Some Canadian immigrants lose their employment status while their applications are pending

In Canada, migrants are having to wait longer to renew documents that would allow them to continue working lawfully as efforts to preserve legal status are hampered by expanding backlogs and evolving regulations, according to statistics and interviews gathered by Reuters.

In a nation that has long taken pride in its universal health care system, losing status precludes those who have paid taxes from working or accessing healthcare and other services.

Canada is attempting to lower its migrant population since it has been accused of overtaxing its services, which is a dramatic shift following years of expansion. In order to reach its goals, it is depending on voluntary departures.

A query concerning those who lose status due to lengthy wait times was not answered by the deadline, but Canada’s immigration service stated that persons can work while their application is being reviewed.

Those who obtain a labor market impact assessment within 60 days after requesting to renew their work permit are permitted to continue working, according to the immigration department’s website.

Four families who were denied work permits due to waiting for far longer than that were interviewed by Reuters. How many people are in this situation is unknown.

Reuters obtained data from Canada’s employment department that shows the labor market impact assessment processing time for temporary workers hoping to become permanent residents in Canada has been rising since at least fall 2022 and nearly tripled from 58 business days in September 2023 to 165 business days in March 2025.

The agency did not disclose the amount of applications pending by month, but it did say that the longer wait times are partly caused by an increase in applications. According to experts and attorneys, the backlog may be increasing as a result of more applications and changing regulations.

According to figures from Canada’s immigration department, both the quantity of work permit applications coming in and the percentage of those that are denied have increased since last year.

The department was still processing labor market impact assessment applications from the previous year as of April 1, 2025, according to an email obtained by Reuters from Service Canada, which handles these applications.

“We have a backlog of over a year at this point. According to immigration consultant Kanwar Sierah, this is the first time we have seen a delay of this magnitude.

“Unscrupulous actors” are giving people improper advice, such as pushing them to seek for asylum when they may not have a good case, and some are working under the table for exploitative businesses, according to Sierah, who also stated that some are losing their immigration status.

People who are lawfully in Canada but are unable to support themselves were interviewed by Reuters, as were migrants who have returned to their home countries.

The difficulty in obtaining services without status has contributed to the rarity of living without documentation in Canada. In Canada, where there are about 40 million people, estimates place the number of unauthorized people in the hundreds of thousands.

The Liberal government in Canada backtracked on its promise to grant status to illegal individuals, stating that it would only grant it to those employed in specific industries.

Ahead of the April 28 election, Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is leading surveys, pledges to temporarily limit immigration.

“Shattering” is a dream.

Devi Acharya began miscarrying in early March, but she was too afraid to go to the hospital because she couldn’t afford another medical cost.

The infant might have been rescued if I had received medical help sooner.

The same reason Acharya is unable to work is that she lacks health insurance; if she wants medical attention, she may be faced with a high charge because her work permit expired while she was awaiting a labor market impact assessment.

In order to recruit non-citizens temporarily in Canada, most firms must submit a labor market impact assessment stating that the post cannot be filled by a local resident, according to Canada’s temporary foreign worker program.

The demand for the employment department’s temporary foreign worker program fluctuates, according to a representative, who also stated that it received a large number of applications before last fall and anticipates processing times to improve over the next six months.

With her husband and son, Acharya traveled from India to Canada in October 2022 to work as a housekeeper at the Prince Rupert’s Highliner Hotel in British Columbia.

The work was enjoyable to her. A house was purchased by her and her spouse.

“In September, they submitted applications for new labor market impact assessments,” her immigration consultant told Reuters. There has been no reply to them. The work permits they had expired. They can’t work, yet they’re lawfully in Canada. At the age of five, Navdev is unable to attend school.

“We were dreaming of relocating to Canada two years ago, and now it’s shattering,” she remarked.