In-Canada Workers Initiative: Do You Need to Apply?

On May 4, 2026 IRCC reported progress on the In-Canada Workers Initiative, a one-time measure first announced in Budget 2025. It speeds up the move to permanent residence for up to 33,000 workers already in Canada over 2026 and 2027. IRCC is aiming for at least 20,000 in 2026 and the rest in 2027.

IRCC said 3,600 workers were granted permanent residence under the initiative between January 1 and February 28, 2026, and that it would post progress on its website monthly.

IRCC is starting with applications already in its inventory from work permit holders who have applied for permanent residence. Two conditions apply. The application was made through the Provincial Nominee Program, the Atlantic Immigration Program, the community immigration pilots (such as the Rural Community Immigration Pilot), the caregiver pilots or the Agri-Food Pilot. And the worker has been living in a smaller community in Canada for 2 years or more.

Two of those programs are no longer open to new applicants in the usual way. The Agri-Food Pilot has ended, but IRCC still processes applications it accepted before May 14, 2025. The caregiver pilots' applications already received are processed through to a final decision.

IRCC's announcement and backgrounder do not define a smaller community or list the places that count. Do not assume your town is in or out until IRCC publishes that detail.

No. IRCC says applicants do not need to take any action. There is no form, no new intake and no separate stream. If your application is covered, IRCC moves it forward on its own.

In our experience, the files that move fastest are the ones with nothing outstanding. Answer any IRCC request by its deadline and keep your contact details and your temporary status up to date while you wait.

It is not a return of the 2021 temporary resident to permanent resident pathway, and it does not open anything to people who have not applied for permanent residence. Express Entry applications are not on IRCC's list for it. IRCC says it will keep processing applications from workers who are not covered within its existing levels, so those files continue as normal.

The measure also sits inside IRCC's wider plan to bring temporary residents below 5% of Canada's population by the end of 2027.

Which program your application went through, how long you have lived where you live now, whether your work permit and any bridging open work permit will carry you until a decision, and whether anything in the file could hold it up once IRCC picks it up.