Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots

he new Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots first announced in June 2024, are now poised to start on March 31, 2025. This will make it easier for 2,750 home care workers and home child care workers to become permanent residents. Details released on February 26  and March 8, indicate that it will be much easier for workers to find jobs within the home care sector, through a wider range of employers. There will be two streams of these pilots: workers who are already in Canada and those who are not yet in Canada.

Workers in Canada Stream

When the pilots opened on March 31, 2025, people were ready to submit their applications to the Workers in Canada stream. Within five hours – by 3:00 pm that same day, the program had reached its full quotas of 2550 for each of two sections  (child care and home support) of the stream.  At the time of writing this article, the alternate sub sections of both streams with 150 spots each were still open to accepting applicants.  There is still no news about a date for opening the program for applicants outside Canada.  For those potential applicants, patience and keeping updated is imperative to being able to submit an application when the time comes to do so. IRCC has indicated that it will open at a later date, and not that it has been shelved or been paused indefinitely. These pilots are highly popular and ridiculously over-subscribed. Thus, preparation and agility at the computer keyboard as soon as the program opens are key elements to submission success.  Those who missed the opportunity on March 31, of which there are thousands, must wait until January 2026 for another  chance to submit an application through the HCWIP.
Applicants who are eligible for the pilots and submitted their application for the In-Canada, stream will obtain permanent residence for themselves and their family. In fact, their applications will be submitted for permanent residence in one step. For this pilot, obtaining qualifying Canadian work experience is no longer a prerequisite for permanent residence.

Eligibility criteria

1. Applicants must demonstrate that they have achieved a Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) or Niveaux de Competence linguistique Canadiens (NCLC) level of 4;
2. Applicants must have six months of recent relevant work experience from anywhere in the world, or have completed a credential of six months duration in a related home care training;
3. Applicants must have a full-time job offer from an employer anywhere in Canada, except Quebec;
4. Applicants must have the equivalent of a Canadian high school diploma.

Potential employers

1. Private households;
2. Organizations that hire full-time workers to provide short-term or occasional home care to individuals who are recovering from injury or illness and those who live independently but rely on some level of home care; Such organizations may employ workers as:
   • Home health care service providers;
   • Home care support service providers;
   • Direct care agencies;
   • Personal care services in residential settings;
   • Pediatric home health care service providers.

In Canada without status

If you are in Canada without status, but meet the eligibility criteria above, you may be eligible under a special temporary policy to apply. There will be 150 spots (reserved from 2,750 ) under this policy. Contact Upper Canada Immigration Consultants to learn more.