Caregiver and home care worker pathways: what is open, what closed, and when

Start with the fact that governs everything else here. As at 18 September 2026 there is no federal permanent residence program for caregivers accepting new applications. Not one. The Home Care Worker Immigration pilots, which were the current route, are described by IRCC in a single line: "The pilots are closed while we focus on processing existing applications."

Caregiver immigration has opened, closed and been replaced so often that much of what is written about it online describes programs that ended years ago. People are still being recruited today against pathways that do not exist.

What closed, and when

Every date below is published by IRCC on its own pages.

The most recent closure catches the most people. The pilots opened in 2025 with two streams, workers in Canada and applicants not working in Canada. On 19 December 2025 IRCC announced that "In order to prioritize processing of existing applications, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will pause intake until further notice. This means that the pilots' intake will not re-open in March 2026."

IRCC gave demand as the reason: "Due to ongoing high demand, interest in the Home Care Worker Immigration pilots continues to exceed the spaces available, leading to longer wait times." It will continue to process applications received to date, and future updates will be shared publicly. No reopening date has been announced.

What the Home Care Worker pilots asked for

The requirements are worth knowing, because filed applications are assessed against them and they show what a future program is likely to look for.

• Language: level 4 in all four abilities on the Canadian Language Benchmarks or the NCLC scale.
• Education: the equivalent of a completed Canadian high school diploma or higher.
• Either 6 months of continuous, full-time and relevant work experience within the past 3 years, or a relevant training credential completed within the past 2 years.
• A job offer as a home child care provider or home support worker, and a plan to work outside Quebec.
• Child Care occupations: home child care providers (44100) and early childhood educators and assistants (42202).
• Home Support occupations: home support workers, caregivers and related occupations (44101) and nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates (33102).

The streams differed at the edges. Workers in Canada was for people already here with valid work authorisation, or covered by a public policy for those without status. The other required settlement funds. A CLB 4 threshold and a high school equivalent is a low bar, part of why demand outran the spaces.

Working as a caregiver is not immigrating as one

This is where most of the confusion and most of the harm lives. Hiring a caregiver temporarily through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is a separate system that is still running, and it does not lead anywhere on its own.

A private household can hire a foreign caregiver for two categories of work: care for children under 18, in occupations such as child care provider or nanny (44100), and care for people aged 65 or over or with a disability or a chronic or terminal illness, such as home support worker or personal care attendant (44101). Hiring may be live-in or live-out.

The employer applies and pays for a Labour Market Impact Assessment, and only once it is positive can you apply for a work permit. Employment duration is capped by the stream: a maximum of 1 year for a low-wage position and up to 3 years for a high-wage one. ESDC states that the program "may refuse to process Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications received from employers seeking to hire in-home caregivers exclusively on a live-in basis". Where a worker does live in, the accommodation must be a private, furnished bedroom with a lock and safety bolt on the inside, and the caregiver must not be charged room and board. None of that leads to permanent residence.

Why caregiving experience counts differently

This is the technical point nobody explains, and it changes what caregivers should aim at. Most federal economic programs are built around work in NOC TEER categories 0, 1, 2 or 3.

In the National Occupational Classification 2021 the second digit of the five-digit code is the TEER category. Home child care providers (44100) and home support workers, caregivers and related occupations (44101) both carry a 4 there, placing them in TEER 4. So years of that work do not build the experience the Canadian Experience Class asks for. That is why caregivers needed dedicated pilots, and why the closure is a genuine gap rather than a delay.

Two of the pilots' eligible occupations sit differently. Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates (33102) is TEER 3, and early childhood educators and assistants (42202) is TEER 2. Both fall inside the range the Canadian Experience Class and most provincial skilled streams work with. If the choice between a private household and a regulated setting is open to you, it matters more than almost anything else you will decide.

What is actually available to a caregiver now

There is no federal replacement. What exists is a set of general routes a caregiver may or may not fit.

• Provincial nominee streams. Several provinces run health and care streams with their own occupation lists, and a nomination is worth 600 additional points in Express Entry.
• Express Entry category-based selection, which includes a healthcare and social services category. Eligibility generally requires at least 12 months of full-time work experience in a single listed occupation within the past 3 years.
• The Canadian Experience Class, if your Canadian work has been TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3: at least 1 year, or 1,560 hours, in the 3 years before you apply.
• Upgrading. A credential that moves you out of TEER 4 work changes which programs can consider you.
• French. French-language proficiency is a standing Express Entry category requiring a minimum score of 7 in all four abilities on the NCLC scale, with no occupation requirement.

Whether any is realistic for you is an individual question. What is general is that none is a caregiver program, and none treats TEER 4 home care work as qualifying experience.

If you are already here on a caregiver work permit

You have rights that do not depend on your employer. Your employer must give you a signed copy of your employment agreement on or before your first day. Your employer cannot take your passport or work permit, cannot make you reimburse recruitment-related fees, cannot punish you for reporting mistreatment, unsafe work or inadequate housing, and cannot deport you or change your immigration status.

Live-in work concentrates that risk, which is why the private, lockable bedroom and the prohibition on charging room and board exist. If you are being abused or at risk of abuse in relation to your job, IRCC operates an open work permit for vulnerable workers that lets you work for almost any employer. Abuse can also be reported anonymously to Service Canada's confidential tip line. Before leaving an employer-specific job, get advice on what it does to your status.

Can I apply for permanent residence as a caregiver right now?

Not through a federal caregiver program. IRCC states the Home Care Worker Immigration pilots are closed while it processes existing applications, and intake was paused on 19 December 2025. The earlier Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot ended on 17 June 2024.

Will the Home Care Worker pilots reopen?

IRCC has not said. Its notice states intake is paused until further notice, that the pilots would not re-open in March 2026, and that future updates will be shared publicly. Treat any source claiming a reopening date as unverified until it appears on an IRCC page.

I already applied. What happens to my application?

IRCC states it will continue to process applications received to date. The pause applies to new intake, not to files already in the system. IRCC publishes current processing times on canada.ca, and that is the figure to rely on.

Can I still come to Canada to work as a caregiver?

Yes, that is a separate system. A private household can hire a foreign caregiver through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for care of children under 18, or of people aged 65 or over or with a disability or chronic or terminal illness. The employer must obtain a positive LMIA first. It is temporary work only.

Does caregiver work count towards the Canadian Experience Class?

Usually not. That program requires TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 experience, and home child care providers (44100) and home support workers, caregivers and related occupations (44101) are TEER 4. Nurse aides (33102) is TEER 3 and early childhood educators and assistants (42202) is TEER 2, so those do fall within range.

An agency says it can register me before the program reopens. Is that real?

No. A closed program has no queue and no reservation list. There is also no lawful basis for charging you, since ESDC prohibits recruitment fees being recovered from a temporary foreign worker. Check anyone charging you for advice on the public register of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.

If you are working in care in Canada, our consultant can assess what is genuinely open to you now. Book a consultation

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