On September 18th, the Minister of Immigration announced that they will be restricting access to spousal open work permits this fall. The date was not specified, and the details have not yet been announced, so it’s best to hurry up and apply under the current rules before the announcement is finally made!
For temporary foreign workers, spousal open work permits will be restricted to workers in management or professional occupations or in sectors with labour shortages. So if your spouse has a work permit for an eligible job that is not in a management or professional occupation, and if you have not yet applied for an open work permit, the clock is ticking!
If your spouse’s work permit is expiring in the next 6 months, and you already have an open work permit, your spouse should think about applying for a new work permit now, so that you can apply for your open work permit before the changes happen. Otherwise you may not be able to apply for a new open work permit next year.
If your spouse or common-law partner will be a student, as of April 2024 you are only eligible for an open work permit if your spouse is:
- Studying in a master’s or doctoral degree program
- Participating in an eligible pilot program, such as the Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot
- Studying in a professional degree program at a university (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Optometry, Veterinary Science, Law, Engineering, Nursing and Education).
Right now, any Master’s degree program is eligible, but soon it will be restricted to programs of 16 months or longer only. So if your spouse was just accepted to a shorter program, you should act now to get your open work permit before it is too late.
Please contact us now to talk about your options. Thank you and good luck!