No bridging permits for applicants to new immigration pathway

Canada’s new immigration pathway was supposed to be a recognition of migrant workers who had worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Little did some applicants know they would need to stop working to make it through the process.

Typically, under regular, skilled immigration programs, applicants whose work permits expire while their applications are being processed can get a bridging permit, to allow them to keep working while the paperwork is done.

The bridging open work permit — or BOWP — ensures their employment is not disrupted.

But it turns out that’s not the case with the new pathway, a special program launched in May to grant permanent residence to 90,000 migrant workers and international graduates.

The immigration department confirmed to the Star that no bridging work permits will be issued to new pathway applicants.

“This initiative was designed as a one-time pathway recognizing the incredibly unique circumstances of the ongoing pandemic,” said a department spokesperson.

“As it has not been designed as a traditional permanent economic program, individuals are not eligible for a BOWP.”

That poses a major challenge to people such as Ghazal Khatamsazan.

Khatamsazan applied to the new pathway under the nonhealth worker stream last month. The British woman came to Canada in June 2019 under a two-year working holiday work permit. Last week, she was laid off from her job at a high-end jewelry store downtown as a sales associate, when her work permit expired.

“I was over the moon when I found out I qualified for the new pathway, but now I’m lost, frustrated and disappointed,” says the 32-year-old.

Khatamsazan’s husband, Pooria Gouran, is a dependant in her application and is also out of status and has stopped working.

“We are sitting at home, living off the money we’ve saved for the settlement fund we need to show the government when we get our permanent residence.”

She and her husband can secure a visitor permit to stay here legally. But that won’t allow them to work.

The new immigration pathway offered a total of 90,000 spots: 20,000 for temporary foreign workers in health care; 30,000 for those in other selected essential occupations; and 40,000 for international students who have graduated from a Canadian institution.

Legal experts said the policy of not offering bridging permits is only going to affect applicants in the migrant worker streams, because Ottawa is already extending international graduates’ expiring work permits for up to 18 months.

“All work permits have an expiry date. A lot of the applicants in the pathway pool are going to be stuck,” said Toronto immigration consultant Roya Golesorkhi, who is helping Khatamsazan.

To qualify for the new pathway, a migrant worker has to be legally employed and have accumulated at least one year of work experience in Canada in one of the 135 eligible occupations at the time of application. They must also have valid status in the country at the moment their application is approved and the permanent residence is conferred.

“The idea of the new pathway was to accept immigrants who are (legally) in Canada and are already employed,” Golesorkhi said. “But now they have to stop working. You can’t do that to people.”

Affected applicants can try to apply for new work permits. However, with a few exceptions, to obtain a work permit here, migrant workers need a job offer approved by Employment and Social Development Canada to show they are not taking employment away from qualified Canadians.

As of Friday, the immigration department had received more than 1,970 and 14,970 applications under the health worker and non-health worker streams respectively.

The cap for the international graduate stream was met within 26 hours after applications opened on May 6.