Applications For Temporary Foreign Worker Program Is Processed

Applications For Temporary Foreign Worker Program Is Processed

Working in collaboration with employers in Canada, officials prioritizing applications of temporary foreign workers which target occupations that ensure the food sector in the country.

Amid coronavirus measures, Canadian officials continue supporting Canadian employers along the way by processing Temporary Foreign Worker Program applications.

Following the global coronavirus pandemic, borders were closed to most non-residents. However, sectors that rely on support by the temporary foreign workers urged the Canadian Government to take measures in order to enable the flow of essential labor to the country.

Initially, Canada will make a priority to process applications that require LMIA assessment for employers in occupations that are essential for securing food supply in Canada. These fields include agriculture, agri-food, food processing and as well as trucking.

You can read the measures below, which Canada takes to enable immigrants to continue working in the country.

LMIA Extensions

Canada issues new Labor Market Impact Assessment’s that are valid up to 9 months of the period. The validity period of LMIA’s issued for candidates who immigrate to Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and agricultural stream positions increased until December 2020.

The measures also include steps to increase the validity period of LMIA’s for those who have already approved LMIA’s covering 6 months.

Flexibility for Canadian employers

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, Canada is going to relax requirements for administrative reporting. Now Canadian workers will have a certain flexibility in changes to terms of their employment which include salary and working hours.

No new compliance reviews

Being valid for at this time only, there will be no requirement for compliance reviews. There will also be no new onsite and any paper-based inspections carried out. This also includes no onsite visits or any direct contact which used to be carried out regularly with employers of foreign workers.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, only critical functions are employed by the department. In addition, the government will only continue the inspections which have already started and require to complete.

Temporary LMIA intake via email

Since there are service difficulties due to the pandemic and possible further steps that may be carried out resulting in the closure of processing offices, LMIA applications will be temporarily accepted by email.

Email LMIA intake procedure is going to be finalized and released on Service Canada’s website during the upcoming week.

In addition, if you are a Canadian employer, you can also utilize the Online LMIA application.

Maintaining and improving service standards

Although, there are still some steps to go before finalizing the workload strategy by the government, Canada’s main priority is still to deliver services on time.

Also, to overcome the processing delays, Canada is going to speed up the procedure for changing the name of the foreign workers in the LMIA application. Now it is possible to change the name just in one day which was previously required 5 days processing time.

This will help Canadian employers to change the name of a foreign worker which was originally put on the LMIA request if there is a need to hire another worker.