Caregiver Program
Caregiver Program
Traditionally, the immigration pathways for caregivers have undergone frequent changes throughout time. Due to the always evolving nature of these programs, the Federal Government’s approach has been running different pilot programs with the goal of assisting caregivers to transition to Permanent Residence. These pilot programs allow the government to create more effective streams for caregivers to immigrate to Canada, while addressing common issues that the previous streams had in the past.
It is therefore important to keep track of these changes as they could affect all potential applicants, whether they consider themselves caregivers for the elder, for people with special needs or even for children. The programs that will be discussed below apply only to in-home caregivers and not to caregivers working for residential care facilities.
One of the oldest immigration programs is the Live-in Caregivers Program (LCP). This program has traditionally presented backlogs and therefore, it is currently paused and not accepting new applications. A person can apply for permanent residence under the LCP if they are eligible to work and have accumulated at least 2 years of experience under this program already. On the employer’s side, a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) was needed to issue the candidate’s initial work permit. Since the program has been paused, only LMIA-supported work permits obtained on or before November 30, 2014 will be considered.
Caregiver Program
The Live in Care Giver Program was holded in 2014 to introduce two five-year pilots; the Caring for Children and the Caring for People with High Medical Needs. Unfortunately, after the end of the five-year period, the pilot programs were not kept and instead, they were replaced for two new pilots. These initiatives were officially launched on June 18, 2019 and are called the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and the Home Support Worker Pilot.
One interesting feature of both new pilots is that they have very similar eligibility requirements. The only difference is the type of experience that has to be accumulated before being eligible to apply for permanent residency. In the case of the Home Child Care Provider Pilot, experience under NOC 4411 is required. Meanwhile for the Home Support Worker Pilot, experience under NOC 4412 is required. Both new initiatives provide very interesting benefits and offer caregivers and their families a pathway to permanent residence after obtaining 2 years of relevant Canadian work experience.
In order to proceed, the applicant needs to first obtain a job offer. Then, there are a number of important considerations:
- Qualifying work experience in Canada can only be obtained by performing work in an occupation-restricted field under NOC 4412 or 4411.
- Language test results of CLB 5 in all four skills: listening, writing, speaking and reading.
- Post-secondary education credential for at least a year in Canada. If the education was obtained abroad, then an education credential assessment is necessary.
Caregiver Program
When talking about qualifying work experience, a caregiver needs to obtain at least 24 months of full time work experience in Canada before applying for permanent residence. Questions tend to arise when applicants ask themselves how they can obtain that initial work permit first in order to start accumulating this experience. To answer this, there are many pathways for candidates to obtain that initial work permit. First, since both pilots are a hybrid between a work permit and permanent residency program, an eligible candidate can apply for their first open work permit under the pilot. However, if for example the applicant is already in Canada with an open work permit, then the experience obtained under any work permit can count as long as the work is performed under NOC 4412 or 4411.
Amongst other benefits, the pilots are now LMIA-exempt. This allows employers to proceed with the job offer right away and it is also easier for candidates to obtain their initial work permit. In the past, an LMIA-supported work permit was mandatory. This is no longer the case, however, there are still two scenarios where an LMIA could be required by Service Canada and those are when the caregiver is planning to work in Quebec or when the caregiver is going to work under NOC 3413, which applies to employees in care facilities.
Despite the mandatory requirement of an initial job offer, once an open work permit is issued under the pilot programs, the caregiver can easily work for different employers without obtaining a new work permit. Lastly, an applicant does not have to wait to finalize their immigration process before bringing their family. The pilot programs now allow caregivers to bring their family to work or study in Canada while their application is in progress.
Regards,
SmartImmigrant (Caregiver Program)
