Employer-specific or open: which work permit you actually hold

Two people can hold a document with the same title and the same layout and have completely different freedom in Canada. One can quit on Friday and start somewhere else on Monday. The other breaks the law by doing that. The difference is printed on the permit, and most workers have never read that part of it.

IRCC puts it simply: "There are 2 types of work permits: employer-specific work permits and open work permits." Everything that follows, including what happens when the job goes wrong, depends on which one you hold.

How to tell which one you are holding

Take the permit out and read three sections of it. IRCC names them. Under Additional Information you will find "the employer, location and occupation". Under Conditions there is "a numbered list of requirements you need to meet". Under Remarks there may be "additional clarifications or conditions that you may need to meet".

If a company name appears in that Additional Information field, you hold an employer-specific permit, also called a closed permit. If the field says you may work for any employer, you hold an open permit. Do not decide this from what a recruiter told you. Decide it from the document.

There is a third shape. IRCC describes an occupation-restricted open work permit as one that "lets you work for any employer, but only in the occupation listed on the work permit", and with it you can change employers without a new permit provided the new job is in that same occupation.

What an employer-specific permit actually restricts

An employer-specific work permit, in IRCC's words, "lets you work in Canada under the conditions of the permit until the expiry date". The restriction is broader than people assume. It is not only the employer. It commonly fixes the occupation and the work location too.

That matters in situations nobody thinks of as a change of job. A promotion into a different role, a transfer to the company's other site in another city, a shift into a related position: each can put you outside the conditions on the document even though your employer has not changed and nobody has been dishonest.

IRCC states the obligation in one line. Read it as a legal instruction, not a formality.

You must comply with all the information listed on your work permit.

IRCC, Employer-specific work permits

Why those conditions are binding, and not administrative detail

The conditions are not your employer's preferences. They are imposed under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, and the Regulations are what give them force.

Section 183 imposes conditions on every temporary resident in Canada, including the condition "to not work, unless authorized by this Part or Part 11". Section 185 then lets an officer impose specific conditions on an individual, and the list is precise: the type of work, the employer, the duration of the work for any one employer, the location of the work, and the times and periods of the work.

So when your permit names an employer, an occupation and a city, those are not descriptive labels. They are the outer boundary of what you are authorised to do. Work outside them and you are not a worker with a paperwork problem, you are a person working without authorisation.

Which situations produce an open work permit

An open permit is not something you choose. IRCC is blunt: "You can apply for an open work permit only under specific situations." It is also mostly an in-Canada document, because IRCC states that most people applying from outside Canada cannot get one. The eligible situations fall into four families.

• Students, graduates and youth, which includes International Experience Canada Working Holiday participants and students who can no longer meet the costs of their studies.
• Spouses and dependent children, including family members of permanent residence applicants and family members of work permit holders.
• Vulnerable people, including refugees, asylum claimants and protected persons, people in crisis, and victims of workplace abuse.
• Other applicants, including Indigenous Peoples, permanent residence applicants, temporary resident permit holders and Quebec investors.

Several of those routes have detailed rules of their own, covered separately on this site. The point here is structural: an open permit is granted because of your situation, not because you asked for flexibility.

What an open permit removes is the employer's side of the process. IRCC notes that because open permits are not job-specific, your employer does not need to apply for a labour market impact assessment, submit an offer of employment, or pay the employer compliance fee. That is why it is worth so much more than a closed permit in practice.

What an open permit still does not let you do

Open does not mean unconditional. IRCC's definition carves out two categories of employer: those "on the non-compliant list", and those who "regularly offer striptease, erotic dance or escort services, or erotic massages". Those exclusions sit in section 183 of the Regulations as conditions on the worker, not only as rules for employers. Check the non-compliant list before accepting an offer.

There can also be restrictions printed on the permit itself. IRCC gives two examples: limits on the type of work, such as a medical examination required before working in certain jobs, and limits on where you can work, such as an open permit under a provincial nominee class that is valid in one province only. Those are conditions like any other.

What a closed permit does to your bargaining position

This is where the two documents differ most, and it has nothing to do with paperwork. It is about leverage. If you hold an open permit and the job is bad, you leave. If you hold a closed permit, your legal permission to earn money in Canada is attached to one company. IRCC states the consequence of losing that job plainly: you must "stop working for this, or any other, employer until your new work permit is approved". A worker who knows that thinks twice before complaining about anything.

Which is why the rules underneath do not leave you with nothing. Canada's labour laws apply to you whichever permit you hold. IRCC states that your employer must pay you for your work, must make sure your workplace is safe, and "can't take your passport or work permit away from you". On an employer-specific permit, your employer must also give you a signed employment agreement setting out the job, the conditions, the maximum weekly hours and your rate of pay.

And on the one point that fear usually settles wrongly, IRCC is direct: "You don't need your employer's permission to contact these offices or go to their websites. You also can't be punished or deported for contacting them." The offices in question are the provincial and territorial employment or labour standards offices. Your employer does not control your status. IRCC does.

What no work permit does, whichever one you hold

Three limits apply to both types, and each catches people every year.

1. A work permit is not a travel document. IRCC states it plainly: "A work permit isn't a travel document. It doesn't give you the right to travel to Canada." You also need a valid passport and either a visitor visa or an electronic travel authorisation.
2. A valid permit plus a valid visa or eTA is still not a guarantee of entry. IRCC states that you must satisfy the border services officer that you meet all the requirements before you can re-enter.
3. A work permit is temporary by design. It authorises work until a date. It does not make you a permanent resident and it does not convert into status on its own.

None of this makes a closed permit a bad document. Most people who work in Canada start with one. It makes it a document you have to read, because its conditions are the terms of your lawful presence.

My permit names my employer. Can I take a second part-time job on the side?

No. The permit authorises work under the conditions printed on it, which normally name one employer and one occupation. A second job outside those conditions is unauthorised work, and section 200(3)(e) of the Regulations can block a new work permit for six months afterwards.

My employer wants to move me to their other branch in a different province. Is that a problem?

It can be, because the work location is one of the conditions an officer may impose under section 185 of the Regulations. If your permit names a location, moving outside it needs to be assessed before you go, not after.

Can I ask for an open work permit instead of an employer-specific one?

Not as a preference. IRCC states that you can apply for an open work permit only under specific situations. Eligibility comes from your circumstances, such as being a family member of certain applicants or a victim of workplace abuse.

Does an open work permit really let me work for anyone?

Almost. IRCC excludes employers on the non-compliant list and employers who regularly offer striptease, erotic dance, escort services or erotic massages. Your permit may also carry printed restrictions on the type of work or the province where you can work.

What is an occupation-restricted open work permit?

IRCC describes it as a permit that lets you work for any employer but only in the occupation named on it. You can change employers without a new permit provided the new job is in that same occupation and you meet the other conditions.

My employer is holding my passport for safekeeping. Is that allowed?

No. IRCC states that your employer cannot take your passport or work permit away from you. If it has happened, that is worth raising with a licensed RCIC quickly, because it often sits alongside other problems in the employment relationship.

If you are not certain what the conditions on your permit allow, or a change at work is about to take you outside them, have it read before anything changes. Book a consultation

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