Canada Working Visa

Canada has many employment opportunities and welcomes thousands of foreign workers from around the world every year. This category is frequently used by employers to employ highly skilled individuals to fill a vacancy.

Most foreign workers seeking to enter Canada to work temporarily must hold a valid working visa. It is illegal for a Canadian employer to employ a foreign national who does not have a valid work permit. However, some foreign workers may work temporarily in Canada without a permit.

The following steps must be followed before you apply for a Canadian work permit:

FIRST STEP:

You must receive a written job offer from a Canadian employer;
If you do not yet have a written job offer, you cannot apply for a work visa.

SECOND STEP:

Human Resources and Development Canada (HRDC) must normally provide a labour market opinion or confirmation of your job offer. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations mandates HRDC to furnish labour opinions confirming the impact of a prospective temporary or a permanent hiring of a foreign national on the labour market. The majority of temporary hiring of non-Canadians will require a favourable HRDC labour opinion confirming that a prospective temporary hiring is genuine and is likely to have a neutral or positive economic effect on the affected local labour market.

Please note that some types of work are exempt from this process. If the job offer you received is exempted from the obligation to obtain a validation by HRDC, you may go directly to step three an apply for a work visa.

THIRD STEP:

After HRDC confirms that a foreign national may fill the job, you apply to Citizenship and Immigration Canada for your work permit.

Please note that accordingly with the Canada-Quebec Accord on immigration, a foreign worker seeking to work in Quebec must also obtain the authorization from the Quebec immigration authorities.