Health-care workers permanent residence pathway: COVID-19 program delivery – Eligibility

Applicants should be assessed against the eligibility requirements below based on the information and documents provided in the application. Applicants must meet all of the criteria to be approved.

Inadmissibilities should be considered at the stage at which they are known by the decision maker. The rules of procedural fairness must be followed throughout the decision-making process.

On this page

• Eligibility requirements
• Approval in principle
• Stay of removal
• Refusal

Eligibility requirements

Applicants should be assessed against the established eligibility requirements based on the information and documents provided in their application. Applicants must meet all of the applicable criteria indicated in the following instructions:

• Permanent residence pathway for health-care workers: COVID-19 program delivery – Preliminary review and triage
• Permanent residence pathway for health-care workers: COVID-19 program delivery – Assessing the work-related requirements

Applicants intending to reside in a province or territory other than Quebec

If the criteria are met and the applicant has acquired the 6 months’ experience, IRCC will render an eligibility decision. See Assessing the work-related requirements.

Applicants intending to reside in Quebec

Once the Certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ) decision is received, IRCC will render an eligibility decision.

Approval in principle

When the requirements above are met, the application is approved in principle and IRCC will do the following:

• send a letter informing the applicant that
  • their application has been approved in principle
  • they and their dependents must still meet any admissibility requirements not exempted under the public policy. If these requirements are not met, the application for permanent residence may be refused.
  • the final assessment of admissibility will be conducted prior to granting permanent residence. For greater certainty, those with known inadmissibilities, other than those listed as exempted under the public policy, will not receive approval in principle.
• update the applicant’s file and the Global Case Management System (GCMS) 

Stay of removal

Upon receipt of applications and following a preliminary triage by IRCC, applicants who are assessed as meeting the preliminary eligibility criteria will be flagged to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The CBSA will determine if the applicant (and any in-Canada family members included on their application) meets all conditions for a Ministerial stay of removal pursuant to section 50(e) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Individuals found to be eligible will be granted a A50(e) stay of removal that will remain in effect until the earliest of the dates set out below or until further notice, whichever comes first:

• The public policy application is "Approved in Principal";
• The public policy application is refused; or,
• IRCC or the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration du Québec (MIFI) if  they intend on residing in Québec, determines that the applicant does not meet the eligibility criteria of the temporary public policy, resulting in the refusal of their application.

The removal order will no longer be stayed if, after making an application, the primary applicant or any of their in-Canada family member(s) included on the application, become(s) the subject of a newly issued removal order, different from the removal order that was issued to the individual as a refugee claimant, because either the applicant or any their family member(s) are inadmissible on any grounds for which they are not exempted under the temporary public policy.

Once the application has been approved in principle, a removal order, where one exists, will be stayed pursuant to section 233 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). This stay of removal is in effect until a final decision is made on the permanent residence application under this public policy.

A final assessment of admissibility will be conducted prior to granting permanent residence. See Admissibility.

For detailed information about removal orders, refer to ENF 10 – Removals (PDF, 536 KB).

Refusal

When requirements are not met, see Making a final decision.