PMM

Hi

This should be extremely interesting to those persons on long term TWP. The Minister has announced today that of April/11 new regulations effecting TWP will take effect.

The most interesting (to my mind) is the following:

Establish a limit of a cumulative duration of four years of
work for TFWs, followed by a period of at least six years in
which they would not be authorized to work in Canada. The
Regulations would provide for exemptions for certain workers,
including those who intend to perform work pursuant to
international agreements. This provision would signal clearly
to both workers and employers that the purpose of the TFWP
is to address temporary labour shortages, as well as encourage
the use of appropriate programs and pathways to permanent
residency in order to respond to the long-term labour needs of
employers;

The full text of the proposed Regulations can be found in the Canada gazette here: http://tinyurl.com/2anm9x4 page 3051

Clematis

They are clearly implementing the temporary bit then!

CanadaJimmy

Thanks for the information, good to know. So you can work for 4 years on various TWPs, but then you can't legally work (on a TWP?) for 6 years after that. Interesting.

sharkus

Very interesting indeed! I shall have a read later. I wonder what types of temp permits fall under this, is it all, or, for example, would intra-company transfers be excluded?

I had, since 2003 until July 2009 renewed my TWP (intra-company transferee) yearly without any issue, so that'd be six years, and thus I would have hit the four year barrier.

I can see sense in it though, as I could, providing the job was still there, kept renewing for who knows how long without going further to get PR, though getting PR would be wise for various reasons. However, prior to the CEC I don't think there was a particularly simple way to get PR unless you were able to be sponsored by someone, something I felt was a big omission to those who had started as temporary workers but wanted to fully make the jump to like in Canada.

Posidrive

I would suspect that the inter company transfers would not be subject to this limitation, under the various international agreements. But I could be completely wrong.

This does seem rather short sited though. Perhaps reasonable enough to limit the duration of the TWP with a single employer since this does imply a permanent relationship. But if there is truely a skill shortage in certain professions that preventing the skills of an individual, who is happy to work on a temporary basis, from then being taken up by another employer, is odd to say the least. It also appears that this could be problematic for non Canadian resident consultants who would require a TWP for any in Canada dealings with their clients that are not "meetings".

On the bright side, it will mean that CRA can no longer gouge TWP workers for gains on their lifetime investment when they leave Canada having exceeded the 5 year mark.

DigitalGhost

So am I right in thinking that this is a way to encourage people to move from rolling long term TWP to either more permanent status paths or to leave Canada at the end of a long period on TWP or am I misunderstanding/over-simplifying it?

Paul Wildy

The new legislation actually has two categories of work permits that are exempted from the 4-year rule. The text of the new regulations reads that the 4 year rule applies... "unless
(i) a period of six years has elapsed since the day on which the foreign national accumulated four years of work in Canada,
(ii) the foreign national intends to perform work that would create or maintain significant social, cultural or economic benefits or opportunities
for Canadian citizens or permanent residents, or
(iii) the foreign national intends to perform work pursuant to an international agreement between Canada and one or more countries, including an agreement concerning seasonal agricultural workers."

International agreements (iii) would cover workers and inter-company transferees working in Canada under agreements such as NAFTA and GATS but (ii) "significant social, cultural or economic benefits or opportunities for Canadian citizens or permanent residents" is a fair bit more wide-reaching. Currently this would include most of the categories of work permit that are LMO exempt such as Entrepreneurs/self-employed, Intra-Company Transferees not covered under NAFTA etc, Youth Exchange Programs (e.g. BUNAC), Spouses of Skilled Workers and Spouses of Students (e.g. holders of a Spousal open Work Permit), and students working part-time off-campus.

Obviously however in cases where the spouse of a skilled foreign worker has an open work permit; if the principal work permit it limited to 4 years then the spouses's work permit would also be limited to 4 years in any case and programs such as BUNAC are normally a maximum of 12 months in any case.

DigitalGhost

So can I just ask, for my own understanding really, if you went for example from 1 year on Bunac to a different sort of TWP for 2 years and then a different sort of TWP for another 2 years would you then to apply for PR within/after your 4th year in order to be able to continue living and working there or does this only apply to people who originally go over on a work-based TWP and then continue to roll the TWP everytime it is due for expiry?

Paul Wildy

If you look at the statistics for people that move to Canada from the UK specifically, for all the brits that come to Canada as permanent residents there are almost as many again that come each year as temporary workers. The vast majority are really planning to be here long term rather than just for a couple of years. Statistics for other source countries are similar and this is something the hasnt gone un-noticed by CIC either. So it's obvious that huge numbers of people that come here on TWPs are not really temporary and the canadian government obviously thinks that these people should be applying for PR if they want to be here long term.

Part of the problem is with Canadian employers. Employer quite like having workers on TWPs, partly because its a quicker and cheaper excercise to get someone a TWP than PR status. But primarily because whilst you are working under a TWP you can work ONLY for the employer named on it; whereas someone who gains PR status can work anywhere. So its sort of like having slave labour for some employers. These people have moved their families all the way to Canada at great expense, bought houses, put their children in school etc and so its very difficult for them to go back. And whilst they are on a TWP and not allowed to switch employers the employer can dictate the terms more or less completely.

I regularly meet people who have been in Canada for years on TWPs and it doesnt make any sense to me to do it long term. If you plan to stay for more than 12 months you should apply for PR, either as a Skilled Worker with Arranged Employment or via a Provincial Nominee Program.

DigitalGhost

Thanks for clarifying that Paul, much appreciated and I really enjoyed reading your pieces in this month's Canada magazine by the way.

Is it correct that if you had lived and worked in Canada for over 2 years on a TWP level then you could just apply for PR via CEC anyway and that no PR options have to be employer sponsored?

PMM

Hi

I think that the big effect will be those TWPs who are in NOC category C/D and are recruited to work in MacDonalds, Tim Hortons, Meat Plants Green houses etc. They will get there 4 years and that is that. I wonder how it is going to effect the Agriculture programs where Caribbean and Mexican workers come to Canada to work in Agriculture for 8 months or so and then return home every year.