The Canadian Government has announced that its new enhanced pilot programs will involve giving out free visa sponsorship to foreign caregivers who will come into the country to work.
The best part is, this Visa is a Permanent Residence (PR) Visa, and it will be issued upon arrival.
This announcement was made by Honourable Marc Miller — the country’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship on the 3rd of June, 2024 in Toronto.
During the announcement, he stressed the importance of caregivers and the significant role they play in ensuring the ever-growing home care needs of the nation’s citizens are met.
These pilot programs are aimed at bringing in more people who can provide care and support to Canadian citizens who need full or partial care and support.
Through this program, foreign caregivers can easily find temporary and permanent caregiving jobs in Canada with proper employers, which will also guarantee them permanent resident status.
However, every foreigner cannot just apply. The requirements for applying for this program include:
- Canadian High School Diploma Equivalent: First, for applicants to be eligible, they must have a credential that is equivalent to Canada’s high school diploma.
For those living in a West African country like Nigeria or Ghana, their credential that is equivalent to a Canadian high school diploma is either a WAEC or NECO certificate.
- Basic Level 4 Proficiency In Canadian Benchmark Languages: Next, applicants need to at least be able to communicate properly in Canadian Benchmark Languages (CBL) which are English and French or ielts General and all you need is a band 4.
- A Job Offer from a Care Home: Before any foreign caregiver will be eligible to apply for this pilot program, they will need to get a job offer from a care home, whether it is a private home that needs their loved one taken care of or from a caregiving organization.
- Recent And Relevant Experience In Caregiving: The Canadian government stated in its announcement that to be eligible for this program, applicants need to have relevant and recent experience and basic knowledge of caregiving so that they can be able to get straight to work when they get to their country. Not those that will need to undergo training from scratch when they get there.
Although giving care and support to your sick grandparent or disabled sibling is also caregiving, it is not official and relevant, and won’t be considered.
For now, these are the only requirements that have been released, but before the official launch of the program, more information will be released on how to be fully eligible and how to apply.
So, foreign caregivers who are willing to apply for this program must bear in mind that this is a 2024 to 2026 program and it is open to just 15,000 caregivers, so they need to be proactive in their preparations and do well to ensure they tick the boxes of the requirements that have been released so far while waiting for the rest.
And for those who are interested in this opportunity but aren’t caregivers yet, the best way to go about it is to enroll in a caregiving program right away with a registered training provider like Clarion College and start working towards becoming certified in the field and getting the needed experience and requirements for this pilot program.