Functional guidance on temporary residents: Table of contents
This section contains policy, procedures and guidance used by IRCC staff. It is posted on the department’s website as a courtesy to stakeholders.
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
- Fee requirements
- Place of application
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
- 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)
- 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
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:
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
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?
- 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
- R186(d)—Military personnel
- R186(e)—Foreign government officers
- R186(f)—On-campus employment
- R186(g)—Performing artists
- R186(h)—Athletes and coaches
- R186(i)—News reporters, media crews
- R186(j)—Public speakers
- R186(k)—Convention organizers
- 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
- R186(q)—Civil aviation inspector
- R186(r)—Aviation accident or incident inspector
- R186(s)—Crew
- 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
- 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
- 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
Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) Exemptions
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)
- 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
- Canada-International Non-Trade Agreements (T11)
- Airline personnel (operational, technical and ground personnel)
- United States government personnel
- Federal-provincial agreements overview [R204(c) – T13]
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)
- 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
- 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)
- 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)
Applicants with no other means of support (R206) (S61 or 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)
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
- Revocation of work permit due to public policy consideration
- Application of consequences where an employer is found non-compliant with the conditions
- 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
Page details
- Date modified: