CIMM – Order Paper Question Q-2214 – November 25, 2024
Inquiry of Ministry
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Question NO.: Q-2214
By: Mr. Redekopp (Saskatoon West)
Date: June 9, 2024
Reply by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Paul Chiang, M.P.
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Minister or Parliamentary Secretary
Question
With regard to the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, Home Support Worker Pilot, and Live-in Caregiver Program, broken down by province or territory and by each program: (a) how many work permits have been processed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) during each calendar year between 2019 and 2023 inclusively; (b) how many work permits are projected to be processed for 2024; (c) of the permits in (a), how many migrants arrived in Canada to fill jobs; (d) what is the expected duration of the work permit for these migrants in each category; (e) what was the average processing time for each of the in years in (a); (f) what was the average wait time between application processing and arrival time in Canada to begin their employment for each program stream; (g) what is the number of migrants to stay in Canada under a renewed visa in that program; (h) what is the number of migrants to stay in Canada under a different type of visa after their initial visa, and what is the (i) breakdown of those various visas by type, (ii) average length of those various visas; (i) how many and what percentage of migrants who arrived under these programs stayed past the expiry of their initial visa; (j) of those migrants in (i), how many migrants remain in Canada, and of those, how many has IRCC or the Canada Border Services Agency lost track of; and (k) of the migrants who arrived under these programs for each year, how many have gained permanent residency?
Texte original: X
Reply
Insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is concerned:
(a) The number of work permits processed (approved, refused or withdrawn) under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, Home Support Worker Pilot and Live-in Caregiver Program from 2019 to 2023, including both the principal applicants and dependents is provided in Annex A, tab (a).
Information regarding the province or territory of destination is not provided in response to (a) nor subsequent responses pertaining to work permit applications as this is not a mandatory field to complete the application and therefore it is not systematically-collected data.
Please note that the volume of work permits processed under the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots was low in the initial years following their introduction in June 2019. This is due to slower uptake under the pilots immediately following their launch and due to pandemic-related office closures and operational priorities that impacted caregiver processing in 2020 and 2021.
(b) Under the Home Child Care Provider pilot, IRCC projects that an estimated 3,500-4,500 work permits will be processed for caregivers, and 2,000-3,000 work permits for their dependents in 2024. Under the Home Support Worker pilot, an estimated 2,000-3,000 work permits will be processed for caregivers, and 1,000-2,000 work permits for their dependents.
Under the Live-in Caregiver Program, IRCC projects that approximately 50-100 work permits will be processed for caregivers in 2024.
Please note that these projections are estimates obtained by analyzing the volume of applications in the inventory, historical output and considerations included in the Operational Plan. These estimates are based on factors such as changing approval rates , withdrawal rates and departmental priorities; as such, they are subject to change.
(c) The number of migrants arriving on work permits under the Home Child Care Provider pilot, Home Support Worker pilot and Live-in Caregiver Program between 2019 and 2023 is provided in the table in Annex A, tab (c)(d).
(d) Caregivers arriving under the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots, in the Gaining Experience category, are issued occupation-restricted open work permits for a validity period of up to three years, or to the expiry of their passport (if it expires earlier). If the work permit is issued for under three years (due to the validity of their passport), they can later be issued a work permit extension for the remainder of the three year period.
Under the Live-in Caregiver Program, initial Live-in Caregiver work permits generally had a validity of up to four years plus three months, provided the Labour Market Opinion was approved for the same duration by Employment and Social Development Canada, or up to the expiry of the passport if earlier. The validity period of subsequent work permits extensions were based on considerations including the job offer, the Labour Market Opinion (now referred to as the Labour Market Impact Assessment), and passport expiry. Caregivers under the Live-in Caregiver Program were eligible for a subsequent open work permit for a validity period of up to 4 years, subject to passport validity, if all requirements were met such as the required work experience and if a permanent resident application was submitted.
The data providing a breakdown of the validity period of the work permits issued under these programs by year (2019 to 2023) is provided in Annex A, tab (c)(d).
(e) The processing times for work permit applications finalized under the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots, and the Live-in Caregiver Program are provided in Annex A, tab (e).
(f) The responsive data is provided in Annex A, tab (f)(1). For the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots, the average amount of time is calculated between the time when applicant is notified that the work permit is approved and when they obtain the work permit (either at a port of entry or in-Canada). Where the applicant is outside Canada, they receive notification of their work permit approval and receive their work permit when they arrive at the port of entry, as such, this time period is client dependent.
The data results for the lag time between the final decision on work permits issued under the Live-in Caregiver Program and arrival indicates zero days. This reflects that the recipients of the work permit extensions were in Canada at the time the work permits were confirmed.
(g) IRCC concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question is highly complex and is not possible in the time allotted.
(h) IRCC concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question is highly complex and is not possible in the time allotted.
(i) The table in Annex A, tab (h) provides the number and percentage of migrants that obtained one or more subsequent visa after their initial work permit obtained under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, Home Support Worker Pilot or Live-in Caregiver Program expired -- in order to remain in Canada. IRCC does not hold systematic data on applicants that remained in Canada without authorization past the expiration of their initial work permit obtained under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, Home Support Worker Pilot or Live-in Caregiver Program.
(j) IRCC does not hold systematic data on applicants that have remained in Canada without authorization past the expiration of their initial work permit obtained under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, Home Support Worker Pilot or Live-in Caregiver Program.
(k) Data on care workers that arrived under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, Home Support Worker Pilot and the Live-in Caregiver Program and who gained permanent residence under these pathways is provided in Annex A, tab (j). This data excludes care workers that arrived in Canada as temporary residents under other programs, such as the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and who later became permanent residents under the Home Child Care Provider or Home Support Worker pilots.
Data is provided in Annex A, tab (j)(2) for the total admissions of permanent residents under these pilots and program, regardless of the program under which they arrived in Canada as temporary residents.