Agri-Food Pilot

The Agri-Food Pilot helps address the labour needs of the Canadian agri-food sector.

The pilot provides a pathway to permanent residence for experienced, non-seasonal workers in specific industries and occupations. It will run until May 2023.

The IRCC introduced the following changes as of February 10, 2024:

  • applicants who reside in Canada when they submit their application may now choose to meet either the job offer requirement or the educational requirement
  • IRCC now count work experience gained under an open work permit for vulnerable foreign workers towards the work experience requirement

Who can apply:

To apply for permanent residence under the Agri-Food Pilot, you need

  • If you reside in Canada when you submit your application, you may choose to meet this requirement or the educational requirement.
  • If you reside outside of Canada when you apply, you must meet both the job offer and the educational requirement.

The job you’re offered must be a genuine job offer and meet all of the following requirements:

  • The job must be
  • For unionized positions, the wage must be determined by the applicable collective agreement.
  • For non-unionized positions, the wage must meet or exceed the Job Bank’s prevailing (median) wage for the occupation listed on your job offer in the province of employment (or at the national level if no provincial rate is available).

Eligible Canadian work experience:

You must have eligible Canadian work experience.

Your Canadian work experience must be

  • a minimum of 1 year of non-seasonal, full-time work in the past 3 years (at least 1,560 hours)
  • in 1 or more of the eligible occupations listed under 1 of the eligible industries
  • gained though
      • an open work permit for vulnerable workers or
      • a work permit issued on the basis of a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) with a minimum 12-month duration, under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

    If you’re not sure of the duration of the LMIA that was submitted by your employer when hiring you, you can ask the employer.

    You must give us the following as proof of your work experience:

    • an employer or union reference letter (only for unionized positions)
    • a letter of employment
    • a T4
    • paystubs 

Open work permits

If you currently have an open work permit, but you used to have a work permit through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, you may have eligible work experience.

However, any work experience you gained while holding an open work permit does not count.

How to calculate your hours of work experience

  • Do count the hours worked in full-time jobs
    • The hours can be in different eligible occupations and with different employers.
    • The hours must have been worked over a total period of at least 12 months (Note: working more than 30 hours per week does not shorten this period).
  • Don’t count
    • hours you weren’t paid for (volunteering or unpaid internships)
    • hours worked when you were self-employed
    • hours worked in part-time or seasonal positions
    • hours where your work was not authorized by IRCC

Eligible industries:

Industries are classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). You can see specific industry definitions by searching the industry codes below on the NAICS website.

Your employer needs to include the industry code in your job offer.

Eligible industries under the pilot are:

  • meat product manufacturing (NAICS 3116)
  • greenhouse, nursery and floriculture production, including mushroom production (NAICS 1114)
  • animal production, excluding aquaculture
    • cattle ranching and farming (NAICS 1121)
    • hog and pig farming (NAICS 1122)
    • poultry and egg production (NAICS 1123)
    • sheep and goat farming (NAICS 1124)
    • other animal production (NAICS 1129)

Eligible occupations:

Occupations are classified by the National Occupational Classification (NOC) code. You can see the duties for each occupation by searching the National Occupational Classification website.

Eligible jobs for each eligible industry are listed below.

For meat product manufacturing (NAICS 3116), eligible jobs are

  • NOC 63201 – Butchers – retail and wholesale
  • NOC 65202 – Meat cutters and fishmongers – retail and wholesale
  • NOC 94141 – Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers
  • NOC 82030 – Agricultural service contractors and farm supervisors
  • NOC 84120 – Specialized livestock workers and farm machinery operators
  • NOC 85100 – Livestock labourers
  • NOC 95106 – Labourers in food and beverage processing

For greenhouse, nursery and floriculture production, including mushroom production (NAICS 1114), eligible jobs are

  • NOC 82030 – Agricultural service contractors and farm supervisors
  • NOC 84120 – Specialized livestock workers and farm machinery operators
  • NOC 85100 – Livestock labourers
  • NOC 85101 – Harvesting labourers

For animal production, excluding aquaculture (NAICS 1121, 1122, 1123, 1124 and 1129), eligible jobs are

  • NOC 82030 – Agricultural service contractors and farm supervisors
  • NOC 84120 – Specialized livestock workers and farm machinery operators
  • NOC 85100 – Livestock labourers
  • NOC 85101 – Harvesting labourers

Application limits by eligible occupation

There are annual limits on the number of applications that will be processed for each eligible occupation.

Starting on January 1 of each year, applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. This pilot will last for 3 years.

 

 

Language requirements:

You must prove your ability in English or French.

The minimum language requirements are Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) or Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) Level 4 in :

  • reading
  • writing
  • speaking
  • listening

You must submit your results from an approved language test. These results must be less than 2 years old when you apply.

Educational requirements:

You must have at least

  • a Canadian high school diploma, or
  • an educational credential assessment (ECA) report from a designated organization or professional body showing that you completed a foreign credential at the secondary school level or above
    • The ECA report must be less than 5 years old on the date of your application.
    • The original ECA report must have been issued on or after the date the organization was designated.

How to get an educational credential assessment

Settlement funds:

You must prove that you have enough money to settle in Canada. You’ll need to prove that you have enough funds to support yourself and any family members you may have, even if they’re not coming to Canada with you.

If you’re already working in Canada with a valid work permit when you apply, you don’t need to provide proof of settlement funds.

Document requirements

For proof, you must get official letters from any bank or financial institution where you keep funds.

The letter(s) must

  • be printed on the financial institution’s letterhead
  • include their contact information (address, telephone number, and email address)
  • include your name
  • list outstanding debts such as credit card debts and loans
  • include, for each current bank and investment account, the
    • account number
    • date the account was opened
    • current balance of the account
    • average balance for the past 6 months

Your proof can be 1 or more of the following:

  • bank account statements
  • documents that show real property or other investments (such as stocks, bonds, debentures, or treasury bills)
  • documents that guarantee payment of a set amount of money payable to you (such as banker’s drafts, cheques, traveller’s cheques or money orders)

Family size

The amount of money you need to support your family depends on the size of your family.

To calculate the size of your family, you must include

  • yourself
  • your spouse or partner
  • your dependent children
  • your spouse’s dependent children

Include your spouse and dependent children even if they’re

  • permanent residents or Canadian citizens
  • not coming to Canada with you

Updated June 3, 2024

Number of family membersFunds you need
(in Canadian dollars)
1$14,690
2$18,288
3$22,483
4$27,297
5$30,690
6$34,917
7$38,875
If more than 7 people, for each additional family member, add$3,958