Functional guidance on temporary residents: Table of contents

On this page

• General visa requirements
• Extension, restoration and loss of temporary resident status
• Electronic travel authorization (eTA)
• Temporary resident permits (TRPs)
• International student program
• International Mobility Program and Temporary Foreign Worker Program
• Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)
• Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) Exemptions

General visa requirements

Intake

• Temporary resident status
• Visa-required countries
• Visa exemptions by purpose of entry
  • Transit Without Visa Program
  • China Transit Program
  • Countries designated for the purposes of the Visiting Forces Act
• Fee requirements
• Place of application
  • Programs exempt from the in-Canada mandatory electronic application (e-application) requirement for temporary residents

Processing

• Documents required with a TRV application
• Reviewing the documentation
• Eligibility and admissibility considerations
• Evidence supporting purpose of entry
• Dual intent
• Proof of funds/financial support
• Medical requirements for foreign nationals
• Issuing the visa: transit, single-entry and multiple-entry visas
• Issuing the visa: duration of visits
• Visa categories
  • Super visas
  • Diplomatic and official visas (including U.S. government officials)
  • Courtesy visas
  • Facilitation visas
• Specific requirements by type of applicant
  • Minors
  • Business persons and business delegations
  • Persons wishing to enter Canada for the purpose of giving birth
  • Intending organ donors
• Refusals overview
• Cancellation of a TRV
• Visa validity (expiry dates)
• Examinations and admission at the port of entry
• Refusals at the port of entry
• Security deposits and guarantees

Extension, restoration and loss of temporary resident status

• Eligibility for extending temporary resident status
• Extensions for minors
• Maintained status during processing (previously called implied status)
• Inland applications for permanent residence and temporary resident status extension
• Restoration of temporary resident status
• Visitor record
• Fees and cost recovery for extensions
• Loss of status
• Individuals named in an immigration warrant

Electronic travel authorization (eTA)

• Electronic travel authorization (eTA)
  • About an eTA
  • Who needs an eTA
  • eTA expansion eligibility
  • Who does not need an eTA
  • How eTA applications are assessed
  • For more information
• Manually processing eTA applications
  • Canadian citizen applicants
  • Canadian permanent resident applicants
  • eTA expansion
  • Adverse information associated with an eTA applicant
  • Assessing admissibility
  • Assessing multiple electronic travel authorization (eTA) applications
  • Revalidating, inactivating and refusing an eTA
  • Establishing eTA validity
  • Service standards

Temporary resident permits (TRPs)

Intake

• Background and purpose
• When to consider issuing a TRP
• Fees collection

Processing

• Eligibility and assessment
• Final decisions and issuing permits
• Validity, conditions and cancellation
• Subsequent permits
• Work and study permits
• Applications for permanent residence
• Additional procedures and considerations:
  • Inadmissibility (health)
  • Inadmissibility (criminality)
  • Victims of human trafficking
  • Victims of family violence
  • Removal orders and immigration warrants
  • Stateless children of Canadian citizens

Administration

• Authorities and accountability
• Information-gathering (including interviews)
• Preparing a case summary, recommendation and documenting decisions

International student program

Intake

• Who needs a study permit
• Making an application
• Student Direct Stream (SDS)
• Minors
• Refugees and protected persons
• Designated learning institutions

Processing

• Assessing an application
• Letters of acceptance
• Studying in Quebec
• Scholarship and award recipients
• Other considerations
• Final decisions

Work

• On-campus work
• Co-op Work Permit Program
• Off-campus Work Permit Program
• Post-Graduation Work Permit Program
• Spouses or common-law spouses of full-time students

Enforcement

• Assessing study permit conditions
• Individuals named in an immigration warrant

International Mobility Program and Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Work permits

Intake

• Steps to determine work and assessment of work permit application
• Step 1: What is work?
  • Assessing farm work as volunteers
• Step 2: Authorization to work without a work permit
  • R186(a)—Business visitors
  • R186(b)—Foreign representatives
    • International Mobility Program: Foreign government officials not accredited to Canada
    • International Mobility Program: Domestic workers of foreign representatives
    • Locally engaged staff of diplomatic and consular missions and international organizations: Reciprocal employment (LMIA exemption code C20)
  • R186(c)—Family members of foreign representatives
    • International Mobility Program: Criteria for applicants seeking accreditation of immediate members of the family of foreign representatives
  • R186(d)—Military personnel
    • Military personnel and family members
  • R186(e)—Foreign government officers
  • R186(f)—On-campus employment
  • R186(g)—Performing artists
    • Types of artistic and performing arts occupations
  • R186(h)—Athletes and coaches
  • R186(i)—News reporters, media crews
  • R186(j)—Public speakers
  • R186(k)—Convention organizers
    • Sales
  • R186(l)—Religious leaders
  • R186(m)—Judges, referees and similar officials
  • R186(n)—Examiners and evaluators
  • R186(o)—Expert witnesses or investigators
  • R186(p)— Short-term students in a foreign health care program
    • Immigration medical examination: Healthcare students who are work permit-exempt
  • R186(q)—Civil aviation inspector
  • R186(r)—Aviation accident or incident inspector
  • R186(s)—Crew
    • Commercial airline reciprocal employment agreements
  • R186(t)—Emergency service providers
  • R186(u)— Pending decision on work permit renewal
  • R186(v)—Off-campus work
  • R186(w)—Off-campus work (transition to post-graduation status)
  • R186(x)—Registered Indians
• Place of application
  • Applying at a visa office before entry
  • Persons who may apply at a port of entry
  • Persons who may apply from within Canada
• Refusal to process applications: Protecting workers from abuse and exploitation

