Canada offers 2-yr work permits to PR pilot applicants: What you must know

IRCC says eligible PR applicants under community pilots may get LMIA-exempt work permits valid for up to two years, with conditions

Planning to work in Canada under a community immigration pilot? The country’s immigration department on Tuesday clarified the rules around the issuance of special work permits to permanent residence applicants under the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) and Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP), which were launched in 2025.

 

Foreign nationals who have submitted a complete application for permanent residence under the FCIP or RCIP may be eligible for a work permit that can be issued for up to two years.

 

To qualify for this work permit, an RCIP or FCIP applicant must have an eligible offer of employment and their application for permanent residence must have passed the completeness check, according to the instructions published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on its website on February 24.

 

Work permits issued in this way are exempt from the requirement for a labour market impact assessment (LMIA).

 

Their family members included on their application for permanent residence may also be eligible for LMIA-exempt work permits.

 

What immigrants in Canada must know

 

IRCC has set out conditions for foreign nationals already in Canada or planning to move under these pilots.

 

The instructions require officers to consider the following pieces of evidence when processing the foreign national’s work permit application:

 

> The acknowledgement of receipt (AOR) for the permanent residence application

> The applicant’s recommendation from the relevant designated economic development organisation

> An LMIA-exempt offer of employment submitted through IRCC’s Employer Portal

> Evidence that the applicant is qualified for the job

 

IRCC also noted that the information on the offer of employment for the work permit application must match the employment information provided in the permanent residence application.

 

Online filing encouraged under C15

 

According to the instructions, officials are to encourage all applicants for this work permit to apply online under the administrative code C15, even though visa-exempt foreign nationals are allowed to submit such applications at the port of entry.

 

Because the C15 work permit is restricted to the employer and job offer linked to the permanent residence application, RCIP and FCIP applicants are not eligible for bridging open work permits (BOWPs).

 

If the initial work permit expires before permanent residence is granted, applicants may apply to extend the same employer-specific permit.

 

Rules for accompanying family members

 

Work permits issued to accompanying family members are open work permits, subject to a restriction tied to the principal applicant’s region of employment. These are issued under administrative code C17.

 

LMIA-exempt work permits issued under Canada’s International Mobility Program (IMP) are generally faster and less complex to obtain than LMIA-based permits issued through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

 

How the RCIP and FCIP pathways work

 

The RCIP and FCIP are employer-driven federal immigration pilot programmes that allow eligible foreign nationals to apply directly to IRCC for permanent residence.

 

To qualify, a foreign national must have:

 

> A qualifying job offer from a designated employer in a participating region

> Approval of both the employer and job offer by the local economic development organisation

> Fulfilment of other programme requirements

 

The pilots were launched in 2025 and are scheduled to run until 2030.

 

Validity of community recommendation forms

 

The instructions to officers also clarify that the community recommendation form submitted with the permanent residence application — IMM 0247 or IMM 0251 — does not need to be valid at the time of the work permit application, provided it has not been revoked.