Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced a temporary public policy on September 9, 2026 that allows foreign nationals holding a valid work permit to enrol in a course of six months or less without applying for a study permit, even if the course ends after the period of stay authorized on their first entry to Canada. Signed by Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Lena Metlege Diab on August 5, the policy took effect on September 4, runs until December 31, 2027, and may be revoked at any time. It revives a measure of the same name introduced in June 2023 that expired on June 27 of this year, but with a narrower reach: the earlier policy let eligible workers, including those on maintained status, study programs of any length without a study permit, whereas the new one requires applicants to hold a valid work permit and waives only the requirement that a course be completed within the initial authorized period of stay. As of June 30, 2026, roughly 1.55 million foreign nationals in Canada held a work permit only, and about 630,000 held a study permit. IRCC says the measure is intended to help workers already in the country, such as tradespeople, nurses and laboratory technicians, upgrade their skills and credentials to fill gaps in critical sectors, and that it does not change the government's overall target of reducing temporary residents to less than 5 percent of the population.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) revised its officer instructions on August 21, 2026 to extend the deadline for submitting a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) under concurrent processing of inland work permit applications from 60 calendar days to 90 calendar days, giving foreign workers in Canada an additional 30 days of buffer when an employer's LMIA has not yet been decided and their status is at risk of lapsing. The change was not accompanied by a news release or policy announcement, and surfaced only through a revised update date on the officer guidance page titled "Labour Market Impact Assessment Review – Temporary Foreign Worker Program". The immediate backdrop is a sustained increase in Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) processing times: the high-wage stream rose from 46 business days in November 2025 to 88 business days in July 2026, while the low-wage stream rose from 44 business days to 73. Critically, ESDC reports processing times in business days while IRCC counts the 90 days in calendar days, and 90 calendar days converts to roughly 64 business days — still well short of the current high-wage average. Concurrent processing is also expressly framed in the guidance as an arrangement assessed on an exceptional basis rather than an entitlement available to every inland applicant, and applicants must meet four preconditions, including holding a work permit that expires in two weeks or less.

Nova Scotia announced on its immigration website on August 6, 2026 that it will begin charging application fees under the Nova Scotia Nominee Program (NSNP) on September 1, 2026, setting a flat CAD $1,000 fee for all three work streams and $2,000 for the entrepreneur streams, where until now the province charged nothing at all for a provincial nomination application; the fee applies only to candidates selected from the Expression of Interest (EOI) pool for assessment on or after September 1, leaving anyone who received a selection notice on or before August 31 unaffected, and work stream candidates must pay within seven calendar days of being selected while entrepreneur candidates get either 90 or 180 days depending on the pathway, with any EOI that misses the deadline closed and never assessed; the province's stated reason is that demand for nominations keeps outrunning the annual allocation Ottawa gives it — provincial open data shows the 2026 NSNP allocation at just 2,344 places, down more than 30 percent from 3,570 in 2024, while 7,942 unprocessed NSNP expressions of interest were still sitting in the pool at the end of the second quarter of 2026, roughly 3.4 times the entire year's allocation; submitting an EOI remains free, and the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) still carries no provincial application fee.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has announced that the federal government has granted the Northwest Territories Nominee Program an additional 103 nomination spaces for 2026, increasing the NTNP's annual allocation from 197 to 300. Following the increase, the Employer-Driven Stream will hold an additional Expression of Interest draw on August 26. Candidates who wish to be considered in that round must submit their EOI profiles by August 24. The final draw of the year remains scheduled for September 25.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published updated officer guidance on July 29, 2026 confirming that applicants for a C20 reciprocal employment work permit must already be employed by the company abroad at the time they apply, and that arrangements in which the foreign national only begins working for the company after arriving in Canada no longer qualify for an exemption from the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), on the reasoning that such arrangements cannot deliver the exchange of knowledge and experience the category is built around; at the same time the new guidance deletes the "neutral labour market impact" language that ran through the previous version and clarifies that reciprocity need not run between Canada and one specific other country, allowing a multinational to satisfy the test by showing it creates comparable opportunities for Canadians across its offices worldwide. The change lands against a federal push to shrink the temporary resident population: work permit holders under the International Mobility Program (IMP) grew by more than 153% between 2019 and 2025, from roughly 500,000 to over 1.23 million, while the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan cuts annual temporary resident arrivals to 385,000, about 43% below the 673,650 target for 2025, with the IMP work permit target compressed from 285,750 to 170,000. For employers who cannot use C20 or another IMP exemption, the only alternative is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and an LMIA, where as of June 2026 processing times had climbed to 79 days for the high-wage stream and 71 days for the low-wage stream, on top of a non-refundable CAD $1,000 fee per position.

