Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Foreign workers
Upcoming border changes
Fully vaccinated foreign nationals may be allowed to enter Canada for discretionary travel on the following dates if they meet specific criteria:
- Effective August 9: American citizens and permanent residents of the United States, who currently reside in the United States, who meet specific criteria to qualify as fully vaccinated
- September 7 (intended start date): All other foreign nationals who qualify as fully vaccinated
The 3-night hotel stopover requirement will be eliminated for all travellers arriving by air after 12:01 A.M. EDT on August 9.
Flights from India suspended
COVID-19 has changed how you’ll apply for a work permit and how we’ll process your application.
On this page
If you’re outside Canada
Travel restrictions and exemptions for temporary workers
To find out if you can travel to Canada at this time, you have 2 options:
If you haven’t applied for a work permit yet
Due to COVID-19, we can’t process applications normally.
To keep processing applications from people who are exempt from the travel restrictions, we’re temporarily changing how you can apply to visit, work or study in Canada.
You must apply online when you apply for a work permit from outside Canada.
Processing times outside Canada
Due to COVID-19, we can’t provide accurate processing times.
Check your application status to get updates on
- your application
- where we’re at with processing during the pandemic
Priority processing for work permit applicants
If your occupation is not on the lists below, we’ll still process your application. However, it may take longer than it normally would.
People who perform or support essential services
We’re prioritizing applications for people who perform or support essential services.
When you fill out the work permit application form
To get priority processing, follow these steps:
- Get the 4-digit National Occupation Classification (NOC) number your employer entered on the
- offer of employment or
- Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)
- Enter that number as your Job title:
- This is box 4 in the Details of intended work in Canada section.
- You must only enter the number.
Eligible occupations that perform or support essential services
Agriculture and agri-food occupations
- Butchers, meat cutters and fishmongers—retail and wholesale (NOC 6331)
- Transport truck drivers (NOC 7511)
- Agricultural service contractors, farm supervisors and specialized livestock workers (NOC 8252)
- General farm workers (NOC 8431)
- Nursery and greenhouse workers (NOC 8432)
- Harvesting labourers (NOC 8611)
- Fish and seafood plant workers (NOC 9463)
- Labourers in food and beverage processing (NOC 9617)
- Labourers in fish and seafood processing (NOC 9618)
- Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers (NOC 9462)
Health-care occupations
- Nursing co-ordinators and supervisors (NOC 3011)
- Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (NOC 3012)
- Specialist physicians (NOC 3111)
- General practitioners and family physicians (NOC 3112)
- Allied primary health practitioners (NOC 3124)
- Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating (NOC 3125)
- Pharmacists (NOC 3131)
- Medical laboratory technologists (NOC 3211)
- Medical laboratory technicians and pathologists’ assistants (NOC 3212)
- Respiratory therapists, clinical perfusionists and cardiopulmonary technologists (NOC 3214)
- Medical radiation technologists (NOC 3215)
- Cardiology technologists and electrophysiological diagnostic technologists, n.e.c. (NOC 3217)
- Licensed practical nurses (NOC 3233)
- Paramedical occupations (NOC 3234)
- Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates (NOC 3413)
- Home child care providers (LMIA-required in-Canada applicants) (NOC 4411)
- Home support workers, excluding housekeepers (LMIA-required in-Canada applicants) (NOC 4412)
Film and television workers
You’re eligible for priority processing if you apply online for your work permit and you’re either
- outside Canada and the U.S. or
- in the U.S. and need a visitor visa to enter Canada
How to get priority processing
After you apply for your work permit, you must use the web form to tell us that you’re a film and TV worker. When you complete the form, copy and paste the message below into the Your enquiry field:
“FILMTV2020: Requesting priority processing for Film & TV Industry workers due to COVID-19.”
Where possible, you’ll get a decision on your application within 3 weeks (5 days to identify your application for priority processing and 14 days to process it).
If you don’t include the code FILMTV2020, it may take longer to identify your application.
Overnight/residential camp counsellors
You’re eligible for priority processing if you meet all of the following:
- you applied online for a work permit
- you’re eligible for an exemption from a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) as an overnight/residential camp counsellor (make sure your employer used LMIA exemption code C20 in their offer of employment)
- your work permit application was complete (not missing anything)
- you’re physically outside Canada
Day camp counsellors are not eligible for priority processing.
