Neil SupriyoCanada’s new immigration pathway was supposed to be a recognition of migrant workers who had worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Little did some applicants know they would need to stop working to make it through the process.
Typically, under regular, skilled immigration programs, applicants whose work permits expire while their applications are being processed can get a bridging permit, to allow them to keep working while the paperwork is done.
The bridging open work permit — or BOWP — ensures their employment is not disrupted.
But it turns out that’s not the case with the new pathway, a special program launched in May to grant permanent residence to 90,000 migrant workers and international graduates.
“This initiative was designed as a one-time pathway recognizing the incredibly unique circumstances of the ongoing pandemic,” said a department spokesperson.
“As it has not been designed as a traditional permanent economic program, individuals are not eligible for a BOWP.”
That poses a major challenge to people such as Ghazal Khatamsazan.
Khatamsazan applied to the new pathway under the non-health worker stream last month. The British woman came to Canada in June 2019 under a two-year working holiday work permit. This week, she was laid off from her job at a high-end jewelry store downtown as a sales associate, when her work permit expired.
“I was over the moon when I found out I qualified for the new pathway, but now I’m lost, frustrated and disappointed,” says the 32-year-old.
Khatamsazan’s husband, Pooria Gouran, is a dependant in her application, and is also out of status and has stopped working.
“We are sitting at home, living off the money we’ve saved for the settlement fund we need to show the government when we get our permanent residence. I don’t know what to do. Without a valid work permit, I can’t even get my employment insurance benefits.”
