Ministerial Instructions 86 (MI86), 87 (MI87), 88 (MI88), and 91 (MI91): Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots
New Ministerial Instructions with respect to the processing of Home Care Worker Immigration (Child Care) and Home Care Worker Immigration (Home Support) classes take effect on March 31, 2026. These replace the Ministerial Instructions that took effect on March 31, 2025 (MI88).
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will not accept new applications under the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots. These Ministerial Instructions are intended to support the reduction of application inventories and in this way are consistent with the objective laid out in paragraph 3(1)(f) of the Act.
These Ministerial Instructions will remain in effect until March 30, 2030, unless repealed earlier by the Minister.
On March 31, 2025, Ministerial Instructions took effect to establish two new economic immigration pilots: the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot (Child Care) and the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot (Home Support). The pilot programs provide direct pathways to permanent residence for foreign nationals in home care occupations.
The Home Care Worker Immigration (Child Care) class and Home Care Worker Immigration (Home Support) class were created under section 14.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (the Act). This section authorizes the Minister to issue instructions for creating economic immigration programs with a maximum duration of five years, and with no more than 2,750 principal applicants processed in a class per year.
Additional Ministerial Instructions were issued to establish intake and processing parameters. These instructions also came into effect on March 31, 2025, and derive their authority from section 87.3 of the Act. This provision enables the Minister to issue instructions that ensure the processing of applications aligns with immigration goals set by the Government of Canada.
- Read the full text of MI88