If you work for a company that has a parent company, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in Canada, you may be able to secure a Canadian work permit through the Intra-Company Transfer program.
Canada’s International Mobility Program outlines provisions to enable high-skilled foreign nationals to work temporarily in Canada as intra-company transferees. If a foreign national is an employee of a multinational company in a location outside of Canada, they may be eligible to obtain an LMIA-exempt work permit to transfer to one of the company’s locations within Canada. The intra-company transferee rule applies to all countries.
With a small number of exceptions, all foreign nationals wishing to work in Canada must obtain a Canadian work permit. In most cases, in order to apply for a work permit, a foreign national must be issued a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) from a Canadian employer. The intra-company transfers stream of the International Mobility Program enables foreign nationals to obtain a work permit without an LMIA.
In order to qualify for an LMIA-exemption as an intra-company transferee, both the employee and the company have to meet several requirements.
In order to be eligible to work in Canada under the Intra-Company Transfer program, foreign workers must fall into one of three defined categories:
- Executives primarily direct the management of the enterprise, or a major component thereof, and receive only general (if any) supervision from higher level executives.
- Senior managers manage all or part of the enterprise and supervise or control the work of other managers or professional employees.
- Workers with ‘specialized knowledge’ can demonstrate specialized knowledge of the enterprise’s product or service, or an advanced level of expertise in the enterprise’s processes and procedures.
In all cases, workers being transferred to Canada must have at least one year of full-time work experience with the foreign enterprise and be coming to Canada to perform comparable work. There must be a qualifying relationship between the employer and employee in order for a work permit to be issued.
- Must be employed at a multinational company seeking entry to Canada to work at the company’s parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate.
- The enterprise in Canada must have a qualifying relationship as outlined below.
- The employee must be applying to work in Canada in a position at the executive level, senior managerial level, or in a position requiring specialized knowledge.
- Must have been employed with the company for at least 1 year (full-time) with the company within the previous 3 years.
In order to meet the definition of executive capacity, a position must meet some or all of the following criteria:
- directs the management of the organization or a major component or function of the organization.
- establishes the goals and policies of the organization, component, or function.
- exercises wide latitude in discretionary decision-making and
receives only general supervision or direction from higher level executives, the board of directors, or stockholders of the organization
In order to meet the definition of managerial capacity, a position must meet some or all of the following criteria:
- manages the organization, or a department, subdivision, function, or component of the organization.
- supervises and controls the work of other supervisory, professional, or managerial employees, or manages an essential function within the organization, or a department or subdivision of the organization.
- has the authority to hire and fire or recommend those, as well as other, personnel actions (such as promotion and leave authorization); if no other employee is directly supervised, functions at a senior level within the organization hierarchy or with respect to the function managed and exercises discretion over the day-to-day operations of the activity or function for which the employee has the authority
In order to meet the definition of specialized knowledge, a position must require both proprietary knowledge and advanced expertise. These are defined through NAFTA as the following:
- Proprietary Knowledge: “company-specific expertise related to a company’s product or services. It implies that the company has not divulged specifications that would allow other companies to duplicate the product or service.”
- Advanced Expertise: “specialized knowledge gained through significant (i.e. the longer the experience, the more likely the knowledge is indeed “specialized”) and recent (i.e. within the last 5 years) experience with the organization and used by the individual to contribute significantly to the employer’s productivity.”
- The enterprise outside of Canada and the enterprise inside of Canada must have one of the following relationships: parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate.
- The two enterprises must be doing business. This means that they are regularly and continuously engaging in the provision of goods and services. The mere presence of a location in Canada will not be sufficient to meet this requirement.
If an applicant meets the above-mentioned criteria, they are eligible to submit a work permit application for an LMIA-exempt work permit. Depending on a foreign national’s country of residence and citizenship, work permit applications may be submitted at a Canadian Port of Entry (POE), at the appropriate Visa Application Centre (VAC), and/or online.
