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So, you’re contemplating applying for the Intra-Company Transfer or also known as the ICT to enter Canada with a work permit, or maybe you are already on this closed work permit inside Canada. Either you decided yourself or perhaps you are an immigration practitioner who brought your client in through this LMIA-exempt work permit program. Now how do you convert to a Canadian PR? That’s the one-million-dollar question that most people have a tough time figuring out.
This is one of the most popular LMIA-exempt work permit programs for Canada which lawyers, consultants, and agents are promoting all the time. It’s a great program under 2 circumstances:
1) your company is eligible for the ICT LMIA exempt category
2) you understand that it’s not a direct PR program and you need to combine it with another program to convert yourself or your client to a Canadian Permanent Resident (PR) inside the country.
This specific article focuses on business owners and entrepreneurs, and less so on key staff under large corporate ICT structures – although some options can still apply to them as well for PR options.
Here are the 4 realistic ways you or your client can convert to permanent residency inside Canada under the Intra-company transfer program:
A: Express Entry
B: Provincial Nominee Programs
C: Spouses
D: Abandon and be nominated by another company
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The first option which most of you are already aware of is utilizing Express Entry after you have had your ICT work permit for 12 months and the business has been operational for that duration. Since it’s an LMIA-exempt work permit, you may already know that you cannot claim the valid job offer points in Express Entry until 12 months of paid work has been accumulated through your ICT work permit. Here are the key criteria to consider when planning Express Entry to convert your ICT work permit to a Canadian PR:
1: You need to meet the minimum Express Entry eligibility criteria under CEC or FSW. If you own more than 50% of the branch inside Canada, you will not be eligible under CEC, but will be considered under the FSW Express Entry category. Having a minimum language score, education and other criteria are the basics. If you are claiming an executive or management role in the company under your ICT work permit, you need a CLB7 minimum, otherwise, a CLB6 will suffice. One of the Express Entry requirements under the Ministerial instructions to claim job offer points on an LMIA-exempt work permit is to have been paid for an accumulated 12-month period by the company stated on your closed work permit. Hint: you could technically be getting paid by the overseas headquarters if it owns the majority shares in the branch inside Canada.
2: When claiming the job offer points to boost your profile in Express Entry, you will either opt for the 50 points for positions in TEER level 0,1,2, or 3, or you will try to claim the maximum bonus points in TEER 000 category and executive with 200 points. Let’s be honest, all of you reading this article want to claim the 200 points – let’s not kid ourselves. The 50 points is easy, almost by default if you meet the minimum eligibility criteria you can claim the valid job offer points. The 200 points are trickier. You need to prove that you are working as a high-level executive at the company and have middle managers, lower-level staff, and departments and that you are not working on the day-to-day operations of the company. Obviously, this is not possible if you have 1-2 staff and only one branch.
You need to prove that you have been performing the job duties in the TEER 00012 to 00015 executive/director roles – which is strategizing and managing the middle managers and so forth. The key for an LMIA-exempt work permit to claim the 200 points is to prove that you have been doing this executive role and the job duties for the past 12 months, which requires a specific structure in the company/branch inside Canada.
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The next option is the Provincial Nominee Program. If you are stuck on an ICT work permit, and do not meet the Express Entry eligibility criteria you need to be hopping over to one of these three provincial nominee programs to become eligible to apply for your Canadian PR:
1: The Ontario Provincial Entrepreneur Program is one of the few entrepreneur programs which allows you to transition your existing ICT business to the specific provincial program without having to restart your business from scratch. This provincial stream has higher investment criteria, but the education and language requirements are more relaxed.
2: You can also transfer over to the New Brunswick Provincial Nominee Skilled Immigration stream. This is a skilled immigration stream where you cannot own the majority shares of the company inside Canada (but you could own it indirectly through the headquarters) and have worked for this company in the province under your ICT work permit for min 1 year.
You may ask, what’s the advantage of this over the Express Entry route, the minimum eligibility criteria for language and education are much more relaxed and you don’t need to claim 200 points by claiming to be a high-level executive. So if you have trouble scaling your ICT business to claim the 200 bonus points for the job offer, the New Brunswick Skilled Immigration Nominee program is an option for you.
3: The next provincial program you can use is the Alberta Opportunity Stream. Like New Brunswick, you can skip Express Entry and after you set up your branch with your closed ICT work permit, you can issue yourself a job offer from the new branch even before you claim 12 months of work experience. If you have a high school diploma, CLB 5 language exam score, and 2 years of foreign work experience in the same position, and you don’t own the branch directly but rather indirectly from your overseas entity, you can receive a PR nomination literally in 2 months. It’s very simple and effective under this specific provincial program.
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The other option as an ICT work permit holder to convert to PR is if your spouse or common-law partner has a stronger Express Entry profile than you, and does not hold shares of more than 50% in your branch in Canada, they can gain Canadian work experience and potentially get a boost after 2 years of work experience inside Canada to be invited for PR. Keep in mind that no job offer points would be possible on an open work permit of your spouse or partner, and they would need to have a strong profile such as good age, 2 post-secondary degrees, and a strong language exam score to claim a higher CRS score. This option is not for everyone but it’s still possible for some.
Last but not least, this is the option for ICT work permit holders who can’t utilize any of the options which we just explained above. It may sound drastic, but if you’re stuck this may be your only option. You don’t meet the language requirements or minimum eligibility of the Express Entry system, neither does your spouse or partner, and you’re not in one of these provinces which I just explained as an alternative route for PR from ICT. Let’s say you’re stuck in this situation, no other way to apply for your Canadian PR, then what do you do?
It’s simple. You have an ICT ongoing business (branch) inside Canada which is fully operational. The only solution is that you have another company in your industry buy you over and hire you through the PNP as an executive to join their group. So, let’s say you own a restaurant or marketing agency branch as ICT, another company in the same field can buy out your company as long as they are in a province where you would be eligible, and nominate you to join their group as an executive through the Provincial Nominee Skilled Immigration Stream. It could be a buy-out or joint venture. How do you do this? Not difficult.
In some provinces like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta, and even BC the nominee can own a minority share in the company that nominates them for PR. This means you just need to use your creativity here, either investing in that company as a minority shareholder and they nominate you, or a combination of you buying a minority share and them buying you out or doing a JV and nominating you.
Here is a quick hint, in BC language exam scores are not mandatory under the Provincial Skilled Immigration stream – so maybe that’s your ticket out. It may sound more complicated, but this would be your last option possible for the ICT to PR route.
There you have it, all the possible options for any Intra-Company Transfer LMIA exempt work permit holder, under C61/62/63 previously known as C12, to become eligible and apply for your Canadian Permanent Residency inside Canada. If you are in this situation and need advice, or you are an immigration practitioner or agency requiring assistance to apply for an ICT work permit or convert your clients, feel free to reach out to us directly. There are numerous options available, you just need to know which ones to select that match your profile or your client’s profile. All the information is out there and it is public, all you’ll need to know is where to look and how to put the pieces together to achieve your immigration goals. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
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