Immediate open work permits for LCP completers
Immediate open work permits for LCP completers
‘Policy change’ or too little, too late?
From left: Caregivers Nenita Hernandez, Tita Pamulag and a friend Photo: Joseph Smooke
Many are applauding the government’s policy change of issuing open work permits for caregivers when they finish their work requirements. Others say this is long overdue, and that the government is simply fixing a problem that they created.
Canada’s immigration minister, Jason Kenney, announced on Dec. 15 that people who have completed their work requirements in the Live-in Caregiver Program will be getting open work permits 18 months sooner.
“Too many live-in caregivers have completed their work obligations but must continue living in the home of their employer, waiting for their application for permanent residence to be reviewed,” Kenney said. “This is understandably frustrating. That’s why we have started issuing open work permits to live-in caregivers as soon as they have completed their obligations and submitted an application for permanent residence.”
Some politicians, community workers and caregivers applauded the changes, which means that after completing 24 months of full-time work as a nanny or elderly caregiver in a Canadian family’s home, they will be qualified to work elsewhere immediately.
However, many of those interviewed hesitate to give the government too much credit.
Some say that the government is simply fixing a backlog problem they created. Previously, it took only about three months for caregivers to get their open work permits approved. Now it takes 17 to 18 months.
MP Don Davies commends the government for addressing the problem, but says “it’s long overdue.” The immigration critic says, “I think it’s appalling that the government let this situation arise in the first place.”
“They’ve realized there was a flaw in the design of the program linking the first stage approval of the permanent residency with the open work permit.”
First stage approval was quick, then it became longer and longer, and “for some time now it’s been about 18 months leaving a caregiver in a very untenable situation where the caregiver is basically tied to their employer. It’s a form of servitude,” Davies says. The caregiver can’t travel and their health care can be cut off.
“We know that these workers wait months for their applications to be processed, and the way that government has gotten around that without fixing it is to grant open work permits to these workers,” said Salimah Valiani, an associate researcher at the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Study of Education and Work, in an email.
The announcement “is a policy change” said Nancy Caron, a media relations advisor for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in an e-mail. She says, until this change took effect, “the caregiver’s application for an open work permit would only be processed after they received approval-in-principle on their application for permanent residence. Moving forward, the open work permit application will be processed immediately after the caregiver has completed their obligations and submitted an application for permanent residence.”
Most of the caregivers have been away for several years says Flordeliz M. Dandal, the executive director of the Kababayan Community Centre, an immigrant settlement organization in Parkdale. An open work permit will allow them to apply to the profession that they worked in the Philippines as early as they can. This means that they would be earning more than the minimum wage often given to caregivers in the LCP. Many caregivers worked previously as nurses or in physiotherapy, for example, in the Philippines.
Whether the government was able to get to everyone who has applied is unclear. The ministry’s media advisor says that as of Dec. 11, “all live-in caregivers who had met their obligations and submitted an application for permanent residence have had their files reviewed. Those who also submitted an open work permit application with no missing information are being issued open work permits.” This totaled approximately 10,000 work permits issued.
Dandal says she knows of many caregivers through her work at the settlement organization who are still waiting. She says that many LCP workers have waited several months, while others had their open work permit applications approved recently, despite only waiting three or four months.
“I don’t know how they got through the processing of all these applications. It seems they did not try to look at the older ones,” she says. She wonders why some have been “fast-tracked” while others are still waiting. Dandal says she advises those who have been waiting a long time and have not received approval for their open work permit to file an appeal.
“I’ve been waiting 15 months and it’s not fair,” said Tita Pamulag, interviewed at a Christmas party at the Kababayan Centre on Dec. 17. She said that some of her friends just got their approval, even though they submitted their applications in September of this year. As of that date, her web application said she was not approved yet.
Another caregiver at the party, Nenita Hernandez, said she’s “happy for the open work permit.”
With declining numbers of immigrants being accepted as permanent residents, the ministry may be scrutinizing applications of LCP workers more than in the past, says the president of Pinay, Evelyn Calugay. Pinay is a Filipino women’s organization based in Quebec that advocates for the rights and welfare for immigrant women.
“Being issued an open work permit does not guarantee caregivers permanent residency,” says Calugay. She also says that travelling with an open work permit before approval for permanent residence might cause problems when the person tries to reenter Canada. This is because the LCP worker may not travel with a letter that says he or she has an employer in Canada.
Wait times for open work permits are part of larger issues says the NDP’s Davies. “There’s not enough resources in the immigration system. It’s taking an appalling length of time to get applications approved and people are suffering as a result,” he said.
Davies would like the government to now turn their attention to what he considers the main problem with the LCP– that caregivers are not allowed to bring their spouses and children to Canada immediately upon arrival. LCP workers are separated from their families for four to 10 years.
“The break up of the family is the most devastating, unfair, and totally unjustified part of the program.”
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