New Canada Open Work Permit for H1B visa holders from July 16

Last updated July 10, 2023, 12:40 PM EDT (Toronto time)

The new Canadian open work permit for H1B visa holders in the United States will open on July 16, 2023, allowing them to work for any employer in Canada.

This new open work permit program will remain open for applications for one year, or until the limit of 10,000 main applicants is reached.

In addition, the duration of this open work permit will be a maximum of 3 years and the family members will also be able to accompany the main applicants.

Relatives (spouses and dependents) of these 10,000 H1-B visa holders are eligible to apply for study permits or work permits or temporary residence visas.

This program was announced on June 27, 2023 by Immigration Secretary Sean Fraser as a strategy to attract talent to Canada.

While H1-B visas also cover occupations outside of the engineering sector, IRCC is already expected to consider 24 shortlisted STEM occupations or introduce a new engineering list to qualify for this new open work permit program.

More details on this new program will be made public by IRCC as we get closer to July 16, 2023.

Permanent Residence Pathways for H-1B Visa Holders

With this new open work permit program, H-1B visa holders get an open work permit for up to 3 years.

There is no specific permanent residency (PR) trajectory for these holders of an open work permit.

However, gaining 1 year of Canadian experience will definitely benefit them in increasing the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score in Express Entry.

These individuals who were previously only eligible for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) or Express Entry can qualify under Canadian Experience Class (CEC) after completing 1 year of experience in Canada.

H-1B visa holder with 1 year of experience outside Canada, graduate level education, 8 in listening and 7 in the rest of the modules of IELTS about 404 CRS score in FSWP.

Gaining 1 year of Canadian experience in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupation will raise their score to 470.

Similarly, 2 years of Canadian experience will further increase their CRS score to 507, increasing their chances of receiving a PR invite in an Express Entry draw.

In addition, they will also benefit from STEM focused Express Entry draw which declared the CRS cutoff of 486 on July 5, 2023.

These professions are also targeted by Provincial Nominated Programs (PNPs) which will further increase their chances of obtaining permanent Canadian residency.

10,000 Canadian open work permit for H1B visa holders not enough

There are approximately 600,000 H1B visa holders in the United States who work for 50,000 employers.

In technical occupations, more than 100,000 layoffs are expected in the United States in 2022-2023.

10,000 is expected to be far too little for the new open work permit program for U.S. H-1B visa holders.

So this number is expected to be filled within about a day of the program going live on July 16.

A new innovation stream will arrive at the end of 2023

IRCC is also working on another new innovation stream that will be finalized and launched by the end of 2023.

This new stream falls under the International Mobility Program (IMP) which will bring talented workers to Canada to help build innovative businesses.

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