The federal government is looking to shut the door on a lucrative black market for temporary work permits.
What happened: Ottawa will stop giving out the extra points that go towards permanent residency applicants who get jobs through Canada’s temporary foreign worker program. The move is meant to curb widespread fraud within a key stream of the immigration system.
- The temporary work permits were worth up to 200 extra points in a system that scores applicants out of 1,200 that factors in education, age, and work experience.
- Investigations have shown that foreigners looking for an easier path to citizenship have been charged as much as $180,000 by bad actors and employers for these permits.
Why it matters: With the feds lowering its immigration targets and cracking down on international students, the market for these work permits was expected to get even hotter. Closing this loophole should, in theory, cool the demand for the permits.
Big picture: Ottawa’s plan to slow population growth hinges on getting 2.4 million non-permanent residents to leave in the next two years. Making it more difficult to land permanent residency with policies like this appears to be a big part of that effort.—LA