ESDC announced amendments to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

ESDC announced amendments to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

ESDC announced amendments to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
On April 4, 2022, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) introduced changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to tackle the labour shortage issue across Canada. Effective immediately, the ESDC removed limits to the number of low-wage positions that employers in seasonal industries can hire through the TFWP and increased the maximum duration of these positions from 180 days to 270 days per year. ESDC also made Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIA’s) valid for 18 months and extended the maximum duration of employment for High-Wage and Global Talent Streams workers from two years to three years to help those workers to qualify for permanent residence in Canada.

#ESDC, #LMIA, #seasonal_workers, #High_Wage_Stream, #Global_Talent_Stream, #labour_shortage

New Brunswick to be the top vacation destination in Atlantic Canada
On April 4, 2022, the Government of New Brunswick introduced a five-year strategic vision to make the province the choice of tourists, as well as a perfect place to live and build a business. New Brunswick focused on strategic growth opportunities to reach its 10-year goal to grow the province’s population by 25,000. According to the CEO of Envision Saint John, a regional growth agency, Paulette Hicks, tourism is a serious economic driver in its own right, since every visitor to the province is also “a potential new student, resident, business owner or investor.”

#New_Brunswick, #tourism, #Atlantic_Canada

The government of Canada to make the renewal of passports easier
According to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, Canada “needs to continue to modernize and improve passport services to meet the needs of Canadians.” The Canadian Government will make it easier for citizens to renew their passports that expired more than a year ago. Passports that were lost, stolen, or damaged can also be renewed easily. Despite the Federal Government will process only those passports that expired within a year, soon, the simplified process will be applied to passports that have expired within the past 15 years. To renew their passports, applicants will have to provide two photos, two references, and their completed forms and then pay the applicable fees.

#Passports, #citizenship, #Passport_renewal, #Fraser

ESDC updated processing times for LMIA applications
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has updated the processing times for the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications under various streams. Based on statistics from all processing centres, the current average LMIA processing times increased for all streams except the PR stream:

Global Talent Stream – 10 business days (11 days less)
Agricultural stream – 28 business days (4 days less)
Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program – 14 business days (3 days less)
Permanent residence stream – 49 business days (3 days more)
In-home caregivers – 23 business days (14 days less)
High-wage stream – 63 business days (9 days more)
Low-wage stream – 59 business days (3 days less)
#ESDC, #Service_Canada, #LMIA #TFWP, #Work_permit, #agricultural_workers, #caregivers