Ottawa:
Thousands of migrants who live in Canada, including Indians, lose their work permits due to long delays in the renewal process of paperwork, because growing backlogs and changing rules hinder the efforts to maintain legal status. Despite paying taxes, migrants in Canada cannot work legally or have access to medical care and other services if they lose their legal status.
Among those who have lost their permit, Devi Acharya, who moved from India to Canada in October 2022, is from India. Acharya a miscarriage in March because she did not go to a hospital because she could not afford any other medical bill. She has no health coverage for the same reason that she cannot work – her work permit went while she was waiting for an effect assessment of the labor market, and if she was looking for medical care, she could get a substantial bill.
“If I received medical help on time, we might have been able to save the baby,” she said Reuters.
Acharya worked in household in the Highliner Hotel of Prince Rupert in British Columbia before she lost her job. She loved work and recently bought a house with her husband.
In September they applied for the impact assessments of a new labor market, her immigration adviser told Reuters. They have not received a response and their work permits have expired. They are legal in Canada, but cannot work. Their son, Navdev, now five years old, cannot go to school.
“Two years before we dreamed of making Canada at home,” she said, “and now it's shattering.”
Canada's migrant crisis
Canada has long blamed migrants for the efforts of services and resources in the midst of housing shortages and rising rental prices. Ottawa tries to reduce the number of migrants and allegedly trusts people to leave voluntarily to achieve his goals. Living without papers in Canada is partly rare because it is so difficult to access services without status.
The processing time of the labor market effect assessment for temporary employees in the hope of becoming permanent inhabitants in Canada has increased since at least 2022. It has almost tripled from 58 working days in September 2023 to 165 working days in March 2025.
Citing an e-mail from Service Canada that processes these applications- Reuters reported that on 1 April 2025 the department still processed the labor market effect assessment applications that was submitted a year earlier.
“We are now seeing a backlog of more than a year. … It is the first time we see such a delay,” said Immigration Advisor Kanwar Sierah.
It is not known exactly how many people have lost their work permits as a result of delays so far, but Reuters spoke with at least four families who are in this need.
According to the Canadian immigration department, migrants can continue to work as long as they get an impact assessment from the labor market that is necessary to retain their status within 60 days after an application to extend their work permit. But the department has no guidelines for people who have lost the status because of a long wait.
The Department has, partly, attributed the longer Wachter to an influx of applications, but would not offer the number of applications that belong per month. The number of people applying for work permits in the country has grown compared to last year, just like the share of those applications that Canada refuses, according to data from the Canadian immigration department.
Experts say that changing rules, as well as more applicants, can contribute to the growing backlog.
“People lose their immigration status,” Sierah said, and added that some people work under the table for exploitation of employers or fall victim to “unscrupulous actors” who give them bad advice, for example by tracing them asylum when they don't have a strong case.
The liberal government of Canada promised to give the status of people without papers, but then went back and said it would offer it on a small scale for people who work in certain sectors.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who leads polls prior to an elections of 28 April, promises to receive immigration for the time being.
