Operational Bulletin 287B - May 12, 2011

Processing of Work Permit Applications for Temporary Foreign Workers in Quebec

This replaces the version of OB 287 issued on April 14th, 2011.

Summary

The purpose of this Operational Bulletin (OB) is to provide instructions to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and Canada Border Services Agency officers on the processing of Work Permit (WP) applications for temporary foreign workers coming to work in the province of Quebec.

Issue

On April 1, 2011, amendments to the Règlement sur la sélection des ressortissants étrangers (regulations on the selection of foreign nationals coming to work in the province of Quebec), came into effect.

Change impacting work permit processing in Quebec

One of the changes, which impacts the processing of WP applications in Quebec, is that for any offers of employment in Quebec of less than 30 calendar days, regardless of National Occupational Classification category, the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) will no longer evaluate the validity of the offer of employment (the portion of the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) assessment assigned to MIFI) nor issue a Certificat d’acceptation du Québec (CAQ).

Service Canada (SC) will continue to issue LMOs for these jobs, as required.

Currently, the Temporary Foreign Worker Guidelines (FW 1 Manual), Section 12.3, “CAQ Requirement,” states that a foreign national does not require a CAQ if they are “working for a period of five days or less”.

The FW 1 will be revised according to this change.

Note that CIC’s requirements have not changed:

• Temporary foreign agricultural workers entering Quebec through the provisions of the Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training are required to work for the same employer named on their WP and on the LMO issued by SC.
• Foreign nationals from Mexico, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada and Montserrat admitted to Canada to work for farm employers through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program will continue to be issued WPs allowing them to take employment in any province other than Newfoundland and Labrador with any agricultural employer that has been issued a neutral or positive LMO by SC.