Edmonton Economic Development Corporation

The Alberta employers who are unable to fill occupations with Canadian citizens or permanent residents may decide to attract and retain foreign workers by applying for the AINP. Currently, the AINP has several streams and categories: Skilled workers  International graduates   Semi-skilled workers Food and beverage processing industry Hotel and lodging industry Manufacturing industry Trucking industry Foodservices industry (pilot) Self-employed farmers  Strategic Recruitment Stream

Regulated professions Below is a complete list of regulated professions in Alberta. There are links to the professional regulatory organizations for each, where you'll find more information about accreditation. Your occupation might be called something different in Canada than it is in your country of origin. You can use the Working in Canada tool to find the job description that most closely matches the occupation for which you are trained. For some occupations a guide to the accreditation process is available. More guides will be added as they are created.

Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is a national strategy meant to help skilled workers and entrepreneurs from other countries gain permanent resident status in Canada more quickly.

program is run individually in each province. Collectively, the PNP aims to find permanent employment for immigrants in their area of expertise. However, each province has slightly different application criteria.

Alberta's version puts an emphasis on skilled workers who have offers of permanent, full-time jobs; recent foreign graduates of Canadian post-secondary institutions and semi-skilled workers in food and beverage processing, the hotel and lodging industry, manufacturing and long-haul trucking. There are also categories for tradespeople, engineers, designers or drafters with Alberta work experience, and farmers who want to set up or buy a farming business.

One way to improve this outcome would be to expand the provincial nominee program, Alexander said, as the provincial programs result in better employment numbers.

more weight on the language skills of immigrants and improving settlement services.

Australia and Canada faced similar challenges in reaping the benefits of newcomers, but experts say today's immigrants to the country Down Under are in faster, employed better and more quickly, and are making more money than those coming into Canada.

within just two years of bringing in major changes in 1999, Australia saw an "immediate surge of outcomes" for immigrants, and the immigration-related economic benefits for the country.

Canada's backlog of nearly 1 million applicants is another challenge, and, today, successful economic migrants to Australia are admitted within three months if they apply off-shore, and three weeks if they are already in Australia

Decisions about who came to Australia would be increasingly left to employers although, conversely, Australia would also be competing for the most highly skilled migrants. Senator Evans said ”In Australia we’ve got this sense of, ‘Well, we’re the lucky country’ and … people will naturally come here, and that’s still true to an extent. But other countries … are increasingly marketing themselves too.”

Permanent migration is now dominated by the skill stream, 70 per cent, compared to the family-reunion stream.

”We haven’t planned out our cities very well because we have underestimated growth,”

Recommendation #1: Eliminate the Low Skill Pilot Project for temporary foreign workers.

increase the pool of workers to fill low-skilled jobs on an ongoing basis, employers should make these jobs more attractive to people already in Canada, whether immigrants or Canadian born. In addition, Citizenship and Immigration Canada should increase family class and refugee admissions to provide more labour force participants who, as permanent residents, have rights and access to services to prevent exploitation. Increasing points in the Federal Skilled Worker Program for demand occupations, the trades, and validated job offers will also broaden the pool of workers

Recommendation #2: Monitor recruitment and working conditions of temporary foreign workers.

the skilled trades deficit – an acute shortage of electricians, welders, pipefitters, plumbers and carpenters.

Between 2011-19, according to the Construction Sector Council, 208,000 skilled tradespeople will retire – with only 111,000 new recruits entering the trades. If you think you have trouble finding an electrician today, wait five years.

Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates that about 800,000 incremental jobs, many of which are skilled trades, will need to be filled in the oil sands alone over the next 20 years; and that capital investment in the oil sands will exceed $250-billion over that time frame.

Like the Alberta-B.C. delegation, the Saskatchewan group, which includes 27 employers, has a big presence at the Working Abroad job fair in Dublin this weekend, giving Canadian exhibitors close to 40 per cent of the booths.

