This week I have received letter from my prospective employer about some specifics in work permit obtaining process for IT workers. As you can see at Canada Immigration site, IT workers does not need to have job confirmation from HRSDC because for IT workers this confirmation is replaced by letter from employer with job offer and detailed description of position (with NOC code) and salary.

In response to the need of employers to fill critical shortages in the software industry, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) collaborated with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), Industry Canada and the Software Human Resource Council (SHRC) on the development of a pilot project to streamline the entry of workers whose skills are in high demand in the software industry and whose entry into the Canadian labour market would have no negative impact on Canadian job seekers and workers. Under normal circumstances, a foreign worker who wishes to work in Canada requires an employment authorization from CIC and a validated job offer from a local HRSDC office. If the HRSDC office determines that there are no Canadian citizens or permanent residents available to fill the position, the job offer to the foreign worker is validated and the worker may then apply for an employment authorization for admission to Canada.

Under the pilot project, the job-specific confirmation was replaced by a national confirmation letter which states, among other things, that certain software positions cannot be filled by Canadian citizens or permanent residents. The national confirmation letter removed the delay associated with the job-specific confirmation process.

To qualify for this simplified process, the job being offered must fit within one of specified job descriptions.

For your convenience, you can use following checklist to prepare yourself for applying for Canada Work Permit:

• Work Permit application form with three photographs
• Personal Information Form
• Use of a Representative Form [if applicable]:
• Offer of employment for job in Canada, stating:
  • duration of employment
  • nature of work to be performed
  • salary to be paid in Canada
• Letters of reference from your current and previous employers, including:
  • start and end dates of employment
  • description of nature of work performed
  • job title
• Educational documents related to your IT/ computer studies:
  • including marksheets
  • highlighting computer related courses
• CAQ if destined to Québec

If you want, you can download or read online very detailed guide about Applying for a Work Permit outside Canada by CIC Canada.

In one of my next posts I will say about Ukrainian specifics and how to write letter of reference. So, you can subscribe to RSS-feed of this site and you will get next articles directly from your RSS-reader.