Hire a temporary worker through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program: Overview
1. Overview
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers when Canadians and permanent residents aren't available.
These employers can hire temporary foreign workers from participating countries for a maximum period of 8 months, between January 1 and December 15, provided they’re able to offer the workers a minimum of 240 hours of work within a period of 6 weeks or less.
To qualify for the SAWP, employers must meet 3 criteria:
- the temporary foreign workers hired must be citizens from Mexico or participating Caribbean countries
- production must be in specific commodity sectors
- the activity must be related to on farm primary agriculture
Participating countries
The SAWP applies only to temporary foreign workers who are citizens from:
- Mexico
- Caribbean countries of:
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Jamaica
- Montserrat
- St. Kitts-Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
Role of participating foreign governments
The SAWP operates according to bilateral agreements between Canada and the participating countries. The agreements outline the role of these foreign governments, which is to:
- recruit and select the temporary foreign workers
- make sure workers have the necessary documents
- maintain a pool of qualified workers, and
- appoint representatives to assist workers in Canada
These governments also ensure that the men and women selected to work temporarily in Canada meet all the requirements of the SAWP. These requirements include being:
- experienced in farming
- at least 18 years of age
- a citizen of one of the participating countries, and
- able to satisfy the:
- Canadian immigration laws, and
- laws of the worker’s home country
National commodity list
- Apiary products
- Bovine
- Dairy
- Duck
- Flowers
- Fruits, vegetables (including canning/processing of these products if grown on the farm)
- Grains, oil seeds and seed corn
- Horse
- Maple syrup
- Mink
- Mushrooms
- Nursery-grown trees (including Christmas trees, greenhouses/nurseries)
- Pedigreed canola seed
- Poultry
- Sheep
- Sod
- Swine
- Tobacco