The International Mobility Program

If you hold a work permit in Canada, you have probably seen headlines about "temporary foreign workers" and wondered whether they are talking about you. Often the answer is: not really. Canada has two very different work permit programs, and public conversation tends to fold them into one. That can leave graduates, spouses, young travellers and skilled transferees feeling blamed for rules that were never written about them, or worried about changes that do not touch their permit. This guide untangles the two, using IRCC’s own numbers, so you can read the news calmly and know where you stand.

Two programs, often called by one name

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is run with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Before hiring, the employer applies to ESDC for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), which checks that hiring from abroad will not take a job a Canadian or permanent resident could fill. Only then can the worker apply to IRCC for a permit tied to that employer. The International Mobility Program (IMP) is run by IRCC alone and covers every work permit that is exempt from an LMIA. Some IMP permits are open, so you can work for almost any employer; others are tied to one employer, who submits an offer of employment through IRCC’s Employer Portal instead of getting an LMIA. Both programs give people a real work permit; they simply exist for different reasons.

trackyourapp.ca

Who is in the International Mobility Program

The IMP is not one stream but a family of them. Each exists because Canada has decided the work brings a broader benefit: to the economy, to Canada’s trade partners, to families, or to young people on both sides of an exchange. The ones you are most likely to meet are:

• Graduates of Canadian colleges and universities on a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), an open permit.
• Spouses and partners, and in some cases children, of eligible students, skilled workers and people applying for permanent residence, on family open work permits.
• Young people from partner countries in International Experience Canada (IEC), including the Working Holiday open permit, Young Professionals and International Co-op.
• Intra-company transferees: executives, managers and specialists moving within the same company.
• Professionals, traders and investors under trade agreements such as CUSMA, CETA and CPTPP.
• People already applying for permanent residence, who keep working on a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) while IRCC decides.
• Smaller streams with a clear public purpose, such as francophone mobility, researchers, co-op students, charitable and religious work, and open permits for workers leaving an abusive job.

Being exempt from an LMIA does not always mean being free to change jobs: a CUSMA professional, for example, needs no LMIA but is still tied to one employer. Our work permit guide explains open and employer-specific permits in more detail.

trackyourapp.ca

What IRCC’s numbers say

IRCC publishes how many work permits take effect each year, split by program. In 2025, 754,915 work permits took effect. Of those, 585,585 were under the International Mobility Program and 169,330 under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Inside each program, IRCC groups them like this:

• IMP, "Canadian interests": 436,285. This is the largest group, and it covers most of the categories listed above.
• IMP, "other participants": 112,375, and international agreements such as CUSMA: 26,795.
• TFWP: 67,670 agricultural workers and 98,255 other workers with an LMIA, the group most people picture when they hear "temporary foreign worker".

Why the mix-up matters for you

When "temporary foreign workers" is used for everyone, it blurs who a policy actually affects. A few habits help:

• When you read about a change to LMIAs, wages for LMIA jobs, or limits on low-wage LMIA positions, that is a TFWP rule. On its own, it does not change a PGWP, a spousal open work permit or an IEC permit.
• When you read about PGWP eligibility, family open work permits or IEC quotas, that is an IMP rule, and it will not change an LMIA-based permit.
• When a headline gives one big number for "temporary foreign workers", ask which program it counts. In 2025, nearly four in five work permits were not in the TFWP.
• Your own permit tells you which program you are in: if it is open, or if your employer never needed an LMIA, you are in the IMP.

Protecting yourself from people who use the confusion

Mix-ups like this create room for people who sell "LMIA jobs" or promise a permit for a fee. Whichever program you are in, a few things stay true:

• An LMIA is applied for and paid for by the employer. If anyone asks you to buy one, or to pay for a job offer, treat it as a warning sign.
• Under the TFWP, ESDC says your employer cannot make you pay to get or keep your job, cannot ask you to repay recruitment fees, and cannot take your passport or work permit. IRCC publishes a separate guide to your rights for IMP workers.
• A worker on an employer-specific permit who is being abused can apply for an open work permit for vulnerable workers, which is itself part of the IMP.

If something feels wrong, you can check an offer or a representative against IRCC’s fraud and scams pages before you pay anything or share your documents.

Both programs can lead to permanent residence

Skilled work in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 counts toward the Canadian Experience Class whether your permit came through the TFWP or the IMP, and many provincial streams accept both too. So a PGWP holder and an LMIA-based worker can be building toward the same goal. If you have already applied, a Bridging Open Work Permit can keep you working while you wait. Our Express Entry guide walks through the next steps.