Understand Workers’ Applications for Permanent Residence

By Naseem Malikand Daniel Pugen
McCarthy Tetrault

Let’s say you are the human resources director for a Canadian-based operation with affiliates in other countries. One of your numerous responsibilities is to manage the company’s temporary foreign workers, including Americans, in Canada.

A challenge you face is handling retention issues with some foreign workers. Given their skill set, you would like to hire and keep them on a permanent basis in Canada.

Unfortunately, you find that the rules in Canada for admission of foreign nationals for permanent residence are complicated.

Not to worry — while the rules may be complex, there are circumstances where temporary foreign workers may be granted status as permanent residents of Canada. Gaining a better understanding of the rules around their eligibility and the timelines of the process will make your life much easier and lessen the likelihood that you will lose skilled employees because of their foreign status.

Applications for permanent residence
Most work permit categories for temporary foreign workers have hard cap limits on them, such as seven to 10 years. Therefore, if an employer wants to retain a foreign national in Canada on a longer-term basis, the employee must generally apply for and obtain permanent residence status

The two most common categories for foreign workers applying for permanent residence are (1) federal skilled worker and (2) family class sponsorship.

Federal skilled worker
The federal skilled worker category is the most common one used by temporary foreign workers who want to attain permanent residence in Canada. Under this category, workers must undergo an assessment based on six criteria:

1. age;
2. educational level;
3. work experience;
4. adaptability;
5. arranged employment; and
6. language abilities.

To qualify for permanent residence under this category, an applicant need only obtain a “C” grade – a minimum score of 67 points out of 100 on the assessment.

Seventy of the possible 100 points are assigned to the education, work experience, and language categories. As an example, under most circumstances, a person with a university degree and four years of work experience in a professional capacity along with fluency in either English or French (the Canadian official languages) would be very close to obtaining the minimum 67 points. The applicant would just need to accumulate another eight points in the final three categories of age, arranged employment, and adaptability, which make up the final 30 points.

Family class sponsorship
The worker’s family may also come in handy for keeping the foreign worker.
A temporary foreign worker may be eligible for permanent residence through the family class category. He or she must have a close relative who is willing to sponsor him or her and who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

Acceptable relatives who may be sponsored include spouses, grandparents, and parents. This category is most commonly used when a temporary foreign worker is married to or is a common-law spouse of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

Unfortunately, given the limited types of relatives who may be sponsored, in many instances a temporary foreign worker is simply not eligible to take advantage of the family class category and must apply as a federal skilled worker.

The process
Once an applicant in Canada files through the family class or the federal skilled worker categories, it can take up to two years for him or her to be granted permanent residence. It’s essential for the foreign worker and his or her employer to maintain the worker’s lawful temporary status in Canada during that time.

Given the lengthy processing times involved, a decision about whether the worker should seek permanent residence in Canada should be made (if possible) early enough in the worker’s stay in Canada to avoid the worker running out of eligibility room on his or her work permit and being potentially forced to leave Canada.

Retaining skilled workers is an important goal of any organization. An organization is only as good or successful as the people which comprise it. By better understanding these rules, you will be better able to mange your foreign national workers with less risk of losing their skilled labor just because they are foreign nationals.