Canada Immigration Expert Series 1

Work in Hospitality? Welcome to Canada.
Canada’s hospitality industry today is an over $90 billion industry, with predictions that it will surpass $100 billion in 2021. This sector of the Canadian economy is one of the largest in the country and employs over 1,7 million workers in hospitality related establishments. Even with a slowdown this year due to Covid19 and a temporary travel ban on non essential trips into the country, this sector is one of those that are expected to recover very quickly in post Covid era, continuing to generate plenty of new jobs and boost the economic growth.

Most of the provinces, if not all, face shortages of hospitality workers, which opens up a great opportunity for foreigners with certain qualifications to move and settle permanently in one of the most hospitable country in the world.

Canada is constantly looking to address the labor needs in the mentioned above sector through its provincial nominee programs as well through foreign worker visa programs and federal economic immigration programs. In fact, Federal Immigration Programs, PNPs, and Foreign Worker Programs are tailored for hospitality professionals, as the largest amount of jobs available in most of the provinces belong to the tourism industry. Qualified candidates with relevant work experience and a job offer can apply and quickly become permanent residents of Canada

Each provincial nominee program (PNP) has its own selection criteria based on local economic needs. These programs can be an excellent alternative for hospitality workers who are unable to gain permanent residency through the normal express entry routes. PNPs are oriented on national qualification classification codes (NOC) as well as particular industries. The necessary minimum scores for many PNP draws are much lower than those from the federal draws.

As an example, candidates with a CRS score of as low as 350 received invitations to apply under the most recent Express Entry draw through the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, well below the last federal draw with a minimum of 471 points.

A closer look at the options available for immigration though Provincial Nominee Programs as well as through Atlantic Immigration Pilot and the Rural and Northern
Immigration Pilot programs reveals a number of strong alternatives:

British Columbia – the province has a list of selected occupations based on its labour market demands, which is routinely updated.

There have been 105 different occupations based on the NOC divided into 5 categories, depending on education and experience.

Additionally, BC is targeting 29 specific tech occupations with the help of BC PNP Tech Pilot, which prioritizes processing qualified candidates under existing PNP streams.

Finally, there are two separate streams available for medical workers in the province, one is through express entry and another through Provincial selection.

Alberta – the province has been ramping up acceptance under its new Premier, Jason Kenney. The Alberta PNP skilled worker stream excludes 35 professions, so as long as your occupation is not one of those, you could become eligible to immigrate to Alberta.

The CRS score for Alberta from the last draw was at least 350, which a lot lower than the federal draws.

Saskatchewan followed Alberta’s lead and also announced a list of non qualifying occupations, while leaving any other profession open to those interested in immigrating
to Saskatchewan.

The province has couple of streams under its Expression of Interest system, which includes Occupations in Demand, Saskatchewan Express Entry as well as streams for
long-haul truck drivers, hospitality sector workers, and semi-skilled agriculture workers.

In contrast to Alberta and Saskatchewan, Manitoba PNP lists a number of occupations under six categories that are in high demand for the province. These occupations are related to Administration, Business and Finance, Natural and Applied Sciences, Health, Social Science, and Education as well as Government Service and Religion, Art,
Culture, Recreation and Sport Industry.

There are currently two streams available in the province, one is for skilled workers already in the province and another is for skilled workers outside Canada.

While professionals with relevant experience obviously stand a good chance of being selected for permanent residence through Manitoba PNP, those candidates with
ineligible occupations but with a full time job offer can still qualify to immigrate to Canada through the Employer Direct Recruitment Pathway for Skilled Workers.

In Ontario, the province has a number of streams linked to Express Entry currently running, including Human Capital Priorities, French Speaking Skilled Workers, and
Skilled Trades –as well as one that is not linked to Express Entry but is open to applicants with a full time job offer in the province, namely the Employer Job Offer stream. The candidates with experience in NOC 0, A,B, and particularly tech specialists have a good chance to be selected. As Ontario intends to add new occupations to its
draws next year, even more people will be able to apply to successfully settle in this province as permanent residents.

Quebec has recently reoriented its skilled worker immigration program and started issuing invitations to apply in July last year. This program includes a list of training fields as well as high demand occupations. The later gives the best shot to those interested in applying from outside of Canada. An option for temporary residents already residing in Quebec would be the Quebec Experience program, under which applications from foreign workers and graduates in Quebec are prioritized.

New Brunswick PNP currently operates two streams, which are Express Entry and Skilled Worker streams. Under Express Entry stream, in order to qualify, applicants
must either live and work in the province under NOC 0,A,B, obtain a full time offer of employment in specific NOC codes, or be selected from provincial Express Entry pool.

Under the Skilled Worker stream, a job offer related to NOC 0, A, B as well as NOC C and D with skill 7, 8 or 9 is required. Priorities are given to those with experience in
education, health care, manufacturing as well as transportation and business services.

