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Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced a new temporary policy on Monday, August 24, 2020 that will allow visitors currently in Canada to apply for employer-specific work permits without having to leave the country. This temporary policy takes effect immediately until further notice and is intended to get visitors with job offers working as soon as possible for the Canadian employers who need them.

Since March 11, 2020 when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, nearly all aspects of immigration processing have been negatively affected. The closure of many immigration visa offices, visa application centres, and biometrics collection points have exposed some of the flaws and limitations of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) current application processing system. Specifically, IRCC continues to rely on paper-based applications, which are not easily processed in the era of COVID-19 when much of its workforce is working from home. As a result, the processing of paper applications like those made under the Family Class to sponsor loved ones for Canadian permanent residency are expected to suffer from lengthy backlogs.

COVID-19 has introduced an extraordinary number of measures which affect virtually every aspect of immigration processing but, interestingly enough, it has created a new line of business - the quarantine plan.

At the end of 2019, Canada’s Express Entry economic immigration selection program had just completed five full years of operation. From the perspective of our Vancouver immigration law practice, it was operating smoothly.

Over the past two months, millions of workers in Canada have lost their jobs or experienced dramatic changes in their working conditions due to widespread business shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this crisis, foreign workers who hold employer-specific work permits face additional challenges because they do not have the option to look for new employment if they lose their current jobs or to accept a different position within the same company to stay employed.

As immigration lawyers, we are frequently approached by both aspiring business immigrants as well as Canadian business owners who are keen to sign a deal and transfer ownership of a business with a view to the prospective business immigrant securing their family’s status in Canada and the Canadian business owner securing their family’s retirement. A mutually beneficial arrangement! Sadly, Canada’s federal business immigration programs don’t contemplate such an arrangement as a means of obtaining Canadian permanent residence, thwarting the dreams of both prospective business immigrants and Canadian business owners not to mention the loss of investment in the Canadian economy.

While the Canadian border is closed to many, Canada’s Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has introduced travel restriction exemptions for Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) recently on March 26, 2020. The measures are intended to reduce, where possible, the negative impact of coronavirus on Canada's economy.