Canadian employers to get key temporary foreign workers

The Canada work visa issue for temporary foreign workers is seeing the light of hope. The Canadian government is working towards bringing them in. In collaboration with Canadian employers, the government is all set to allow overseas workers into Canada. They will be allowed on temporary visas. The priority is given to occupations that are concerned with ensuring food safety.

Canada is keeping the work on process applications going for every Temporary Foreign Worker Program stream. The country is doing all things possible to help Canadian employers along the way.

There has been pressure building on the Canadian government after borders were closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The borders were closed to most non-residents. At such a juncture, there arose a necessity to keep the flow of essential labor to Canada intact. The industries have a key reliance on temporary foreign workers in this respect.

Canadian officials are right now doing much for Canadian employers and temporary foreign workers. Canada has decided to prioritize the Labor Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs). The priority from employers will now be jobs that are essential in making sure Canada’s food supply doesn’t get affected. This consideration will keep in view primary agriculture, food processing, agri-food, and trucking.

Other steps the Canadian government is taking to bring immigrants workers to Canada are:

• New Labor Market Impact Assessments are being issued. They will have a 9-month validity, up from 6 months. The validity period is until December 15, 2020, or 9 months, whichever is longer for certain applicants. These applicants come through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and agricultural stream positions. A 3-month extension is also granted to those with approved LMIAs. This makes the total validity period of 9 months for them.
• There are also steps taken to ensure greater flexibility for Canadian employers. The requirements of administrative reporting will be relaxed at the time of crisis owing to COVID-19. Canadian workers will be let to have some flexibility in reporting layoffs. The same shall apply to changes to terms of employment like wages and working hours. However, there are more details to come in this regard.
• There are no new compliance reviews undertaken at this time of crisis. There are no new onsite or paper-based inspections initiated. Neither are onsite visits happening. There’s no direct contact with employers or temporary foreign workers happening too. The immigration department is active on critical functions only. Depending on availability, the inspections that are already started may go on. That will happen only if they are essential and paper-based.
• LMIAs will for the time being be accepted by email. This is due to disruptions in service at Canada post. Anticipated closure of some processing offices is also a reason. The process for LMIA intake via email is still being finalized. Service Canada will update its website soon. Employers can also use LMIA Online to complete the process.
• Canadian Government is working on delivering their services on schedule. The efforts are up even as its workload strategy is getting finalized. The government’s aim is to practice a 10-day processing standard for the Global Talent Stream. To reduce processing delays the government is taking effective steps. It will expedite the process to change the name of a foreign worker on an LMIA. The standard of 5 business days is reduced to a day. Such a measure would be needed if the employer wants to hire a different foreign worker than the one they originally put on the LMIA request.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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