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Your Guide to Applying for Intra-Company Transfers in Canada

One of the most popular routes for foreign nationals to apply for Canadian permanent residency under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) is through intra-company transfers, or ICTs.

If you wish to relocate to Canada, the ICT application path can be your best option due to its high requirements, efficient procedure, and accommodating schedules.

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You will have all the knowledge you require to complete your application with the help of this guide, including thorough explanations of the program’s operation and a list of the supporting documentation you must compile.

Employees relocating within the same organization to work in a different office in Canada are referred to as intra-company transfers. Your employer might be able to submit an Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) application if you’ve been offered a position in a different city rather than sponsoring you as an employee. If you’re applying or your employer is applying on your behalf, this guide will clarify the prerequisites and application procedure for ICTs in Canada. Under the terms stated in the International Mobility Program of Canada, highly talented foreign citizens may temporarily work in Canada as intra-company transferees.

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A foreign person employed by a multinational organization outside of Canada may transfer to one of the company’s locations inside Canada by obtaining an LMIA-exempt work visa. The transferee rule for within-company transfers applies to all countries.

An intra-company transfer is what?

A temporary transfer of an employee from one branch or division of an organization to another is known as an intra-company transfer (ICT).

Multinational corporations employ ICTs most frequently since they are the quickest means of information transmission inside the organization. You must be aware of what you’re getting into before applying because the ICT procedure is extremely complicated and involves numerous phases and laws. One of the organizations in charge of regulating the application process is Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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However, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada also employs immigration officers, in addition to trade commissioners who represent foreign nations. Even after all this red tape, once you arrive in your destination country there will still be additional red tape for you to jump through.

 

To put it simply:

  • Intra-Company Transfers in Canada can be a real pain!
  • General Workplace Requirements
  • General Requirements for International Businesses
  • All foreign nationals who want to work in Canada must do so, with a very small number of exceptions.

In most circumstances, a foreign national must obtain a favorable Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) from a Canadian employer in order to submit an application for a work visa. Foreign nationals can obtain a work permit without an LMIA through the International Mobility Program’s intra-company transfer stream.

When do ICT visas go on sale?

Those who want to come to Canada and work for a business or organization can do so with the ICT Visa, which is a long-term work permit. A job offer from the Canadian business or organization you’re applying to is required.

Although the ICT Visa is accessible all year round, your chances of success are higher if you apply in the spring or summer. As an illustration, January typically sees a low number of applications approved.

But historically, one of the busiest times to apply for this kind of visa has been around April. First-come, first-served processing of applications means that you must submit your documents as soon as you can.

What information must employers have?

Employers should be aware that the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which governs intra-company transfers in Canada, stipulates that intra-company transferees have a temporary work visa for up to three years with renewal subject to specific requirements.

Employers should also be mindful that hiring an intra-company transferee does not give them the right to fire a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who is of working age.

It is optional for all intra-company transferees to originate from the same unit; employers are permitted to hire several intra-company transferees from other corporate branches. General Workplace Requirements Must be a worker for a global corporation looking to settle in Canada to work at a parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate of the organization. The Canadian business must have the qualifying relationship described below. The employee must submit an application in order to work in Canada at the executive, senior managerial, or in a scenario requiring specialized knowledge levels. Must have worked for the business full-time for at least one year in the three years prior.

Please take note that the International Mobility Program identifies executive capability, senior managerial competence, and specialized knowledge in accordance with the following definitions taken from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Managing Capacity The following requirements must be met by a post in order to be considered to have executive capacity:

directs the management of the company or a significant component or function of the company; sets the objectives and policies of the company, component, or function; has a great deal of discretion in making decisions; and only receives general direction from higher-level executives, the company’s board of directors, or its stockholders. Administrative Ability The following requirements must be met by a position in order to be considered managerial in nature:

manages the company, or a department, subdivision, function, or component of the company; oversees and controls the work of other supervisory, professional, or managerial employees; manages a crucial function within the company, or a department, or a subdivision of the company; and has the power to recommend hiring and firing personnel as well as other personnel actions (like promotion and leave authorization). Specialized Information A position must demand both proprietary information and advanced competence in order to be considered to require specialized knowledge.

These are described as follows by NAFTA:

Company-specific expertise relating to a company’s goods or services is referred to as proprietary knowledge.

It suggests that the business has not made specifications available that would allow rival businesses to produce the same good or service.

Advanced expertise is defined as “specialized knowledge obtained through substantial (the longer the experience, the more likely the knowledge is to be “specialized”) and recent (within the last five years) experience with the organization and used by the individual to significantly increase the productivity of the employer.” How can a specialist in immigration assist you with your application? Immigration consultants are useful for a variety of purposes, but they are frequently employed to assist with the application procedure.

They can assist you in submitting an Intra-Company Transfer application and respond to any inquiries you may have regarding the procedure.

Finding a job that counts as an intra-company transfer is the first stage in the procedure. Before applying, you must find a company ready to sponsor your work visa in order to do this. For further information on the requirements of these transactions, consult this Canadian guide to intra-company transfers. It also outlines the process for getting one approved, the paperwork that must be completed, and the location where it should be submitted. General Requirements for International Businesses The link between the foreign company and the domestic company must be one of parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate.

The two businesses must be conducting trade. This indicates that they provide goods and services on a regular and ongoing basis. This condition will not be met by the sheer existence of a site in Canada.

A candidate may submit a work permit application for an LMIA-exempt work permit if they meet the prerequisites listed above. Applications for work permits may be submitted at a Canadian Port of Entry (POE), at the relevant Visa Application Centre (VAC), or online depending on the resident’s and citizen’s country of citizenship. Trade agreements that certain nations have created with Canada give Intra-Company Transferees more possibilities. For other possibilities, non-resident aliens from nations covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union (CETA) may consult those programs. Final Words Many businesses are taking advantage of the fact that Canada is a nation of immigrants by employing individuals from other nations.

Transfers within the same company can be useful in this situation. Employers can relocate personnel from their overseas locations and move them within the business thanks to intra-company transfers. I’m curious about the procedure, what you need to have before applying, and what to anticipate after getting the go-ahead for an intra-company transfer.

Thanks for reading…

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