Immigration Minister Of Canada Dispels Fear Regarding Caregiver PR Pathway

20 Feb 2018

Ahmed Hussein Federal Immigration Minister has nullified the rumors regarding the future of the caregiver category of Temporary Foreign Worker Program of Canada and has said that the permanent residence pathway will always remain when the Liberals are in power.

He informed about this response after a warning that the present five-year pilot program would cease in 2019 after it was started in 2014 by the Conservative government.

Consequently, caregivers were informed that in case they did not accrue the needed two years of work experience in Canada by that time limit, they would fail in their eligibility in the present program.

With this ministerial intervention, it is suggested that the pilot will be extended beyond the time limit, or a new program will be launched to maintain the pathway for PR. The government has no plans to shut down the opportunities meant for caregivers to become Prs.

He also recognized the role played by caregivers to be important in supporting the members who employ them and it was helpful in the growth of the economy. He expressed his thanks to the efforts of the caregivers and understood the difficulties faced by them because of a long time in processing.

Update from IRCC

The IRCC had issued an update causing the confusion, that although the present program was being reviewed, there was no possibility of its abolition. This update was given to inform the public of the expiry of the pilot projects. As was the case with all pilot projects, there is a review to decide whether they are required to be extended or not.  

The review was happening and it was not related to ending the pathway for caregivers to attain Canada Permanent Residency.

He quoted the figures in articles about the caregiver program and said that 27,000 caregivers received permanent residence in 2015 and 18,000 in 2016.

Hussein made a set of commitments to eliminate the backlog which had grown owing to the efforts of the Conservative government.

The Commitments are Listed Here:

• Processing 80 percent of PR applications on the system present on October 1, 2017, by December 2018
• A processing time of 12-month for 80 percent of new permanent residence applications received on October 1, 2017
• Admitting many candidates under the Live-In Caregiver, Program as PRs until all cases are duly processed

The backlog had peaked in May 2014, has been at the center of a controversy because it keeps the caregivers residing in Canada far from their families till the time their PR applications are processed.

The government had made an announcement that it was exempting some families who hire caregivers from paying the $1,000 LMIA processing fee. The regulations specify that families yearly earning less than $150,000 are not required to pay the annual fee.

This change made to the program in spite of its being reviewed indicates that it will stay in the future in some form.

The plan allocation for permanent residence to caregivers laid by the federal government shows that in the next two years, Ottawa will admit substantially less number of the caregivers compared to the 2016 intake.

It should be noted that the reduction in numbers is linked to the clearing of the backlog of permanent residence applications under the pre-2014 caregiver program.

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