Nova Scotia has about seven different streams linked to various categories which focus on labor market demand in the province. The first one is called Express Entry Demand, which allows applicants to apply to settle in the province without a need to have a job offer, if experienced in 11 prioritized occupations.

Express Entry Experience is the second next category. It brings in those with at least 1 year of experience in the province. Another stream is Labor Market Priorities, that is linked to the regularly conducted draws aimed at particular occupations. The other two streams for medical doctors address the shortage of physicians in the province.
Occupations in Demand stream aims to attract nurse aides, orderlies, patient service associates and truck drivers.

Prince Edward Island PNP aims to attract three categories of skilled workers: the Express Entry category under which those with offer of employment as well as some of those without one can apply, Labor Impact category which includes candidates with experience in NOC 0,A,B only and Labor Impact Critical Worker category for those already employed in PEI as truck drivers, customer service agents, laborers, food and beverage servers and housekeepers.

Newfoundland & Labrador runs its two skilled worker streams, and each of them requires an offer of employment.

For the application under Express Entry linked stream, job offer in high skill occupations valid for 2 years or more issued by a local and eligible employer is a must have.

The Direct Provincial Skilled Worker category requires the applicants to be already employed in the province or to have a job offer in hands and ready to start working.

Atlantic Immigration Pilot has a close cooperation with the federal government as well as the four other Atlantic Provinces which are New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador.

The program is designed to fill the job positions for which local residents are not available. In order to hire a foreign work under the Pilot, an employer has to be
designated although no LMIA is required. International graduates are welcomed to apply.

The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot is a federal immigration pilot that aims at attracting skilled workers to small communities with aging population and labor shortages. In order to qualify, the candidates need to secure an offer of employment within one of such communities.

There are 10 such communities that participate in the Pilot and the 4 of them such as Sault Ste. Marie ON, Thunder Bay ON, Brandon MB and Altona/Rhineland MB have
commenced the designation process for the local employers to enable the interested ones to apply.

Municipal Nominee Program was proposed last year with the idea to let communities at municipal level to identify the new immigrants based on the based on the demands of their local job market.

Chefs and cooks – that is where Canada looks.

Chefs or Cooks (NOC 6321) are absolutely in high demand here and it are often listed as number one occupation among others in hospitality industry. In fact, chiefs are needed everywhere in Canada. More immigrants from all over the world choose Canada as their home and the foreign cuisine demand has been truly on the rise.

Colleges claim their graduates in culinary programs find employment very quickly and they often get multiple job offers at a time. Those specializing in European
and Asian cuisines have their best shots in the job market.

An aging population in Canada also creates the situation where the demand of chiefs will grow even further as more retirement homes will need catering services.

Which provinces need chiefs/cooks the most and why?

British Columbia: Opportunities – wide variety of food industry; Experience – local, healthy and vegetarian cuisine;

Manitoba: Opportunities – family restaurants; Experience: local and vegetarian cuisine.

Nova Scotia: Opportunities – Numerous summer resorts and restaurants; Experience – foreign culinary and pastry.

Prince Edward Island: Opportunities – summer resorts and restaurants; Experience – foreign and local cuisine.

Ontario: Opportunities – retirement homes in Muskoka and Niagara regions and fine restaurants; Experience – local and foreign cuisine.

How much can you make in Canada as a chef?
In general, as an entry level chef, you start from $23,640 per annum. If you are very experienced in cooking, your salary can be $77,903 or more. While in big cities such
as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver you will make more than in rural areas, in smaller towns, you will be spending less than in large cities and thus, as a good chef, you
have similarly bright prospects across the whole country.

What are the best programs and the main requirements for chefs/cooks immigrate to Canada?
Due to high demand of chefs/cooks in Canada, such applicants have a variety of options:
1. Federal Skilled Trades Program
– At least 2 years of experience as a cook or chef
– At least 1 year valid job offer from Canadian employer
– Language skills CLB5 – speaking and listening and CLB4 – reading and writing
– No criminal record
2. Express Entry BC Skilled Worker Program
– The applicant has worked in the province as a chef employer for at least 9
months
– Permanent job offer from local employer
– Minimum language requirements CLB 4 in all four competencies
– No criminal record3. Canadian Experience Program.
– Canadian job offer and work at least 1 year
– Language skills CLB5 – speaking and listening and CLB4 – reading and writing
– No criminal record
4. Federal Skilled Worker Program
– Graduate from Canadian post-secondary institution
– Apply PGWP (Post-Graduate Work Permit) and work for at least 1 year
– No criminal record

Securing a work permit before applying for PR is a very important component for these applicants in their immigration to Canada, but it is also a very doable task as
Canada simply needs chefs.

Pace Immigration Law Firm has decades of successful experience in helping culinary professionals as well as applicants representing other sectors of the economy to quickly and painlessly obtain their work permits as well as their permanent residence soon after.