Caregiver Program
Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced on October 31st, 2014, reforms to the former Live-In Caregiver Program. The LCP traditionally allowed Canadian employers to recruit foreign nationals to live and work in their homes to provide childcare or home support for seniors or people with disabilities. These caregivers were then able to apply for permanent residence after two years of work.
How much does the process cost?
The new Caregiver Program is details below.
End to the Live-In Requirement
The new introduced Caregiver Program will no longer require that caregivers live-in with their employers. The new program requirement is to live in the home of their employer has traditionally placed them in vulnerable situations, including uncompensated overtime, worse or poor working conditions until they are able to achieve permanent residence status.
A live-in arrangement is still possible if the employer and caregiver both agree to this arrangement. In these cases, the Labour Market Impact Assessment (“LMIA”) submitted by the employer will need to include an assessment of the living arrangements and employers will no longer be able to deduct room and board from the caregiver’s wages.
Two ways to Permanent Residence:
Two separate ways to permanent residence has introduced on November 30, 2014 for caregivers. Both ways be assessed within six months of application and will have a yearly cap of 2,750 applications each, for a total of 5,500 applications (this number does not include spouses and dependants).
CIC aims to admit a total of 17,500 caregivers in the 2014 year and another 30,000 caregivers in 2015. These numbers both include spouses and dependants of caregivers.
The two permanent residence regimes are described in detail below:
1)Caring for Children Pathway
Qualifications for the “Caring for Children” permanent residence pathway includes:
- two years of full-time work experience in Canada as a home child care provider within the past 4 years
- a minimum language requirement of “initial intermediate” by meeting Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in a designated third-party language test and
- a Canadian post-secondary education credential of at least one year, or an equivalent foreign credential supported by an Educational Credential Assessment.
2) Caring for People with High Medical Needs Pathway
Qualifications for “Caring for People with High Medical Needs” permanent residence pathway includes:
- two years of full-time work experience in Canada providing in-home care or care in a health facility to the elderly or persons with disabilities or chronic disease as (ie. a registered nurse ,a registered psychiatric nurse, a licensed practical nurse, a nurse aide, a patient service associate or a home support worker)
- demonstrating that they are licensed to practice in Canada, if applicable
- a minimum language requirement of “intermediate” by meeting Canadian Language Benchmark 7 in a designated third-party language test, if applying as a registered nurse or registered psychiatric nurse
- a minimum language requirement of “initial intermediate” by meeting Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in a designated third-party language test, if applying in any other qualifying occupation and
- a Canadian post-secondary education credential of at least one year, or an equivalent foreign credential supported by an Educational Credential Assessment.
Stay tuned with CPRP for further updates. Additional information will be provided on the pathways to permanent residence for caregivers, as well as for employers on how these new changes will affect caregiver Labour Market Impact Assessment applications.
Contact CPRP today to see how we can help you in your case.