Foreign nationals who are temporarily transferred to work for an international employer’s Canadian branch, parent company, subsidiary, or affiliate might be eligible for an Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) work permit.  

Understanding The Intra-Company Transfer Program 

On the primary level, there are two vital things to know about the Intra-Company Transfer program before pursuing a work permit through this pathway. 

  1. Work permits in this program are exempt from requiring an LMIA. This implies that employers who are looking to transfer an eligible employee to Canada do not need to go through the verifying process. 

Note: LMIAs are employer-sought documents which assess the proposed hiring of international applicants in Canada as a means of ensuring that the hire will not have a negative impact on the labor force across the nation. 

  1. The nature of a candidate’s work in Canada should be deemed ‘managerial, executive, or having specialized knowledge’ for the candidate to be eligible under the Intra-Company Transfer program. 

In addition, the nation defines jobs as follows: 

  • Senior Managers: They are employees who manage all or part of the enterprise. Moreover, they supervise & control the work of other managers/ professional employees. 
  • Functional Managers: They are employees who manage a specific function, which is vital to achieving the company’s goals. However, they do not necessarily manage employees. 

Executive positions are those where an employee is primarily tasked with directing the management of the entire corporation or a significant part of it. 

In addition, positions involving specialized knowledge are qualified as jobs done by employees with advanced expertise and proprietary knowledge of the company’s services, products, procedures, & processes. 

Who Is Eligible For An Intra-Company Transfer Work Permit? 

To become eligible for an Intra-Company Transfer work permit, candidates have to meet specific criteria at several levels. In simpler terms, the ICT program has unique eligibility requirements for employees, startups, as well as established companies. 

Note: ‘Established’ is only used to differentiate these companies from new startups, which have their specific eligibility criteria. 

Employee Eligibility For An ICT Work Permit 

Employees seeking an ICT work permit should: 

  • Be presently employed at an MNC seeking to transfer foreign employees to Canada. 
  • Be transferred to a Canadian company, which is either a branch, subsidiary, parent company or affiliate of their foreign employee. 
  • Have worked full-time for at least one year in a position which is comparable to the position they will be undertaking in Canada. 
  • Be undertaking employment at a legitimate & continuing establishment of the company in Canada. 
  • And lastly, be compliant with all temporary entry requirements established for Canadian immigration.

In some situations, the full-time work & one year of continuous work criterion might not apply. However, the ICT work permit applicants might be exempt from this requirement if: 

  1. The employee worked part-time for international MNC, in which IRCC might consider other factors, including: 
  • The number of years an employee has worked at the MNC
  • The extent of the part-time position
  • The comparability of international position to the one they will occupy in Canada
  • The company applying for the ICT work permit abusing the program’s purpose  
  1. There has been a recent corporate acquisition/ merger related to international MNCs. In such a case, the ‘one-year continuous’ employment criterion can be bypassed if the employee has worked for one of the new corporation’s affiliates for at least one year in the last three years. 

Note: The resulting corporation is responsible for showcasing that it has assumed the interests, assets, obligations, & liabilities of the original company. 

Eligibility For An ICT Work Permit As An Established Company 

Established companies looking for an Intra-Company Transfer work permit should: 

  • Be a foreign MNC with a Canadian company, affiliate, subsidiary, or branch 
  • Be sending the foreign employee to a company which is operational In Canada
  • Be presently conducting business, offering goods & services to one another regularly with the Canadian company

Eligibility For An ICT Work Permit As A Startup 

The following criteria apply to international MNCs bringing employees to the nation to establish new businesses. Startup ICT work permits are offered to companies capable of proving their capacity to establish themselves in Canada. 

The candidate under this must: 

  • Demonstrate their ability to support the startup costs of the company economically.
  • Offer a business plan outlining how the organization will handle staffing & doing business in Canada.        
  • Prove that a physical location for the startup has been secured. 
  • Show that the company’s size will be enough to support the functions of the employees moving to Canada. 
  • Showcase that the company expects to be doing business & Canadian management will be responsible for directing the work conducted inside Canadian borders. 

Note: If successful, Intra-Company Transfer work permit candidates under the startup portion will obtain a one-year temporary work permit. In addition, renewal of these permits is possible if the startup maintains an eligible relationship with the Canadian entity & continues to do business in Canada. The new Canadian operations must also have been staffed.