Applicants approved for permanent residence under Canada’s Interim Pathway for Caregivers can also apply for a Canadian open work permit.

Under an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) program delivery update issued March 21, Interim Pathway for Caregivers candidates can submit an open work permit application along with their application for permanent residence.

IRCC says processing of the open work permit application will only begin once candidates pass IRCC’s eligibility test for the pathway.

To be eligible for an open work permit, an Interim Pathway for Caregivers applicant must:

• be in Canada and intend to reside in a province or territory other than Quebec;
• be one of the following at the time of application:
  • authorized to work in Canada with a work permit other than a Live-in Caregiver Program work permit;
  • authorized to work without a work permit if they have applied for a renewal of a work permit other than a Live-in Caregiver Program work permit; or
  • eligible for restoration of status, have applied for restoration and have held a work permit other than a Live-in Caregiver Program work permit as their most recent work permit.
• be the principal applicant on an application for permanent residence under the Interim Pathway for Caregivers; and
• have received a positive eligibility assessment of their paper application for permanent residence, or APR, under the Interim Pathway for Caregivers.

Open work permit for spouses, common-law partners and dependents 

Open work permits are also available to family members of eligible Interim Pathway applicants. Family members must be residing in Canada and in status, on implied status or be eligible for restoration of status.

When submitting their application, caregiver applicants and their family members are still required to pay the work permit processing fee of $155, but they are exempt from the requirement to pay the open work permit holder fee of $100.

Canada opened the temporary program March 4 to in-home temporary foreign worker caregivers who came to work in Canada under the Caring for Children or Caring for People with High Medical Needs pilot programs after November 30, 2014.

The pathway will remain open until June 4, 2019.

Visit our Canada Caregivers: Pathway to Permanent Residence page for more information on the Interim Pathway for Caregivers and other caregiver immigration pathways.

Find out if you are eligible for any of Canada’s current caregiver immigration programs

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