Caregivers from abroad play an important role in supporting Canadian families who are unable to find the care they need for a family member in Canada.
The Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots were introduced in 2019 to provide a clear, direct pathway to permanent residence for in-home caregivers.
Canada continues to welcome in-home caregivers through multiple economic immigration pathways. As of September 30, 2022, the Department admitted approximately 3,800 new permanent residents to Canada through the caregiver streams.
In addition, as of September 30, 2022, over 2,500 in-home caregivers obtained permanent residence through the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway.
IRCC continues to make progress toward processing the existing inventory of caregiver applications while finalizing applications for approximately 4,500 caregivers and family members.
On January 1, 2023, both caregiver pilots will re-open for new applications. The Home Support Worker Pilot has not reached the 2,750 application limit and continues to be open for new applications in 2022.
Supplementary Messages
Eligibility Requirements
Caregivers are required to meet:
a Canadian Language Benchmark of level 5 (low intermediate) or higher;
must have a Canadian credential of at least one year of post-secondary study (or a foreign equivalent); and,
must have required 1 to 2 years of Canadian work experience, depending on the pathway.
These requirements help ensure caregivers have sufficient official language competence, training and work experience to care for potentially vulnerable populations, such as children, seniors, and persons with disabilities.
The basic skills, education and work experience also provide a foundation to enable successful economic establishment in Canada as permanent residents and future citizens as most leave the caregiving field once they transition from temporary to permanent residence.
Caregiver pilots and processing times
Under the pilots, caregivers with less than two years of eligible work experience in Canada submit both their permanent resident and work permit applications together.
They are assessed for most permanent residence criteria (i.e., education, official language, job offer and admissibility) before receiving a three-year occupation-specific open work permit.
Once an applicant has obtained 24 months of qualifying work experience in Canada, they submit proof to IRCC that they have completed this requirement.
IRCC finalized approximately 6,000 permanent residence applications for caregivers and their family members in 2021, nearly meeting the target set for the end of December 2021.
As of September 30, 2022, the caregiver processing inventory included approximately 32,000 people (including caregivers and their family members) from all caregiver pathways. This does not include applications that have not yet been verified for completeness.
As of October 24, 2022, about 1,000 work permit and work permit extensions had been processed since the launch of the caregiver pilots to allow candidates to begin gaining the two years of work experience necessary to obtain permanent residency.
Demand for the caregiver pilots continues to be strong. Intake under the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots will open in January 2023.
If pressed – e-applications: Since September 23, 2022 to better enable workload management, applications must submitted in electronic format with an exception for those unable to apply online. These instructions apply to permanent economic immigration programs and pilots, including the caregiver pilots.
If pressed - intake cap: In 2022, the Department received the maximum annual limit of 2,750 applications under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot by January 17th, closing application intake for the year.
Given pent-up demand, it is anticipated that the intake cap will again be reached in a matter of days when the Home Child Care Provider reopens in January 2023. As such, specific measures are being considered to support access for clients requiring alternate application formats to ensure they have an equal opportunity to apply.
If pressed – processing times: Processing times under the caregiver pilots were posted on IRCC’s website in September 2022 to support departmental priorities on client service and transparency. Currently, processing times range from 27 to 33 months. With these processing times, clients will have clearer expectations about the length of time caregiver applications may take to be processed.
The Department is making progress processing applications received under the current pilots. While the aim is to process these applications in 12 months, it is unlikely IRCC will return to meeting this target processing time in the short-term.
As a mitigation measure, the Department continues to process applications received under previous caregiver pathways using a “first-in first out” approach, where feasible. This aims to ensure older applications are not disproportionately impacted.
If pressed – inventory reduction: The Department is making progress toward reducing the existing inventory of caregiver applications. The large volume of large number of applications accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic when offices were closed and competing processing priorities, have meant it is taking significantly longer to draw down this inventory.
COVID-19 and Vulnerability
The pandemic has highlighted the unique vulnerability of in-home work that is also often live-in work for caregivers. Concerns related to the dependence on an employer for one’s livelihood and shelter have driven significant program change since 2014.
Ensuring the protection of temporary foreign workers in Canada is a top priority for the Government. While provinces and territories are responsible for labour legislation and workplace protections in their jurisdictions, the Government has tools in place to prevent and respond to situations of workplace abuse (e.g., the Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers), and to help workers exit these situations when they do occur.
The Government has put in place a wide range of special measures during the pandemic to support workers, including those on employer-specific work permits who need to change employers, or for those on maintained status, which in turn can help support their goals for permanent residence.
Hiring Caregivers As Temporary Foreign Workers
In June 2019, the Department put in place a refusal-to-process for new employer-specific work permit applications received from outside Canada that require a labour market impact assessment in the caregiver occupations. To support the pilots’ goal to secure a clearer path to permanent residence for current and new in-home caregivers, those who hold job offers but have not yet acquired the 24 months of work experience are assessed for permanent residence prior to being issued an occupation-specific open work permit. This does not apply to certain groups of foreign nationals such as those destined to work in Quebec. Foreign national caregivers already in Canada on employer-specific work permits can extend their work permits through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, with some limited exceptions, and apply for permanent residence through the pilots.
Updated Ministerial Instructions related to the refusal-to-process came into force on April 23, 2022. Aligned with the Department’s intent to not process work permit applications for caregiver occupations received outside of the caregiver pilots (and therefore with no pathway to permanent residence), these new provisions ensure visitors in Canada are not able to apply for a work permit in a caregiver occupation. This includes those who may apply through the visitor-to-worker public policy, and foreign nationals who apply for an initial work permit in a caregiver occupation at Canadian ports of entry.
Future Of Caregiving Programming
My Department is exploring future caregiver policies and programming with the objectives of minimizing vulnerability, facilitating pathways to permanent residence for caregivers, and supporting labour market needs in health care and affordable childcare.
Currently, the Express Entry system manages programs that are available to foreign nationals with work experience in occupations categorized in TEER 3 or above. Caregiver occupations do not meet this threshold.
