IRCC walks back current employee restriction on reciprocal employment work permits
Canada's immigration department has walked back a rule change that would have limited reciprocal employment work permits to workers already employed outside Canada.
The change, which had been conveyed through the publication of updated instructions to officers on the department's website on July 29, 2026, "was posted in error due to a version control issue and does not reflect the intended policy," according to a statement by an immigration department official, as circulated in an email distributed among immigration lawyers and reviewed by CIC News.
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The immigration department published a corrected version of the updated instructions on August 6, 2026, having removed the section which had specified that the worker "must be currently employed by the company abroad" and could not be issued a permit if their employment was set to initiate only upon arrival in Canada.
Reciprocal employment work permits, issued under code C20 through the International Mobility Program (IMP), are exempt from the requirement of a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), making them faster and easier to obtain than work permits issued through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
IMP work permits under code C20 are issued in circumstances in which the hiring of a foreign national in Canada helps to create or to maintain similar employment opportunities abroad for Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
C20 work permits are most commonly issued to workers employed by organizations such as multinational corporations, academic institutions, internationally operating non-profits, and governmental organizations.
IMP work permits are exempt from the LMIA requirement because they are subject to specific conditions which are considered to provide overall cultural and economic benefits to Canadian society, in contrast to TFWP work permits which are issued expressly for the purpose of alleviating labour shortages for Canadian employers.
The post-graduation work permit (PGWP), a once-in-a-lifetime open work permit for international student graduates, is also issued under the IMP.
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