Canada's Tech Council wants New Tech Visa to Invite Skilled Workers without a job offer

The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) has released its Talent & Skills Strategy report, containing 13 key recommendations for federal and provincial governments.

In its report, CCI calls for the federal government to introduce a new High Potential Tech Visa to offer in-demand tech workers a permanent residence pathway to Canada without a prior job offer.

Additionally, the latest tech pathway will, in turn, help high-growth firms address their talent crunch and to scale up globally by effortlessly finding, hiring, and retaining the skilled workers.

The new tech visa would target in-demand skilled professions like software developers and data scientists. This new route will allow them to work, switch companies, extend their stay in and obtain permanent residency in Canada without changing to another visa category.

13 Talent & Skills Recommendations by CCI

Coordination and Capacity Building

• Convene a national summit to develop a coordinated skilled labour strategy with representatives from federal and provincial governments and associate university associations.
• Apply a skilled talent lens to all government economic policies and programs, to avoid unintended consequences which exacerbate the tech labour crunch. 

Talent Attraction

• Introduce a High Potential Tech Visa, to give the most in-demand professionals a path to Canada without a job offer in hand.
• Launch a Digital Nomad Strategy to make Canada a destination for the growing ranks of remote workers.
• Review and revise the National Occupation Classification (NOC) codes more regularly to better reflect the shifting nature of technology jobs in Canada.
• Ease pathways to permanent residency within the Global Talent Stream visa program.
• Expand the recognition of international and alternative credentials for Canadian visa applicants.
• Enhance the Global Skills Strategy immigration program with a targeted 48-hour visa processing time.

Talent Generation

• Offer funding and support to Canadian businesses who develop up-skilling or retraining programs to train their workforce.
• Incentivize post-secondary institutions to develop better experiential learning opportunities, including longer co-op placements, to establish a talent pipeline from universities to Canadian companies

Talent Retention

• Commit to leaving the tax treatment of employee stock options unchanged, to give high-growth Canadian companies the certainty to recruit workers using this key compensation tool.
• Introduce a permanent 12-month student loan repayment grace period for new graduates who work for Canadian firms.
• Introduce tax-advantaged loan repayment benefits for employers who make contributions towards their employees' outstanding student debt.

If you are interested in permanently migrating to Canada in 2022, please contact our expert advisor on Toll-Free No. 78-18-000-888 or drop your details at info@visasavenue.com to get a callback.

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- Rajneesh Kumar