Eligibility for Open Work Permits

Immigration minister Sean Fraser has announced new temporary measures to expand the eligibility for open work permits (OWP) in order to address labour shortages in Canada. Implemented in 3 phases, family members of workers coming to Canada will be eligible to apply for their own work permits. Time to look at these options in more detail!

Terminology

Foreign nationals, who are neither citizens nor permanent residents of Canada, require a valid work permit to legally work in Canada. There are generally two options to obtain a work permit:

  • the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), wherein the Canadian employer applies for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) in order to hire a foreign worker, and
  • the International Mobility Program (IMP), which covers various exemptions that let employers hire a foreign worker without an LMIA.
LMIA-based work permits and most LMIA-exempt work permits are employer specific. This means that the foreign national can only work for the employer named on their work permit. By contrast, an open work permit (OWP) allows a foreign national to legally work in Canada for any employer and in any job, making them the preferred choice. The options to apply for open work permits, however, are very limited. Common open work permit types are the Working Holiday category of the International Experience Canada (IEC) program, the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) for students who have graduated from an eligible program and designated learning institution in Canada, and the Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) for certain economic class permanent residence applicants. Less common are the open work permit for vulnerable workers or for destitute students who are no longer able to meet the costs of your studies. Two other options are based on your spouse or common-law partner, and their status in Canada.

Spouses or common-law partners of international students or foreign skilled workers in Canada may be eligible to apply for the so-called Spousal Open Work Permit (SOWP). No Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is required for this type of work permit application as no employer is named on the work permit. The LMIA exemption code is C41 for spouses of foreign skilled workers, and C42 for spouses of international students.

On the other hand, if your spouse or partner is a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident, they can sponsor you for permanent residence (PR). If you are already in Canada and applying for PR under Family Sponsorship, you may be able to apply for an Open Work Permit (OWP) on the basis of your permanent residence application. Previously, only inland applicants under spousal sponsorship are eligible for these open work permits, and the program has now been extended to those who have applied from outside of Canada (outland). The LMIA exemption code here is A70.

The difference between the two is the status of the spouse or common-law partner in Canada:

  • Foreign worker or student: SOWP
  • Canadian citizen or PR: OWP with PR application under spousal (family) sponsorship

Spousal Open Work Permit (SOWP)

As mentioned above, the SOWP applies to spouses or common-law partners of international students or foreign skilled workers. For the spouse or common-law partner to be eligible, international students must be in a post-graduation work permit-eligible program of study at a public post-secondary school, such as a college or university, or a collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) in Quebec. Foreign workers must be working in a skilled positions classified under Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities (TEER) category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system. The work permit must be valid for at least 6 (more) months at the time of applying for the SOWP. The Spousal Open Work Permit will be issued with the same expiry date as the spouse’s or common-law partner’s study or work permit.

What's new?

As a temporary measure, IRCC expanded eligibility to work in Canada to spouses and dependent children for workers at all skill levels. Previously, the SOWP was limited strictly to spouses and common-law partners of skilled workers only. Working-age children were not able to apply, and spouses and common-law partners of semi-skilled or unskilled workers were also not eligible.
The temporary measure is limited to 2 years, and started on January 30, 2023. You may be eligible for an open work permit if you’re a

  • spouse, common-law partner or dependent child of a work permit holder who
  • their work permit is valid for at least 6 months after application submission
  • spouse, common-law partner or dependent child of an economic classes permanent resident applicant who holds a work permit
At this time, spouses and dependents of workers in a TEER 4 or 5 job under the low-wage stream of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and the Agricultural Stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) are not eligible.

On the other hand, IRCC recently announced that spousal open work permits (SOWP) will only be available to spouses of international students in master's and doctoral programs, restricting eligibility for spouses of students in other study levels, including undergraduate and college programs. Later in 2024, eligibility will be further reduced to spouses of only those master’s degree students whose program is at least 16 months in duration, and spouses of foreign workers in management or professional occupations only or in sectors with labour shortages.

These announced changes aim to reduce the share of temporary residents from 6.5% of Canada’s total population to 5%. The federal government is taking action to manage the recent increase of temporary residents since the COVID-19 pandemic and hold employers misusing the system accountable. Steps include reforming the International Student Program, tightening eligibility requirements for temporary foreign workers, enforcing employer compliance more strictly, and making labour market impact assessments more rigorous to mitigate fraud.

Looking to apply for an open work permit? Contact us to determine your eligibility!

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