Caregiver immigration: all six permanent residence pathways are marked Closed, and from outside Canada only work in Quebec can be applied for

The six pathways to permanent residence are all marked Closed

On IRCC's caregiver landing page (page last modified January 27, 2026), every pathway to permanent residence is followed by Closed.

The one item on that landing page not marked Closed is Work temporarily as a home care worker (caregiver). That is temporary work, not an immigration pathway, and the two sections further down deal with it.

Closed is the word used on the official page as it stands.

What the December 19, 2025 notice says

The newest of the six is the Home Care Worker Immigration pilots, which only opened on March 31, 2025. On December 19 of the same year IRCC issued a notice pausing intake. The official text:

Due to ongoing high demand, interest in the Home Care Worker Immigration pilots continues to exceed the spaces available, leading to longer wait times.
In order to prioritize processing of existing applications, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will pause intake until further notice. This means that the pilots' intake will not re-open in March 2026.
IRCC will continue to process applications received to date, in line with the Immigration Levels Plan.
… Any future updates on the program will be shared publicly.

First, what is paused is intake, the receiving end for new applications.

Second, the words IRCC uses are until further notice. The notice describes a pause, not an end, and it gives no date for reopening.

Third, the idea of waiting until March 2026 to look again is expressly ruled out in the notice: intake will not re-open in March 2026.

When the pilots opened in March 2025, IRCC set out in writing that there were two streams:

There will be 2 streams:
• Workers in Canada
• Applicants not working in Canada
When the pilots open, we'll only accept applications for the Workers in Canada stream.
The stream for applicants not working in Canada will open at a later date.

For the stream for applicants not working in Canada, what IRCC said was will open at a later date. Intake was later paused across the board, and by the time of the pause that stream had never opened. So describing the overseas pathway as having closed is not accurate. It never opened.

People who already applied: what is paused is the receiving end, not the application in hand

The notice contains one further sentence:

IRCC will continue to process applications received to date, in line with the Immigration Levels Plan.

Applications that reached IRCC before this pause fall outside its scope and, on that sentence, continue to be processed. An application in hand does not lapse because of this pause, and there is no need to file it again on account of it.

The notice ends with one more sentence: Any future updates on the program will be shared publicly. Whether anything changes on this pathway is a matter for IRCC's own publications.

The one still open: the LMIA-supported temporary work permit

The one item on the landing page not marked Closed is temporary work. The official page (last modified April 14, 2026) reads:

You may be able to work as a home child care provider (NOC 44100) or home support worker (NOC 44101) for an employer who has a positive labour market impact assessment (LMIA) through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). This type of work permit application for caregivers in Canada currently gets faster processing.
The information below only applies to home child care providers and home support workers.
If you want to work in another caregiver occupation, follow the normal process to work in Canada.

NOC is the official classification number assigned to an occupation; 44100 is home child care provider and 44101 is home support worker. IRCC states immediately after this that the rules on that page cover only these two occupations. Anyone who wants to work in another caregiver occupation follows the normal process to work in Canada, not this page.

The order is fixed:

Your employer will need to get a positive LMIA first. Once they have a positive LMIA, you can apply for a work permit.

LMIA stands for labour market impact assessment. The employer obtains a positive LMIA first, and only then can the work permit application be filed. Not the other way round. For the requirements on the LMIA side, see employer-driven work permits and the LMIA.

IRCC writes on this page that this type of application currently gets faster processing. There are two qualifiers in that sentence and neither can be dropped: the text reads for caregivers in Canada, which is about the in-Canada side; and currently refers to the processing arrangement for the current period. IRCC gives no number of days.

One more point to be clear about: this is a temporary work permit, not an immigration pathway. That it is open, and that the six above are not, are two unrelated things.

Who can apply and who can't: the condition that stops the most people is geographic

On the same page IRCC sets out Who can apply and Who can't apply in two columns, both of them numbered lists.

