Citizenship And Immigration Canada Issues New Guidelines On The Assessment Of Certain Specialized Knowledge Intra-Company Transferee Work Permit Applications

Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) allows for the transfer of Executives, Senior Managers and Specialized Knowledge workers from a foreign entity to a related affiliate, branch, parent or subsidiary in Canada. The Intra-Company Transferee (ICT) exemption from the general requirement to obtain a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) provides one of the quickest and most convenient methods for certain categories of foreign business persons to work in Canada.

Recently, Citizenship and Immigration Canada issued expanded guidelines that would restrict the availability of this exemption, making it more difficult for multi-national employers to transfer employees to Canada from abroad. On June 9, 2014, Citizenship and Immigration Canada  (CIC) issued Operational Bulletin 575 entitled "Expanded Guidelines for Officers Assessing Work Permit Applications for Intra-Company Transferees with Specialized Knowledge" (OB 575)