Ministerial Instructions 35 (MI35): Agri-Food Pilot

Effective May 15, 2020, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will introduce the Agri-Food Immigration Pilot. The pilot is designed to provide permanent residence for non-seasonal agri-food workers with qualifying experience in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and a job offer in eligible agri-food occupations and industries.

The Agri-Food Immigration Pilot was created under section 14.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. It allows the Minister to issue instructions to create economic immigration programs that are limited to a duration of up to 5 years, and where there are no more than 2,750 principal applicants in a class per year. This authority will also provide for annual caps on the number of applications that will be processed for each eligible occupation under the pilot.

• Read the full text of MI35

Through MI38, the opening of the pilot application process was delayed until May 15, 2020.

The Ministerial Instructions were revised on April 30, 2020, to allow wage rates, as determined by collective agreements, for unionized occupations. Read the full text of MI39.

The Ministerial Instructions were revised on April 27, 2023 to extend the pilot to May 14, 2025 and to remove the annual occupational sub-caps. Read the full text of MI64.