Full details revealed: Are you eligible to apply for PR under the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots?

Foreign nationals interested in immigrating to Canada as home care workers can now access full details for these programs.

See if you’re eligible for the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot

The Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot (HCWP) is now formally divided into two pilot programs:

• The Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot: Child Care; and
• The Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot: Home Support.

As previously announced each program will feature two streams:

• The Workers in Canada Stream; and
• The Applicants not working in Canada Stream.

The Workers in Canada stream for each pilot will accept applications from 10am EDT on March 31, 2025 to March 30, 2026, or until the cap has been reached.

Details for the Applicants not working in Canada stream of each pilot will be released at a later date.

This article will cover updated information for the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot (HCWP), including:

• A summary of all announced eligibility requirements for these streams;
• Which occupations have been selected for these pilot programs;
• Professional education training requirements for candidates;
• Which job offers are accepted and eligibility criteria for employers who may issue them;
• Important requirements and conditions for in-Canada and out-of-status foreign nationals who wish to apply;
• Needed settlement funds for applicants outside Canada; and
• Application fees.

Summary of eligibility requirements

The following table provides a summary of all announced eligibility requirements for the HCWP programs:

Which occupations have been selected for the HCWP?

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has now specified the kinds of home care workers who are eligible under the HCWP.

These are divided into two categories, each with its own pilot program: Child Care and Home Support.

Applicants to the HCWP must have 6 months of continuous and relevant, full-time work experience in the last three years, or they must have a six-month long relevant educational credential. Qualifying work experience must be in one or both of the National Occupational Classifications (NOCs)* associated with the pilot they apply for.

HCWP: Child Care

The eligible occupations for the Child Care pilot are as follows:

• Home Child Care Providers (NOC 44100): Individuals who provide childcare services in private households, including babysitters, nannies, and parent’s helpers.
  • Experience as a foster parent does not count toward eligibility.
• Early Childhood Educators and Assistants (NOC 42202)
  • Work experience as an early childhood educator, daycare teacher, or supervisor does not count toward eligibility.

HCWP: Home Support

Eligible occupations under the Home Support pilot are as follows:

• Home Support Workers, Caregivers, and Related Occupations (NOC 44101).
• Nurse Aides, Orderlies, and Patient Service Associates (NOC 33102)
  • Work experience gained in an institutional setting (such as long-term care facilities) may be eligible.

To count for this program, work experience cannot

• Have been gained as a full-time student; or
• Have been gained through self-employment.

*Canada uses the National Occupation Classification system to categorize and describe different occupations, based on their industry, roles, and responsibilities. Canada similarly uses the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) to perform this same function for educational programs in the country.

Professional training requirements for the HCWP

Foreign nationals without qualifying work experience can qualify through having the appropriate professional training.

In place of work experience, these applicants may instead present an eligible and relevant educational credential of at least six months, completed in the last two years.

This credential may have been completed either inside or outside Canada.

To be considered eligible and relevant, the educational credential must

• Be geared towards an eligible NOC for one of the HCWP pilot programs;
• Be at the post-secondary level;
• Be from a full-time study program (at least 15 hours per week);
• Have been offered primarily in an in-person classroom environment; and
• Have been completed within two years prior to applying.

In addition to the above, applicants to the HCWP must have been at least 17 years of age or older when they started their education credential.

Education credentials under each pilot program must align with the following NOCs (and not be included in exclusions) listed below:

A foreign national cannot use an educational credential geared toward the Home Support pilot to qualify for the Child Care pilot, or vice versa.

Ineligible education credentials

An education credential is ineligible for the HCWP programs if

• Training in the program was targeted towards occupations other than the ones listed in the table above;
• Training was completed primarily online; or
• Training was completed as part of on-the-job training.

What job offers are accepted under the HCWP programs?

Job offers must meet all the following conditions to be eligible for the HCWP:

• Be for a job in an eligible NOC and work setting;
• Be in Canada and outside the province of Quebec; and
• Be for full-time continuous work (at least 30 hours per week, with no set end date).

The job offer should also specify hourly wages, employment requirements, and a description of the main duties of the role.

The applicant must also be likely to accept the job offer and to perform the roles and responsibilities described in the job offer. IRCC will assess past training and work experience of applicants to determine this.

Eligible NOCs and work settings

Job offers must be in one of the NOCs and in an eligible place of work.

Job offers for NOCs 42202 and 33102 are not eligible for this program, although work experience and/or training related to these NOCs does qualify.

For both programs, a job offer cannot be for a job in an institutional setting, such as a daycare or nursing home.

What is considered a “genuine” job offer?

