As of now there are two immigration programs for caregiver operating in Canada. After the termination of interim pathway for caregivers these programs started in 2019. These two programs are Home Support Worker pilots and The Home Child Care Provider. International caregivers can now bring their close family members to Canada under these two programs and they can easily get the Permanent Residence of Canada through these programs.

These programs started taking applications from 18 June 2019 onwards after the closure of earlier pilot programs naming Caring for Children and Caring for People with High Medical Needs pilots. Caregivers were not allowed to bring their family members in those programs. Many caregivers started working under earlier programs without knowing that they cannot qualify for the PR under these programs.  Thanks to the government of Canada who introduced these flexible programs for caregivers.

As per new programs the caregivers will now get a work permit based on the job offer from an employer in Canada after meeting the selection criteria. After getting 2 years of Canadian experience the caregivers can apply for the permanent residence of Canada.

The main benefits of these two programs are as follows: 

• Under these programs the caregivers will now get occupation specific work permit instead of employer specific work permit. 

• Under these programs the caregivers can call their immediate family members with open work permit or study permit.  

• Once the caregivers get the required work experience in Canada they can easily apply for the permanent residence of Canada.

The two new pilot programs (Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker) will allow 5500 applications per years (2750 applications each for both the programs). Initially the processing time for these applications is 12 months. Six months processing time will be required to finalize the application once the caregiver submits all the documents. As these programs provides occupation specific work permit instead of employer specific work permit Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is not required.