Who can apply
You can apply for a work permit for a job as a home child care provider or home support worker through the TFWP if 1 of these applies to you:
1. You're currently outside Canada and you'll be working in Quebec.
2. You're currently in Canada and 1 of these applies to you:
• You have a valid study or work permit.
• You're allowed to work in Canada without a work permit (this does not apply to business visitors).
• You plan to work in Quebec and you're also eligible to apply for a work permit from inside Canada.

Who can't apply
You can't apply for this type of work permit in these cases:
1. You're applying for a work permit from outside Canada through the TFWP and you plan to work in a province or territory other than Quebec.
2. You're applying for a work permit at a port of entry.
3. You're in Canada as a visitor.
• You may be able to apply for a LMIA-based work permit from inside Canada as a home child care provider or home support worker if you plan to work in Quebec. You must still meet the eligibility criteria.
• You may still be able to get a work permit as a visitor for another occupation. Find out if you're eligible and how to apply.

Reading the two columns together:

The difference sits between the first two rows. Someone outside Canada who plans to work as a caregiver in a province other than Quebec cannot file for this work permit. It is not that it is hard to file; IRCC puts that situation directly under Who can't apply.

A commonly heard version is that you first find, while still at home, a Canadian employer willing to obtain an LMIA, and once it comes through you can go over and work as a caregiver. That holds only where the employer is in Quebec. Where the employer is in Ontario, British Columbia or any other province and the person is outside Canada, the route through the TFWP is shut at the entrance, and no amount of cooperation from the employer or completeness of the documents changes it.

Under the item In Canada as a visitor, IRCC attaches two ways out, and the subject of both is the visitor. The first: a person on visitor status who plans to work in Quebec may still be able to apply for this LMIA-based work permit from inside Canada, provided the eligibility criteria are met. The second: a visitor cannot apply for these two caregiver occupations, but for another occupation a visitor may still be able to get a work permit. Visitors are listed in the column that cannot apply, yet the Quebec route is still left open to them, and that is what these two sentences add. IRCC uses may in both, which is a possibility, not a certainty.

Already working in Canada: extending, changing employers, status lapsing

If you're currently working in Canada and have a valid work permit, you may be eligible to
• extend your current work permit
• change jobs or employers
Your employer will need to get a positive LMIA first. …
It's important that you extend your work permit or change its conditions before it expires.

Where an extension was filed before expiry. The official text:

Even if your work permit expires, you may be able to continue working in the same job while you wait for a decision on your work permit application. This is called maintained status.
You may have maintained status if you applied for an extension while your work permit was still valid.

The words IRCC uses on this page are maintained status, which is what implied status was renamed to in 2021. It refers to this: where an extension application was filed while the work permit was still valid, the holder may be able to continue in the same job after the permit expires and before a decision comes. Both instances of may are IRCC's own; it does not hold automatically. On how this period of status is counted, see maintained status.

Where an application was filed to the gaining experience category. IRCC's subheading reads the gaining experience category of the Home Child Care Provider or Home Support Worker pilots. It refers to people who applied to that category within those two pilots, not to anyone generally hoping to accumulate work experience. Such a person may already be on maintained status, and what IRCC writes is may consider filing a separate work permit extension application: an action that can be considered, not one that has to be taken.

Where the employer is changing. The official text:

You may not need to wait until your work permit application is approved to start your new job or work for a new employer. You can request authorization to change jobs while we process your application.

While the application is being processed you can request authorization to change jobs; with that authorization, you may not need to wait for the new work permit to be approved before starting. The same precondition applies: the new employer obtains a positive LMIA first.

Where no extension was filed before expiry and status has already lapsed. What IRCC writes is that you may be able to restore your status as a worker. For the conditions, see the 90-day window to restore status after status expires.

Acting before expiry is an extension; acting only after expiry is a restoration. They are two different procedures, and the official text reads before it expires.

On one side, all six pathways to permanent residence are marked Closed. On the other, one temporary work permit is open, and it does not lead to any of the six. For someone in Canada still holding a valid work permit, what can be acted on right now is the three items above: extending, changing employers, and restoring status once it has lapsed. All three turn on the window around the expiry date, and getting the timing wrong lands in the same place: a stretch of work without authorization. To go through your own expiry date alongside where the employer's LMIA stands, consultation rates are here.

Common questions