Deadline to request priority processing
You must apply for your work permit and make your request for priority processing before September 21, 2021.
Who needs to request priority processing
If you applied for your work permit on or after May 31, 2021, you need to follow the instructions below to get priority processing. If you applied before that date, you don’t need to do anything for your application to be prioritized.
How to get priority processing
After you apply for your work permit, you must use the web form to tell us that you’re an overnight/residential camp counsellor.
When you’re completing the form you must
- answer “Yes” to the question Is your application being processed by an office outside Canada?
- choose the visa office for the area you’re applying from
- copy and paste the message below into the Your enquiry field
“residentialcamp2021: Requesting priority processing for camp counsellors due to COVID-19.”
Where possible, you’ll get a decision on your application within 3 weeks (5 days to identify your application for priority processing and 14 days to process it).
If you don’t follow the instructions above, it may take longer to identify your application.
Most people can’t apply at a port of entry
You should only apply for a work permit at a Canadian port of entry during this time if you meet all of these conditions:
- You’re entering Canada from the U.S.
- You have a valid job offer for a business that is open.
- You meet all other requirements to apply at a port of entry.
Before you travel to Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic restricts most travel to Canada. If you’re eligible to travel to Canada, make sure you know the rules and what you need to do before and after you arrive.
Use the entering Canada requirements checklist to make sure you meet all the requirements.
Completing your application
Office closures or service changes due to COVID-19 may affect how you complete some steps in the application process. Find out how COVID-19 has affected
If we ask you to submit documents for an application in progress
Because many applicants can now provide the supporting documents needed for us to process applications, we’ll no longer be automatically giving you more time to submit information.
- We’ll contact you to request the supporting documents.
- This will happen in the next few months.
- You’ll have 30 days from the date we contact you to submit the information.
- Start collecting your documents.
- Do this before we contact you. It can take time to get certain documents.
- Check the last email we sent you to confirm what you need to submit.
- Don’t travel to another city or country to get the supporting documents.
- We’ll consider extending your deadline if you have a reasonable explanation that shows you’re affected by COVID-19.
Find out what to do if you still have documents to provide for your application.
If you’ve been approved for a work permit
Due to COVID-19, there are additional requirements for workers travelling to Canada.
Make sure you’re prepared to arrive in Canada.
Hotel stop over: Exemption for agriculture, agri-food and seafood workers
Some agriculture, agri-food and seafood workers won’t have to complete the 3-night hotel stopover. Find out if this applies to you.
If you’re already in Canada
If you’re already in Canada, in most cases, you must apply online to extend your work permit or get a new work permit.
If you can’t apply online because of a disability or because there is a problem with the online application, you can apply on paper.
Check your application status
Due to COVID-19, we can’t provide accurate processing times.
Check your application status to get updates on
- your application
- where we’re at with processing during the pandemic
COVID-19: Changes to biometrics requirement for in-Canada temporary residence applicants
As a temporary measure, if you’re in Canada and applying to work, study or stay temporarily in Canada, you do not need to give your biometrics. Learn more about the exemption.
If we ask you to submit documents for an application in progress
Because many applicants can now provide the supporting documents needed for us to process applications, we’ll no longer be automatically giving you more time to submit information.
- We’ll contact you to request the supporting documents.
- This will happen in the next few months.
- You’ll have 30 days from the date we contact you to submit the information.
- Start collecting your documents.
- Do this before we contact you. It can take time to get certain documents.
- Check the last email we sent you to confirm what you need to submit.
- Don’t travel to another city or country to get the supporting documents.
- We’ll consider extending your deadline if you have a reasonable explanation that shows you’re affected by COVID-19.
Find out what to do if you still have documents to provide for your application.
If you have a valid work permit
Change your status to visitor
Extend your stay in Canada as a visitor if you’re no longer working
Change jobs or employers
Get permission to work while we process your employer-specific work permit
If you don’t have a valid work permit
Visitors who need work permits
Temporary process for visitors to apply online for a work permit (includes former workers who changed status in the last 12 months)
Workers whose status as a worker has expired
Restore your status and ask for permission to work while we process your employer-specific work permit
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