3-year renewable work permits for NAFTA professionals

News Release

Minister Kenney announces 3-year renewable work permits for NAFTA professionals

Ottawa, December 15, 2008 — Professionals seeking to work temporarily in Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) can now receive work permits for up to three years, the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, announced today. Previously, NAFTA workers were required to renew their work permit every 12 months.

“NAFTA work permits are an excellent option for North American professionals seeking to work in Canada including lawyers, doctors, dentists and teachers. In addition, this will also help Canadian employers remain competitive by ensuring they have access to necessary skilled labour,” said Minister Kenney.

“This extension, along with our Action Plan for Faster Immigration, will greatly benefit the Canadian economy by helping ensure greater continuity and stability for both employers and workers,” continued Minister Kenney. “In a time of economic uncertainty, highly skilled migrants encourage innovation and economic growth, making us more competitive economically.”

By easing the administrative requirements, employers can now be more confident that they will have access to the skilled labour they need for a longer period. The change matches the United States’ new rules on issuance of Trade NAFTA (TN) work visas to Canadian and Mexican professionals under NAFTA.

All three NAFTA countries (Canada, the United States and Mexico) recognize that greater work force mobility in North America, within certain professions, has net economic benefits.

New Canadian immigration rules changes the game for skilled workers

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone! Welcome to my first blog of the New Year.
With the start of 2009 potential skilled worker immigrants to Canada face a more difficult time overcoming the hurdles set up by Immigration Canada for entry to Canada.

As of November 18th 2008 Citizenship and Immigration Canada has restricted applicants for Permanent Residence in the Skilled Worker category to people who:
1) have at least one year of experience in one or more of only 38 occupations deemed to be in high demand across the country;See list here.
Or
2) have an Offer of Arranged Employment,
OR
3) are a foreign national living legally in Canada for one year as a temporary foreign worker or an international student.

Clearly these new measures are going to have a chilling effect on the numbers of applicants eligible even to apply to immigrate let alone succeed. These new announcements are designed to clear the nearly 1,000,000 immigrant applications in the CIC backlog. That's right nearly 1 million people are waiting to hear if they will make it to Canada or not.

So what are your alternatives? There are so called Provincial Nominee Programs run by many of the provinces but each and every one of them (except Quebec) requires that the prospective immigrant have an employer willing to hire them before they apply. Often it is the employer who must initiate the process. So this requires a lot of work and expense for the immigrant to find and convince an employer to act as their sponsor in a Provincial Nominee Program. Not something available to most people outside Canada.

But by far the most open is the Quebec immigration program. No job offer is needed before applying. There is no list limiting which occupations can apply. It is a much fastest process than the federal program often by years. And once you have your Permanent Residence you can live and work in any part of Canada you choose to.

In my next blog I will go into more detail comparing the various options for immigrating to Canada and in particular Quebec.

All the best for the New Year
Ber Lazarus
Certified Consultant
CSIC Member M041119