Canada Announces New Open Work Permit For Turkish & Syrian Nationals

Last Updated On 31 March 2023, 9:44 AM EDT (Toronto Time)

Today, immigration minister of Canada, the Honourable Sean Fraser announced new measures to support Turkish and Syrian temporary residents.

Effective from March 29, 2023 nationals of Türkiye and Syria will benefit from below listed new measures:

• extension of temporary status (study, work or visitor) within Canada free of charge.
• priority processing of immigration applications submitted by earthquake victims
• new open work permit of up to 3 years for temporary residents already in Canada.
• easier transition between temporary residents statuses.
• no requirement of passports and travel document requirements for the Canadian permanent residence applicants outside Canada.
• For Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Turkey and Syria, there will be no costs for temporary passports, passports with restricted validity, emergency travel papers, Canadian citizenship certificates, or permanent resident travel documents.

Applications for temporary residency from the impacted areas, both new and old, as well as applications for permanent residence, including applications for refugee resettlement, are all being processed on a priority basis.

This includes requests for visiting visas for members of a person’s immediate family who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents so they can visit their loved ones.

The purpose of these new immigration measures announced today is to assist Turkish and Syrian temporary residents who may not be able to leave Canada at this time owing to the devastation caused by the recent earthquakes in the area.

Over 16,000 applicants have applications being processed in Turkey and Syria as of February 8, 2023.

Among them, about 1,700 (750 permanent residents and 920 temporary residents) came from the earthquake-affected region.

These new measures will stay in effect until September 25, 2023.

As part of its resettlement programme, Canada is also collaborating with UN partners in the region to offer temporary housing to refugees who have been negatively affected while they wait for their applications to be reviewed.

Further details on how to apply for these new measures will be accessible on the IRCC website in the upcoming weeks.

---