The Government of Canada announced the introduction of the Recognized Employer Pilot (REP) on August 8, 2023.  It was the first major policy announcement made by Edmonton Centre MP, Randy Boissonnault, in his new role as Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages. The Recognized Employer Pilot is designed to reduce the red-tape and administrative burden associated with hiring temporary foreign workers and will apply to a subset of those employers who have demonstrated a good track-record of compliance

There are changes coming to Canada’s Express Entry program. Express Entry has been a mainstay of Canada’s economic immigration system since its introduction in 2015, governing the intake of permanent residence applications under several of our economic immigration programs. Under the Express Entry system, individuals interested in applying for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class, or the Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades programs must first create an online profile that is automatically assessed a certain number of

As we’ve previously written about, earlier this year Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Marco Mendicino, announced four new temporary public policies that provide pathways to permanent residents for four groups of temporary residents currently working in Canada.  The new pathways were introduced as a means of maintaining immigration levels in the face of COVID-19 travel restrictions, making it easier for educated and experienced workers currently inside Canada to obtain permanent resident status. These temporary pathways opened on May 6,

Certain individuals currently inside Canada with expired temporary resident status have until August 31, 2021 to apply for a restoration of their status as a worker, student, or visitor under an existing temporary policy. The policy provides a temporary exemption from the usual requirement that a worker, student, or visitor must apply for a restoration within 90 days of their loss of their temporary resident status. Introduced on July 14, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporary public

The Canadian government has long recognized the importance of people immigrating to Canada as a way to keep our economy working effectively. In November 2020, the government set a target to approve 401,000 people as permanent residents in 2021 as part of its Immigration Levels Plan. This plan is even more imperative, since these immigrants to Canada would help to boost and support economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, due to the continuing impact of COVID-19, including ongoing border