24 Nov 2016 The Voice: Immigration Policy Announcements – Focus on High-skill, Global Talent
The recent announcements in the Federal Fall Economic Statement and by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has rightly recognized the needs the tech community has expressed — including a Global Skills visa proposal we submitted along with other regional tech associations in July — and taken some positive actions to make it easier for Canadian businesses to attract the global talent.
Here are some of the highlights:
Global Skills Work Permit
This visa program will establish faster work-permit processing times for global talent as part of a new Federal Global Skills Strategy – while there are still a number of details to be disclosed, we expect it to launch in early 2017.
- Companies will apply for a set number of permits based on the labour market benefits they can demonstrate — making investments, enabling knowledge transfer, and creating Canadian jobs.
- This program will be run by a dedicated team with expertise to help companies complete their applications, with a 10-14 day turn-around on the initial work-permit application and a 14-day turn-around in issuing them for employees once a company has the set number of permits.
- Canadian companies will be processed through Employment and Skills Development Canada (ESDC), and international companies, making a significant investment in Canada, will be processed through the newly created Invest in Canada office.
- There will be short-duration work permits available for employees who will work in Canada for fewer than 30 days in a year. This is intended to facilitate training, work meetings, and other realities of companies with international offices and the need to bring those employees to Canada on occasion.
- Previously a job offer supported by a LMIA was worth 600 points. Now, a qualifying job offer is worth 200 points for a management position and 50 points if the offer is any other qualifying offer of arranged employment.
- In addition to LMIA holders, the new regulations also allow the following individuals to be awarded points for a qualifying job offer: individuals with a work permit issued under an international agreement, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and individuals with a work permit issued under the ‘significant benefits to Canada’ criteria, such as Intra-Company Transfers.
- Post-secondary students in Canada are now awarded up to 30 points.