Saskatchewan government has set up a website that greets potential Irish emigrants with the message “Welcome to your future” and hundreds of job postings. The province is even sending immigration officials to help applicants speed the process of moving to Saskatchewan, while Mr. Wall will greet job seekers on Saturday.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada reports 3,729 temporary foreign workers entered the country from Ireland in 2010 – up 25.7 per cent from the year before

Minister Jason Kenney said he plans to build a faster, more flexible, just-in-time immigration regime. He’s also going to redesign the points system, on which immigrants are judged, to emphasize language ability and youth.

he wants to create a new economic stream for trades people, who currently don’t qualify under Canada’s education-focused federal skilled worker program

employers will soon be able to hand-pick prospective immigrants and send them to the front of the line for assessment

Many TFWs will be exempt from the 4 year time cap, including: TFWs in managerial (NOC 0) or professional occupations (NOC A). Therefore, LMO-based work permit holders in occupations at these two NOC skill levels are not affected by the 4 year time cap. TFWs who are exempt from the Labour Market Opinion process. This includes two key work permit categories used by many Canadian employers: (1) the intra-company transferee work permit category; and (2) work permits issued under international agreements (such as NAFTA, CCFTA, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program etc.)

Canada has agreed to the inclusion of the following service sectors in the GATS agreement: business services, communication services, construction services, distribution services, environmental services, financial services, tourism and travel related services and transport services.

A GATS professional is one who seeks to engage, as part of a services contract, in an activity at a professional level, provided that the person possesses the necessary credentials and qualifications. There are nine accepted professions under GATS:

• engineers; • agrologists; • architects; • forestry professionals; • geomatics professionals; • land surveyors; • legal consultants; • urban planners; and • senior computer specialists.

New cap on Canada work permits for temporary foreign workers comes into effect on April 1 2 EmailShare  2EmailShareSome temporary foreign workers’ time in Canada limited New changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program are designed to protect temporary foreign workers but will also limit their time in Canada: temporary foreign workers who have worked in Canada for four years will not be allowed to work in Canada until another four-year period has passed. Among the new rules, employers who are unable to provide proper wages or working conditions will receive a two-year ban on hiring temporary foreign workers, and their names will be made public. The history of the employer will be looked at much more closely, ensuring that they have a history of following employment and Temporary Foreign Worker Program laws. Another change is that the government will be looking much more closely at the genuineness of the job offer. Employers will be required to sign a contract with their employees that covers wages, conditions and duties involved with the job, and all recruiting costs, airfare and medical coverage must be handled by the employer. Some exemptions for four-year limit The limit will not apply to seasonal farm workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. The changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program will come into effect on April 1.

Processing Times IN DAYS

Beijing - China 7

Chandigarh - India 35

f you are currently working in Canada: your current employer must have made an offer to give you a permanent job if you are accepted as a federal skilled worker, and your temporary work permit must be valid both when you apply for a permanent resident visa and when the visa is issued.

In all other cases: You must not be working in Canada and you either do not have a valid work permit or you have a work permit, but your circumstances are different from those described in the first example.

and you meet all required Canadian licensing or regulatory standards associated with the job

2. How long does Confirmation take?   The duration of the Confirmation process depends on a number of factors, including the specific location at which the offer is being made, and the circumstances of the case itself. There are several Service Canada offices throughout Canada, and the location will affect processing delays. On average, delays for such cases are 30 to 60 days.   Additional delays can be incurred in the case that the Canadian employer is not capable of demonstrating that a significant effort to hire a Canadian has taken place. In such a case, it may be necessary to spend time engaging in an advertising effort prior to being able to conclude the confirmation application.

Once a LMO is obtained, how long does it take to get a work permit? Once a LMO is issued, a foreign worker must obtain a work permit before commencing work. Foreign workers who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents can typically apply for a work permit at a Canadian border crossing or international airport upon arrival. Similarly, citizens of most western European countries, most Caribbean countries, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and other countries whose nationals do not require visas to visit Canada, can apply at ports of entry. However, if the individual is a citizen of a country whose nationals require visas to simply visit Canada, the employee will first have to obtain the visa. Depending on the individual’s country of citizenship or residence, delays can range from a matter of days to months.