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Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot: Application process and who can apply

This section contains policy, procedures and guidance used by IRCC staff. It is posted on the department’s website as a courtesy to stakeholders.

The Home Child Care Provider Pilot and the Home Support Worker Pilot are closed to new applications as of June 18, 2024. Complete applications that were received on or before June 17, 2024, will continue to be processed.

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Eligibility for processing

The Case Processing Centre in Edmonton (CPC-E), Alberta, is the intake office for all applications for permanent residence under the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots.

For each pilot, there are 2 caps:

Intake cap

Each pilot is to accept a maximum of 2,750 applications each calendar year, which includes applications considered incomplete according to section 10 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). Related processing instructions are set out in the Ministerial Instructions regarding the processing of applications under the Home Support Worker Class and Home Child Care Provider Class (MI59).The intake cap was previously stipulated in MI46.

The pilot categories accept different numbers of applications:

Processing cap

A maximum of 2,750 applications will be put into process per calendar year in each pilot by operation of subsection 14.1(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Applications must meet the requirements specified in section 10 of the IRPR and in the application kit to be considered complete and eligible for processing.

All complete applications received within the intake cap before the pilots expire will be processed.

How the process works

Applicants under the Home Child Care Provider or Home Support Worker pilots can apply with or without eligible Canadian or foreign work experience. Details on each category are included below.

Note: As part of the June 16, 2024, amended ministerial instructions, the qualifying work experience requirement was reduced from 12 months to 6 months. That was a further reduction from the April 30, 2023, amended ministerial instructions prior to which the required experience was 24 months. The amendments affect applications currently being processed.

Gaining experience category (Category A)

An applicant in this category must satisfy eligibility and admissibility requirements upfront.

Applicants must:

Officers assess applicants against the above criteria. If the applicant is eligible and not inadmissible, the applicant is issued an occupation-restricted open work permit (OROWP) and the permanent residence application is put on hold until the proof of experience is received.

Dependants applying for permanent residence with the principal applicant may also be eligible to accompany the principal applicant and may be issued open work permits or study permits. When applying for permanent residence through one of these pilots, applicants are required to submit an application for a work permit for themselves and may include applications for work or study permits or applications to enter Canada as a visitor or to extend their stay as a visitor for any accompanying dependants along with their permanent residence application. They can also submit temporary residence applications for their dependants separately from their permanent residence application, but only after they have received an acknowledgement-of-receipt letter. Officers can refer to the instructions regarding the processing of temporary residence applications for family members.

If they have not already done so before their OROWP is issued, applicants must submit proof of their eligible, full-time Canadian or foreign work experience within 3 years of being issued their OROWP.

Note: Where the applicant met the eligibility requirements, but an OROWP is not printed, the applicant must demonstrate that they have met the work experience requirement within 36 months of the date of the Stage 1 eligibility approval letter.

Upon receipt of proof, the permanent residence application is put back into processing as per this GCMS procedure. An officer will assess whether the applicant meets the work experience requirement and make sure the applicant is still admissible to Canada.

In some cases, the applicant may submit the proof of work experience before IRCC processes the OROWP. In such cases, the process varies and officers should refer to the Making a final decision instructions for details.

Assessing work experience under Category A – Work experience not eligible

If an applicant submits proof of work experience and the officer determines that the work experience does not meet the criteria for eligible work experience (for example, insufficient duration or incorrect NOC code), they may refuse the application. Applicants have only 1 opportunity to submit their proof of work experience to IRCC for a decision; once a decision is made, the permanent residence application is closed.

Direct to permanent residence category (Category B)

An applicant in this category must satisfy the following criteria:

Assessing work experience under Category B – Work experience not eligible

If the officer determines that the work experience does not meet the criteria for eligible work experience (for example, insufficient duration or incorrect NOC code), they may refuse the application.

Temporary public policy facilitating 2020 applicants to the pilots

A public policy was introduced on May 3, 2021, that covers all caregivers who applied under the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots in 2020, but whose applications were not entered into processing (that is, not checked for completeness) in 2020 because of delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure was created mainly to avoid negative impacts on future processing limits and the resulting repercussions on clients and employers with multiple-year processing delays. MI46 further provides clarification that they are processed outside the class (and therefore outside the cap).

There is no distinction as to how these cases should be processed. The same Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots criteria and procedures apply.

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2025-12-09