Processing

• Step 3: Employer review
  • Assessing genuineness of the offer of employment on work permit application – R200(5)
  • Work permit processing – Review of wages, occupation and working conditions provided to previous temporary workers
  • Public list of employers who have been non-compliant
  • Employer name changes and corporate restructurings
• Step 4: Temporary worker: Eligibility and admissibility
  • Assessing medical requirements
  • Assessing a temporary foreign worker's eligibility to work in Alberta in a compulsory certification trade position
  • Strike situations
  • Language requirements
  • Immigration warrants
• Step 5: Work permit issuance prohibitions
• Work permit application processing and issuance
  • Employer-specific work permits — General processing — International Mobility Program
  • Employer-specific work permits with Labour Market Impact Assessment exemptions
  • Regulated or certified occupations
  • Conditions of the work permit including validity period
  • Urgent referrals process for work permits
  • Quebec cases (Temporary Foreign Worker Program and International Mobility Program)
  • Assessing a temporary foreign worker’s eligibility to work in Alberta in a compulsory certification trade position
• Priority processing - Global Skills Strategy - TEER 0 and 1 occupations
• Priority processing – Temporary workers in essential occupations

Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)

• Labour market impact assessments
• Labour market impact assessment review
• Revocation or suspension of labour market impact assessment and effect on work permit
• Refusal to process or suspension of the processing of a labour market impact assessment application
• Seafood and fish plant workers (low-wage cap exempt) – Temporary Foreign Worker Program
• Work permits for caregiver pathways – Temporary Foreign Worker Program and International Mobility Program
  • Refusal to process LMIA-required work permit applications for caregivers received on or after June 18, 2019

Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) Exemptions

• LMIA exemption codes list

International agreements or arrangements [R204]

• International Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) [R204(a)]
  • Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA)
  • Canada-Chile FTA
  • Canada-Peru FTA
  • Canada-Colombia FTA (in addition code: T25)
  • Canada-Korea FTA (in addition code: T25)
  • Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
    • Business visitors and business visitors for investment purposes (work permit exempt under R186(a)/R187)
    • Investors (work permit required/LMIA exemption code T46)
    • Independent Professionals and Contractual Service Providers (work permit required/LMIA exemption code T43 and T47)
      • National Occupational Classification equivalents of Canada’s commitments in the Canada-European Union free-trade agreement
    • Intra-corporate transferees (work permit required/LMIA exemption code T44) and spousal provision (open work permit/LMIA exemption code T45)
    • Engineering technologists and scientific technologists (work permit required/LMIA exemption code T48)
  • Agreement on Trade Continuity between Canada and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (CUKTCA)
  • Canada–Panama Free Trade Agreement
  • General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (T33)
  • Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) overview
    • Business visitors – CPTPP
    • Investors – CPTPP
    • Intra-corporate transferees – CPTPP
    • Professionals and technicians – CPTPP
• Canada-International Non-Trade Agreements (T11)
  • Airline personnel (operational, technical and ground personnel)
  • United States government personnel
• Federal-provincial agreements overview [R204(c) – T13]
  • Foreign nationals nominated by a province (T13)
  • Significant Investment Projects
  • Exceptional and Unforeseen Events
  • Atlantic Immigration Program (C18)

Canadian interests [R205]

Significant benefit [R205(a)]

