Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that new immigration pilots for home care workers will begin on March 31, 2025. These new “Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots” will replace the previous permanent residence pathways for caregivers, which have now expired.
Eligible home care workers will be able to apply for permanent residence upon arrival through these updated pathways.
Eligibility Requirements:
To qualify for these new home care worker pilots, foreign nationals must:
- Have language skills equivalent to Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 4;
- Possess an equivalent of a Canadian high school diploma;
- Have recent, relevant work experience;
- Have a full-time job offer in a home care role.
It’s worth noting that, as of June 16, 2024, candidates for the previous caregiver programs only needed six months of relevant work experience to qualify for permanent residence.
IRCC has not yet released additional details or eligibility criteria.
Background Information:
To be eligible for the REDI pilot, applicants must meet the criteria for one of the OINP’s job offer streams. Specifically, they must have a valid job offer from an employer located in one of the designated regions targeted by the pilot program.
This job offer requirement is essential for applicants seeking to participate in the REDI pilot through the OINP’s job offer streams.
For all streams, applicants must:
- Plan to live in Ontario; and
- Hold the necessary license or authorization to work in their occupation if it is regulated.
Background
IRCC first shared plans to launch new immigration pilots for home care workers on June 3, 2024, though specific details were limited at the time. Soon after, on June 17, 2024, IRCC closed the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and the Home Support Worker Pilot. The new Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots will replace these older programs.
The closure of these pilots also temporarily halted specialized immigration pathways for caregivers. Some of the previous programs included:
- The Live-in Caregiver Program (ended in 2014);
- The Caring for Children Pilot (ended in 2019);
- The Caring for People with High Medical Needs Pilot (ended in 2019);
- The Interim Pathway for Caregivers Program (ended in 2019);
- The Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot (ended in 2024).
As part of its 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, IRCC has set aside 10,920 new immigrant spots for “Federal Economic Pilots,” which includes the new home care worker programs. While the exact number of spots allocated to this particular pilot is still unclear, IRCC will distribute the 10,920 spots across several initiatives, including:
- The new caregiver pilots;
- The Agri-Food Pilot;
- Community Immigration Pilots;
- The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot.
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