage is at or above the median wage in the province/territory (high-wage stream), or below (low-wage stream). There are also separate categories, for agricultural workers, caregivers, or specialists with high skills in a particular industry.
Regardless of the subcategory, an employer needs to be verified as legitimate Canadian businesses, if making their first application. Regular LMIAs afterwards can then skip this step.
A major part of an LMIA application is the advertising requirements; employers must show they advertised the position in various locations with no success in finding a good candidate before they resorted to offering the job to a foreign worker. The application must also list details of the job offer, including wage/salary, benefits, specific duties, required skills/education, etc.
After ESDC receive an LMIA application, they will evaluate the work based on all these factors and the current status of the job market for the position, at which point they will issue either a positive or negative assessment (or neutral). A positive or neutral assessment allows the applicant to apply for a work permit (within a set amount of time).
With the work permit application, the LMIA number must be included, along with the details of the job offer/contract. Although LMIAs are usually valid for 1-2 years, it is always best to make sure the work permit is as strong as possible, to avoid wasting time and expense.
Due to the advertising requirement, LMIA processing times, and work permit processing times, it is not necessarily the fastest (or cheapest) way for someone to begin working in Canada. The next post will detail the various LMIA exemptions in more detail.

Understanding the rounds of invitations for Express Entry is important for anyone who wishes to proceed in the program, and this blog will detail that process.
Periodically, IRCC, through a Ministerial Instruction, issues Invitations to Apply to candidates in the Express Entry pool. These instructions are somewhat technical, but they state exactly what the Immigration Minister sets for that round in terms of rankings (i.e. points in the profile), class (i.e. which of the 4 subprograms is selected), and the total number of invitations.
The timing of the ITAs varies due to internal and external events, and even immigration lawyers have limited insight into their internal processes. However, certain patterns are apparent from the public data. Draws generally occur, every two weeks, in order to align with IRCC’s capacity for processing.
The categories drawn are also affected by outside disruption; in March 2020, with the vast disruption of the pandemic to the world (and immigration in particular), IRCC began to focus on those who did not face entry barriers to Canada, by restricting invitations to the Canadian Experience Class and the Provincial Nominees. The former are already working in Canada, and so faced less disruption to their immigration for obtaining PR, while most of the latter were either already in Canada or had job offers, and so were economically important enough to be allowed to travel despite the pandemic border restrictions. Those in other categories were left out for lengthy periods of time in 2020, 2021 and the first half of 2022. Many profiles expired in the meantime, and candidates had to either recreate their information for another year, or in some cases, aged out of the Express Entry program completely.
Since then, as the pandemic restrictions were lifted, the ITAs have returned to the old biweekly pattern, with all classes being regularly included in draws. Periodically there will still be draws for PNP only, but these are now the exception. With the barriers of the pandemic gone, having a higher score is now important again, as they are the main way IRCC selects candidates.
Thankfully, IRCC posts the number of invitations and the lowest score selected with each draw on a public website at: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/submit-profile/rounds-invitations.html, so it is easy to see the ballpark range for an invitation, based on prior history. However, there will always be some uncertainty, and every once in a while they will do something unexpected in scoring, such as February 13, 2021, in which a very large number of invitations was sent out due to an unusually low cut-off score. Many who would otherwise never have qualified for an ITA were put on the road to PR. Such a draw has not has not recurred since, but the lesson is to expect the unexpected. IRCC has in the past, and will in the future, announce make changes due to new public policies and their own internal requirements, which even the most well-informed outsider cannot predict.