Canada has abruptly ended a policy of allowing work permits to those on visitor visas from within the county, in yet another blow to thousands of migrants, many of them from India. Canada is rolling back or limiting several liberal immigration schemes introduced in the wake of the Covid pandemic. India is reportedly the second highest source country of temporary workers to Canada, behind only Mexico.
The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or IRCC, the country’s immigration agency, said in a release, “Canada has ended the policy allowing visitors on temporary visas to apply for work permits from within the country, initially introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The change will be effective immediately, the agency said on Wednesday (Aug 28). It will continue to process applications submitted before that date.
Indians protest against changes in Canada’s immigration policy
The temporary work permits were introduced in August 2020 to help visitors who were unable to leave the country due to the pandemic–related travel restrictions. Under this scheme, visitors in Canada could apply for a work permit without having to leave the country. Foreigners who had held a work permit in the previous 12 months but who changed their status in Canada to “visitor” could also apply to work legally in Canada while waiting for a decision on their new work permit application.
This ‘temporary policy’ was set to expire on February 28, 2025, but now it has been stopped abruptly.
The agency said that some fraudsters were misusing this provision to lure foreigners into working in Canada without authorisation.
“IRCC is ending the policy as part of our overall efforts to recalibrate the number of temporary residents in Canada and preserve the integrity of the immigration system. IRCC is also aware that some bad actors were using the policy to mislead foreign nationals into working in Canada without authorisation,” said the release.
The stopping of work permits for visitors is the latest in a string of immigration reforms being undertaken by the Justin Trudeau administration to roll back the number of temporary residents in the country.
It came even as hundreds of Indian graduates and students have started protests amid fears of deportation due to several overnight changes to immigration policies.
It is common practice for international students to work part-time, often for very low wages, to meet some of their expenses. Their hope is to eventually find jobs in Canada, and gain permanent residency.
One of the policies that would face some caps is the PEI PNP, or Prince Edward Island Provincial Nominee Program. This was one of the so-called ‘express entry’ routes for many foreigners to enter, live and work in Canada. It gave pathways to permanent residency for skilled workers and recent graduates.
The rollback of several policies is mainly aimed at reducing the temporary resident population in the country, which includes some 70,000 student graduates who now face uncertain futures. The government’s contention is that the presence of temporary residents is stressing out the housing market and infrastructure of the country.
Immigration minister Marc Miller had said in March that Canada’s temporary resident population “had grown rapidly, reaching up to 2.5 million or 6.2 per cent of the total population.
(With inputs from agencies)