To be considered genuine, the job offer must meet the following criteria:

• Real need: The employer must demonstrate a legitimate need to hire you.
• Ability to fulfill terms: The employer must be capable of fulfilling all terms of the job, including providing the agreed-upon wages.
• Compliance with laws: The employer must adhere to all relevant rules and regulations established by
  • IRCC; and
  • Federal and provincial legislation.
• Wage requirements: Your wage must be equal to or higher than the median wage for the occupation listed in your job offer according to Canada’s Job Bank for the province or territory of employment. If there is no provincial or territorial median wage available, the national median wage must be used.
• Unionized workplaces: If the employer’s workers are unionized, the conditions of the collective union agreement will apply.
• Employer’s operational requirement: If the employer is a business or non-profit organization, it must have been providing the same type of care services as described in the job offer for at least one year before the job offer was made.

Which employers are eligible to issue job offers under the HCWP?

All employers in Canada must have a Canada Revenue Agency business number.

The following types of employers can issue HCWP-eligible job offers:

• Private households: Individual families or persons hiring care providers directly; and
• Businesses or Non-profit organizations: Entities that have a direct employer-employee relationship, meaning they are directly responsible for:
  • Hiring the employee;
  • Managing work conditions; and
  • Paying the employee.

These organizations may also include those that hire full-time workers to provide short-term or occasional home care for individuals who are semi-independent or recovering from injury or illness.

Examples of such employers include:

• Home health care service providers;
• Home care support service providers;
• Direct care agencies;
• Personal care services in residential settings; and
• Pediatric home health care service providers.

Ineligible employers under the HCWP

Job offers from the following employers are not eligible for an HCWP program:

• Recruitment or placement agencies;
• Embassies, a high commission or a consulate, or persons accredited to these missions in Canada (for example, a diplomat);
• Employer found non-compliant with legal or program regulations;
• The applicant themselves (self-employed); or
• The applicant’s spouse, common-law partner, parent, grandparent, or child.

Requirements for Workers in Canada applicants and those out-of-status

Workers in Canada

For foreign nationals to be eligible for the Workers in Canada stream or either pilot program, they must be:

• Already living in Canada; and
• Authorized to work in the country through either
  • Holding a valid work permit;
  • Having maintained status; or
  • Having legal work authorization through a public policy.

Applicants may be physically outside Canada at the time of their application, but they must prove that they usually reside in Canada.

Note that work completed as a business visitor, or while on a study permit does not count as eligible work authorizations under the HCWP programs.

Out-of-status workers

Part of the HCWP program allocations (140 spots in each stream) is devoted to regularizing out-of-status workers in Canada who meet all other eligibility criteria, under a new regularization public policy.

This means certain foreign nationals may apply through the program even if

• They don’t currently have legal status in Canada and are not authorized to work;
• They hold legal status as a visitor but are not authorized to work; and/or
• Their previous work experience as a home care worker was either not authorized or not gained under a legal temporary work status.

These individuals must still meet all other eligibility criteria of the HCWP program they apply for, and must meet all conditions of the public policy, listed below.

To be eligible under the regularization policy, foreign nationals applying to an HCWP program must:

• Be in Canada when they apply;
• Not currently hold a:
• Have entered Canada on or before December 16, 2021, and lived in the country continuously since then;
• Have held a work permit at some point after December 16, 2021;
• Not be inadmissible to Canada for reasons other than
  • Having overstayed their temporary resident status;
  • Having worked or studied in Canada without authorization; and/or
  • Having a family member who overstayed their temporary resident status and/or worked or studied in Canada without authorization.

Note that applicants are not eligible through the regularization policy if:

• They made a refugee claim;
• They are subject to a removal order; or
• They are currently in Canada on a study permit.

If foreign nationals meet all the above conditions, they may apply through the regularization allocation of the HCWP program streams, and may even include their out-of-status family members as part of their permanent residence application.

Needed settlement funds

Foreign nationals applying under the Applicants not working in Canada stream will need to show proof of settlement funds as part of their application to an HCWP program.

The amount of funds that need to be shown depends on the size of an applicant’s family, including:

• Themselves;
• Their spouse or common-law partner;
• Their dependent children; and
• Their spouse or common-law partner’s dependent children.

Applicants must include their spouse or common-law partner and all their dependent children, even if they are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and even if they are not accompanying the applicant to Canada.

Applicants not working in Canada must show the following settlement funds, based on the size of their family:

Application fees for HCWP programs

Applicants under either pilot program and stream therein are subject to the following fees unless given specific exemptions:

Note that under Canadian immigration law, employers cannot collect recruitment fees from applicants, nor back charge recruitment fees that they paid to hire a foreign national.

See if you’re eligible for the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilot