Canadian employers hiring more tech talent
With a number of permanent residency and work permit options in place, Canadian employers are keen to hire and retain more foreign tech talent to fulfill labour shortages.
Keeping in mind the shortage of qualified and skilled workers across Canada, the Council of Canadian Innovators‘ recently demanded for the federal government of Canada to pilot a new visa program to allow tech workers to migrate to Canada without a prior job offer in hand.
Realizing the importance of the tech sector for consistent growth of Canadian economy, both federal and provincial governments offer a wide range of programs to help employers recruit and retain tech talent apart from Express Entry and PNPs, including:
Global Talent Stream
It processes 80% of complete applications in two weeks or even less. Most of the Canadian employers use it to welcome foreign workers. To qualify for this fast-track work permit program, employers must fall under following categories
- Category A: For companies with an approval from a referral partner like governmental or semi-governmental or local agencies authorized to support local economies.
- Category B: For employers looking for specific type of skilled workers whose occupations are listed on the Global Talent Occupations List, like computer engineers, information systems analysts, software engineers and designers, etc.
CUSMA
Under Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement there are various provisions that facilitate talent mobility among all the three countries. There are two key categories for tech workers:
- Professionals
- Intra-Company Transfers (ICT)
CUSMA also identifies 63 occupations under the Professionals category, which includes Computer systems analysts among other occupations.
Intra-Company Transfer (Non-CUSMA)
This category allows international companies to transfer qualified employees temporarily to Canada to improve management effectiveness, expand Canadian exports, and enhance competitiveness in international markets.