In Canada, most foreign nationals who want to work must first obtain a Work Permit, but under Section R186 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) and related public policies, certain people may work legally without one — most notably three groups: business visitors who pursue internationally focused activities without entering the Canadian labour market, digital nomads who perform remote work for a non-Canadian employer, and international students whose study permits already carry conditions authorizing work. Business visitors and digital nomads can generally enter on a visitor visa or electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) and stay up to six months at a time, while authorized students may work unlimited hours on campus, up to 24 hours per week off campus during academic terms, and unlimited hours during scheduled breaks. Notably, Canada's openness to digital nomads stems from the Tech Talent Strategy launched in 2023, and the 24-hour weekly off-campus cap is a relatively recent IRCC rule that replaced the long-standing 20-hour limit. Whatever the category, every temporary resident must be admissible and satisfy an officer of their intent to leave at the end of their authorized stay — the onus rests entirely on the applicant, and entry is never guaranteed.

Nova Scotia has launched a new initiative called "Critical Vacancies" and begun sending Notices of Interest (NOIs) to candidates in the federal Express Entry pool, with the aim of connecting qualified foreign skilled workers to local employers who have been unable to fill roles domestically. For now the initiative covers only two sectors with long-standing labour shortages — construction and healthcare — and while the province has uploaded dedicated forms for six construction occupations, it has not yet named any specific healthcare occupations. Candidates need only hold an active Express Entry profile to receive an NOI, with no requirement for Canadian or Nova Scotia work experience. Crucially, an NOI is neither an invitation to apply (ITA) for provincial nomination under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) nor an endorsement under the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP); it functions instead as a bridge between job seekers and employers, though candidates who land a job offer through this channel are typically better positioned for a subsequent federal or provincial immigration pathway — and some may even receive an ITA directly in their Express Entry account. The move aligns with the provincial nomination priorities Nova Scotia announced in April 2026, and is the latest step in an immigration system the province has been steadily reshaping since late 2025.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on May 1, 2026, updated the operational instructions issued to immigration officers, formally expanding the scope of in-Canada restoration of status: temporary residents who have lost their worker or student status may now apply to be restored directly as visitors, instead of being effectively forced to leave Canada and re-enter as visitors as was generally the case under the previous guidance; applicants must still file within 90 days of losing status, remain in Canada while their application is processed, and immediately stop any activities that depended on the work or study authorization they no longer hold; the change comes at a moment when Canada's temporary resident population is contracting sharply — falling from roughly 3.149 million on October 1, 2024 to about 2.676 million on January 1, 2026, with more than 314,000 work permits set to expire in the first quarter of 2026 alone — and is widely viewed as a softer in-country bridge for workers and international graduates who cannot immediately secure a new work permit or a permanent residence pathway.

Canada has further expanded work permit access for family members of foreign workers employed by selected companies. As of March 23, 2026, foreign workers employed in British Columbia by Lululemon Athletica or Microsoft Vancouver can support an open work permit application for their spouse or common-law partner, without the usual restrictions based on the principal applicant’s skill level, salary, or seniority. The new measure applies to applications received on or after that date and represents a targeted exemption for companies tied to significant investment projects, even as Canada continues tightening spousal open work permit rules more broadly.

The Northwest Territories Nominee Program (NTNP) officially opened its Employer-Driven and Francophone Streams on March 9, 2026. The Employer-Driven Stream has transitioned to an Expression of Interest (EOI) selection model, with its inaugural draw scheduled for March 25, when up to 65 eligible candidates will be invited to submit full applications. The Francophone Stream will continue accepting direct applications on a first-come, first-served basis. For the 2026 cycle, the federal government has allocated 197 nomination spaces to the Northwest Territories.