Starting next week, the federal government will impose further restrictions on access to open work permits for families of international students and temporary foreign workers.
Following an announcement last fall of reductions in the number of temporary residents in Canada, Ottawa released further details Tuesday on changing the eligibility for family members of study and work permit holders to get authorization to work legally in Canada.
Effective Jan. 21, only spouses of the following international students and foreign workers will be able to apply for the family open work permits:
•Students enrolled in master’s programs that are 16 months or longer and in doctoral programs or undergraduate programs in select professions such as medicine, laws and nursing;
•Foreign workers classified as in high-skill, high-wage managerial positions or occupations generally requiring a university degree;
•Foreign workers in the lower-wage, lower-skilled spectrum in so-called TEER 2 or 3 occupations with labour shortages or in natural and applied sciences, construction, health care, natural resources, education, sports and military sectors.
In addition, the foreign worker must also have at least 16Â months remaining on their work permit at the time when their spouse applies for the family work permits. Dependent children of foreign workers will no longer be eligible for this work permit.
“The Government of Canada is continuing to strengthen the integrity and quality of our temporary resident programs while supporting the country’s economic goals and labour market needs,”
Some fear the new measures would achieve the exact opposite.
“If the strategy is to deter the best and the brightest from coming to Canada, then this is an excellent strategy,” said Ottawa-area based immigration lawyer Tamara Mosher-Kuczer.
She said there are many of these coveted workers in the lower rung of the professional ladder such as computer network technicians and lab technologists who only have a college education and are filling Canada’s labour gaps, yet their families may be excluded from work authorization.
“We want the best and the brightest to work here but now we’re saying, ‘No, actually, we expect your spouses to stay at home and not work,’ ” Mosher-Kuczer said on behalf of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association.
“This change is absolutely crushing for foreign workers if you think about who can afford now to live on one salary.”
Syed Hussan, executive director of the Toronto-based Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said the changes are a complete reversal of the Liberal government’s commitment to promote family reunification.
In 2022, then It was estimated that family members of more than 200,000 foreign workers would benefit from the scheme meant to address labour shortages.
“This temporary measure aims to improve the emotional well-being, physical health and financial stability of workers by keeping families together,” the Immigration Department said in a news release.
Hussan said Ottawa has recently capped the length of work permits at 12 months, and the changes to limit family work permits to spouses and dependents of foreign workers with 16 months remaining on their permits essentially mean few families would be eligible.
“It’s incredibly rare for anyone to get a 16-month work permit,” he said. “This is not only a disappointing and upsetting about turn not only from what’s right, which is families belong together, but also from the promises that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made.”Â
The Immigration Department plans to release next Tuesday the full list of TEER 2 and 3 jobs that are eligible for family open work permits.
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