Technology workers are high in demand not only in Canada, but around the world. Canada recognizes this, and has a number of programs to assist these workers come to Canada to work, and later to immigrate to Canada.

Besides International Agreements such as NAFTA, the Canada Chile Free Trade Agreement, and the Business Visitor provisions under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, there are a few other ways to bring Technology workers in. These include:

Facilitated Processing for Information Technology Workers

The Software Human Resource Council, working with Human Resources Development Canada, came up with a number of specific kinds of skill sets for software workers that were in severe shortage in Canada. If any company wants to hire a foreign worker with those skill sets, at prevailing Canadian wages, Canada Immigration would not require HRDC to validate the position, because they knew that there was a shortage of these skills.

This program is available for the following kinds of software workers:

• Senior Animation Effects Editor,
• Multimedia Software Designer,
• Embedded Systems Software Designer,
• MIS Software Designer,
• Software Products Developer,
• Telecommunications Software Designer, and
• Software Developer - Services.

More about this program can be found at www.shrc.ca/foreign/index.html.

HRDC Validation

Some foreign workers may not meet all of the requirements of the above program, and in those cases, the employer may need to apply to HRDC to validate the position. In the past, many IT positions were easily approved because of the known shortage of technology workers in Canada. Because of substantial layoffs and downsizing in technology firms, this is no longer a given. However, assuming that you have a skill set that is in demand in Canada, HRDC is often a good avenue to pursue.

Provincial Nominees

Many provinces have “Provincial Nominee” programs to attract skilled technology workers by allowing them to “fast track” for Permanent Resident status in 6 months or less. In the past 2 years, B.C. has used its Provincial Nominee Program to recruit IT workers, Aerospace workers, and others.

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