Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that new immigration pilots for home care workers will open on March 31, 2025. These new pilots are referred to collectively by IRCC as Canada’s “Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots”.
These pilot programs will replace the previous permanent residence (PR) pathways for caregivers, which have expired.
Home care workers who are eligible will be able to receive permanent residence upon arrival through these new pathways.
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Who is eligible through these new pathways?
To be eligible for these new enhanced care worker pilots, foreign nationals must
- Have official language ability equivalent to a level 4 based on the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) scale;
- Hold the equivalent of a Canadian high school diploma;
- Have recent and relevant work experience*; and
- Receive an offer of full-time employment for a home care job.
*As of June 16, 2024, candidates for previous home care worker immigration programs only required 6 months of eligible experience to qualify for permanent residence.
IRCC has yet to announce further details and eligibility requirements.
Background
IRCC first announced its intention to open new immigration pilots for home care workers on June 3, 2024. At the time, few details were given apart from the eligibility criteria.
Shortly afterward, on June 17, 2024, the immigration department closed the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot. The new Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots will replace the previous caregiver immigration pathways.
The closure of the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot also marked a temporary pause in specialized immigration pilots for caregivers. Previous immigration pathways for caregivers included
- The Live-in Caregiver Program (closed in 2014);
- The Caring for Children Pilot (closed 2019);
- The Caring for People with High Medical Needs Pilot (closed 2019);
- The Interim Pathway For Caregivers Program (closed 2019); and
- The Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot (closed 2024).
In its 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, IRCC has allocated a total of 10,920 new immigrant admissions spots through “Federal Economic Pilots,” under which the new Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots will fall. While the allocation for this pilot is not currently known, IRCC will have to divide these 10,920 new immigration admissions for 2025 between
- The new caregiver pilots;
- The Agri-Food Pilot;
- Community Immigration Pilots; and
- The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot.
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