• General guidelines (C10)
  • Airline personnel (foreign airline security guards)
  • Interns with international organizations recognized under the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
  • Rail grinder operators, rail welders or other specialized track maintenance workers
  • Experts on mission, working for a United Nations office in Canada
  • Foreign physicians coming to work in Quebec
  • Caribbean Agricultural Liaison Officers
• Entrepreneurs or self-employed individuals seeking only temporary residence (C11)
  • Foreign camp owner or director
  • Fishing guides
  • Foreign freelance horse jockeys
• Intra-company transferees (C12)
  • General requirements
  • Qualifying relationship between the Canadian and foreign employer
  • Qualifying relationship between the employer and the foreign worker
  • Qualifying job positions
    • Executives and senior managers
    • Functional managers
    • Specialized knowledge workers
  • Intra-company transferees under international agreements
  • Employer name changes and corporate restructurings
  • Airline personnel (station managers)
• Emergency repair personnel or repair for out-of-warranty equipment (C13)
• Essential workers for the production stage of television and film (C14)
• Francophone mobility (C16)
• Provincial business candidates or Quebec self-employed applicants approved for a Quebec selection certificate seeking eventual permanent residence (C60)
• Live-in caregivers whose permanent residence application is submitted (A71)
• Occupation-restricted open work permit under Home Child Care Provider Pilot or Home Support Worker Pilot – Category A applicants and family members (C90 and C91)
• Bridging open work permits (A75)
• Open work permits under Home Child Care Provider pilot or Home Support Worker pilot – Work experience completed (A75)
• Certain Quebec Selection Certificate holders currently in Quebec (A73)
• Start-up business class (SUV) permanent resident visa applicants (A77)
• Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ) holders currently outside Quebec [R205(a) – A76] – International Mobility Program

Reciprocal employment [R205(b)]

• General guidelines (C20)
  • Fishing guides (border lakes)
  • Residential camp counsellors
  • Interns with international organizations recognized under the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act (family members)
• International Experience Canada (IEC) (C21)
  • Overview
  • Eligibility requirements
  • Processing applications
  • Bilateral agreements and arrangements
  • IEC-recognized organizations
  • Increasing the validity period of work permits under the International Experience Canada Program
• Academic exchanges (C22)
• Performing arts (C23)

Designated by the Minister [R205(c)]

• Work related to a research, educational or training program (C31, C32, C33)
  • Research (C31)
  • Educational co-op – post-secondary (C32)
  • Educational co-op – secondary level (C33)
• Overview of work designated by the Minister [R205(c)(ii)] (C41, C42, C43, C44, C45,C46, C47, C48, C49, C52)
  • Family members of foreign nationals authorized to work in high-skilled occupations (TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3) – (C41 and C46)
  • Family members of foreign nationals authorized to work in low-skilled occupations (TEER 4 or 5) – (C47 and C48)
  • Family members of work permit holders who are Economic Class permanent resident applicants or chosen by a province (C49)
  • Spouses and common-law partners of study permit holders (C42)
  • Post-graduate employment (C43)
  • Post-doctoral fellows awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (C44)
  • Foreign medical or dental residents and medical research fellows (C45)
  • Academic award recipients for research work (C52)

Charitable or religious work [R205(d)] (C50)

• Religious work (C50)
• Charitable work (C51)

Applicants with no other means of support (R206) (S61 or S62)

• Refugee claimants (S61)
• Persons under an unenforceable removal order (S62)

Permanent residence applicants in Canada [R207] (A70)

• Spouse or common-law partner in Canada (SCLPC) class after approval in principle
• Live-in caregivers after approval in principle
• Protected persons under subsection A95(2)
• Section A25 exemption (humanitarian and compassionate grounds)
• Open work permits for applicants under the Interim Pathway for Caregivers

Vulnerable workers [R207.1] (A72)

• Open work permit for vulnerable workers

Humanitarian reasons [R208] (H81 or H82)

• Destitute students (H81)
• Holders of a temporary resident permit valid for a minimum of six months (H82)

Specific work situations

Officer quick reference guide to occupations

• Unique work situations
• Airline personnel
• Bridge and tunnel authorities
• Camp counsellors
• Residential summer camp counsellors
• Caribbean Agricultural Liaison Officers
• Foreign camp owner or director
• Fishing guides
• Interns
• Interns with international organizations recognized under the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
• Oceans Act
• United States government personnel
• Rail grinder operators, rail welders or other specialized track maintenance workers
• Foreign freelance horse jockey
• Experts on mission, working for a United Nations office in Canada (LMIA exemption code C10)

Public policies, special initiatives and pilot projects

Pilot projects

• Yukon Community Pilot (A75)
• Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (C15)
• Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot spouses (C17)
• Agri-Food Pilot Program
• Open work permit pilot for permanent residence applicants in the spouse or common-law partner in Canada (SCLPC) class

Public policies

• Short-term high skilled work of 15 or 30 days – Public policy – International Mobility Program
• Public Policy: 120-day work permit exemption for researchers
• Public policy: Open work permits for applicants under the temporary resident to permanent resident pathway
• Guidance for special measures to support Hong Kong residents to come to Canada
• Public policy allowing certain visitors in Canada to apply for a work permit
• Public policy on exemptions to work permit conditions when changing employment

Employer compliance regime

• Employer compliance inspection
  • Employer compliance inspections related to COVID-19 conditions
• Revocation of work permit due to public policy consideration
• Application of consequences where an employer is found non-compliant with the conditions
  • Assessing the severity of violation
• Public list of employers who have been non-compliant
• Collecting administrative monetary penalties and determining when employers are in default of payment
• Exemption from the employer compliance regime for the International Mobility Program