Blue Bird Blog

Today the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault announced changes to the Temporary Foreign Workforce Solutions Road Map, to help employers address key labour shortages through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
The Temporary Foreign Workforce Solutions Road Map is a continued measure to better enable employers to respond to labour and economic conditions in Canada as they occur, by adjusting the TFWP accordingly.

In June, Canada announced the launch of the Tech Talent Strategy. Part of the strategy was to promote Canada as a destination for digital nomads. A digital nomad is a person who can perform their job remotely from anywhere in the world.
Under current Canadian immigration rules, a digital nomad only needs visitor status to relocate to Canada for up to six months at a time while they perform their job remotely for a foreign employer.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officials must consider the possible impacts on Canadian workers before granting foreign workers a permit. Therefore, a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is often mandatory.
However, if a 'significant benefit' exemption is recognised, the need for an LMIA can be bypassed—specifically if the advantages gained from granting a work permit greatly surpass the possible negative effects of not admitting the foreign worker or delaying their entry to Canada. In such scenarios, even in the absence of an LMIA, other factors can allow a foreign worker to obtain a Significant Benefit Work Permit (SBWP)—an LMIA-exempt work permit that aims to have a much faster processing time.

Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey reveals signs of healthy employment, as the country’s economy continues to normalise after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the latest report covering September of 2023, Canada’s unemployment rate—the number of unemployed individuals in the country over the age of 15, divided by the country’s total labour force (population aged 15 and older)—was stable at 5.5%, seeing little change from the start of the year.

Many Canadian work permit holders will, at some point, look to extend or change their permit to continue being employed in Canada.
If you are a foreign national in this position, it is important to understand that your ability to continue working after your permit expires depends on when you applied for a permit extension/change.
More specifically, only temporary workers who applied for a work permit extension/change prior to the conclusion of their original permit are eligible to continue working after their first permit expires*.