Foreign nationals who want to work, study or visit Canada usually need to get a Canada visa and applying for one can be relatively easy by following these simple steps.

Step 1: Identify the Canada Visa Needed

The first part of the process is to identify the purpose of the visit to Canada. International students need to apply for a study permit, a student visa. Temporary foreign workers need to apply for work permits.

And visitors – with the notable exception of those who come from countries that only require an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) – will need to get a temporary resident visa.

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A work visa allows the foreign national to live and work in the country for a fixed period of time under specific conditions. The precise conditions are determined by the conditions of that employment and how the applicant lands that job.

There are three main types of work visa:

• open;
• employer-specific, and;
• post-graduate.

With an Open Work Permit, a foreign national can work anywhere in Canada for any employer without that business having to go through a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).

Employer-specific work permits, on the other hand, only allow foreign nationals to work for specific employers who have tried, through the LMIA process, to find Canadians to do those jobs. When the employer is unable to find a suitable candidate in Canada, he or she can hire a foreign national who then has to get an employer-specific visa.

The last type of work permit is for international students who have studied at a Canadian college or university, graduated, and now want to continue to live and work in Canada. The Post-Graduate Work Program permit (PGWP) allows them to do that and the length of time of the permit depends on the length of the study program they completed.

Step 2: Download and Fill Out the Right Forms

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) offers the application forms on its website, Find an IRCC Application Package or Form.

Go there. 

Select An Application Package under the question, “What are you looking for?” and choose the category Immigrate, Visit, Work or Study in the drop-down menu.

In the drop-down menu for “What are you applying for?” choose the reason for coming to Canada. 

A prospective international student currently living outside of Canada would, for example, select To Study in Canada and then in the next drop-down menu choose Study Permit Applications – From Outside of Canada.

The IRCC website takes applicants to a similar Get The Application Package button no matter the reason for wanting a visa.

Clicking that button brings the applicant to a webpage which allows him or her to download the application package to complete a paper application. Foreign nationals also have the option of applying online.

Access to a scanner or camera to create electronic copies of documents to upload and a valid credit card to make payments are both required for applicants to apply online. 

Step 3: Check out the Processing Times

It’s a good idea for applicants for Canadian visas to check the current processing times which vary by type of visa and the country in which the foreign national resides.

Getting a temporary work permit can take up to 23 weeks for someone in China, for example, not including the time for the application to get to Canada or for the applicant to give biometrics.  An application for same kind of visa for someone in the United States would only take eight weeks.

Step 4: Pay the Application Fees

Payment methods for the fees for a Canadian visa also depend on the kind of visa requested and the foreign national’s current country of residence but the specific instructions for each country are available on the IRCC website.