Canada’s Agri-Food Immigration Pilot extended till 2025

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has announced that the Agri-Food Immigration Pilot has been extended till May 2025.? Further, it has eliminated yearly occupational ceilings for participants of the program.

The announcement was made by Sean Fraser the Immigration Minister of Canada. The AFIP was launched to facilitate experienced overseas workers in the agriculture and food sectors to transition to Canada PR Visa.? Applicants are required to fulfill the Canada PR Visa eligibility .

IRCC has said that eliminating the yearly cap will offer the chance for more qualified candidates to file applications. By the end of 2023, extra changes will be implemented to the program in multiple stages:

• Increasing access to Work Permit for AFIP participants’ family members irrespective of the skill level of the candidate’s job
• Offering unions the capability to vow for the work experience of the candidates as an alternative option to reference letters from employers
• Applicants staying in Canada will be offered the option to either fulfill the job offer criterion inclusive of the median wage requirement for the offer or fulfill the education criterion inclusive of ECA report verification
• Accepting work experience acquired under the Open Work Permit for vulnerable workers. It is to offer more workers the chance to qualify.

Agri-Food Immigration Pilot

Canada launched the AFIP in 2020 with the aim of declining the scarcity of workers in livestock-raising, mushroom and greenhouse production, and meat processing industries. AFIP is a partnership between ESDC - Social Development and Employment Canada and Agri-food and Agriculture Canada.

The Agri-Food and Agriculture industry is a major constituent of the economy of Canada contributing $110 Billion plus annually to the nation’s GDP - Gross Domestic Product.

The objective of the AFIP is to offer qualified Temporary Foreign Workers or TFWs in the sector the pathway for Canada PR Visa.

Upon its launch, IRCC had allocated 2,750 Canada PR Visas annually to the program and primary applicants could include their family members as well. The pilot was scheduled to expire on 14 May 2023.

The status of Permanent Resident allows overseas workers to access more social programs that they make payments to via taxes like Canadian Pension Plan and Employment Insurance. AFIP will assist more overseas workers in planning settlement for the long-term in Canada instead of a temporary sting with scant or nil hopes of Permanent Residence status.

The data for job vacancies in Canada for February 2023 revealed that 243,000 workers in Canada were employed in the Forestry, Fishing, Hunting, and Agriculture sector. Further, there were 14,000 plus job vacancies. The pandemic hard-hit the industry and resulted in the closures of plants, fluctuations in the market, and delays in the supply chain.

Occupations Eligible for the Program

The industries and occupations qualified for the AIFP include:

• Manufacturing Meat product
• Industrial Butchers
• Retail Butchers
• Specialized Livestock Workers and Farm Supervisors
• Food processing laborers
• Orangery, Production in Floriculture and Nursery, inclusive of the Production of Mushroom
• Harvesting manual workers
• General Farm Staff
• Animal Production except for Aquaculture

Candidate Eligibility for AIFP

Aspiring candidates seeking to apply for the program are also required to full the extra criteria for eligibility:

• Non-seasonal, full-time, 12 months of work experience in Canada in any of the qualified occupations under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
• Canadian Language Benchmark/CLB Level 4 in French or English language
• The overseas equivalent of education at the High School level or higher
• Non-seasonal, full-time job offer in Canada indeterminate in nature excluding Quebec on par or higher than the existing wage rate

Meat Processing Sector

The employers in the Meat Processing industry seeking to utilize the pilot will be offered a 2-year LMIA - Labor Market Impact Assessment. The employer has to provide a plan that highlights the strategy for supporting the overseas worker in receiving the Canada PR Visa .

Unionized Meat processors need s support letter from their union while meat processors who are non-unionized are required to fulfill extra criteria. The aim is to safeguard immigrant workers and the labor market.

Application Process for Agri-Food Immigration Pilot

Candidates who fulfill the eligibility criteria are required to file an application for a Canada PR visa directly with the IRCC.

For submitting the application, they are required to fill out an extensive application according to the guidelines and forms for the application specified on the website of AFIP. They have to offer evidence in the form of documents for demonstrating that they fulfill the eligibility criteria for the program.

Subsequent to finishing the application, candidates have to file it in hard copy via post to the address specified on the AFIP website. The removal of the cap means more applicants can file applications.

If you are planning to move to Canada as a skilled overseas worker, contact Nationwide Visas the Best Canada Immigration Consultants in Hyderabad .