Canada H1B: routes that are open now

Is the Canada H1B work permit open right now?

No. As of this update, IRCC's H-1B status page reads Closed, and it has read that way since the initiative capped out in 2023. The only two things still moving under the old policy are an extension window for existing permit holders, open until December 16, 2026, and the long-passed September 26, 2024 deadline for family members of the original applicants. If you are a current H-1B holder in the US who has never held this Canadian permit, there is currently no version of it to apply for. IRCC's page answers the status question and stops there. The useful question is the one it does not touch: which Canadian route you can use instead, and what it takes to qualify for it.

What was the 2023 Canada H1B open work permit and why did it close?

In 2023, IRCC ran a time-limited public policy letting H-1B visa holders in the US apply for a Canadian open work permit valid for up to three years, for a $155 fee, with no requirement to already have a Canadian job offer. It was framed as a way to keep highly skilled workers in North America amid US visa backlogs. Demand overwhelmed it: the program reached its cap of 10,000 applications on July 17, 2023, within roughly 48 hours of opening, and IRCC closed new applications immediately. Family members of successful applicants had a longer window, an open work permit application deadline of September 26, 2024, which has also now passed. The program was never reopened, extended, or expanded to a second cohort.

Canada's 2026 accelerated H-1B pathway: what is confirmed and what is not

Canada's November 2025 federal budget announced an accelerated pathway for H-1B visa holders, written up almost everywhere since as the Canada H1B fast track program. It was positioned as part of a wider push to attract skilled talent in healthcare, research and advanced industries, and pointedly timed against a US$100,000 fee the US introduced for new H-1B petitions in September 2025. The same budget set aside up to $1.7 billion CAD to recruit over 1,000 international researchers, split across an accelerated research chairs initiative, university research infrastructure and support for hiring international assistant professors.

How to be ready before the next cap race: your document pack

The 2023 stream filled in about two days. If a similar cap applies to the 2026 pathway, speed at opening will matter more than a polished application, so the practical move is to assemble your paperwork now, not when a form appears.

1. 01

   Passport and current H-1B evidence

   A passport valid well beyond any planned Canadian stay, your I-797 approval notice, and evidence of your current H-1B status and employer.

2. 02

   Educational Credential Assessment

   Have your degree assessed by a designated organisation now. An ECA can take weeks and is needed for almost every PR route, so it should never be the bottleneck.

3. 03

   Language test

   Sit IELTS General Training or CELPIP ahead of time. Language is one of the largest CRS factors and the one most within your control.

4. 04

   Police certificates and identity documents

   An FBI identity history summary covering your time in the US, plus certificates from any other country you have lived in for six months or more.

5. 05

   Employer letters

   A confirmation letter detailing your title, duties, salary and hours from your current and past employers, formatted to what IRCC expects for foreign work experience.

Two of those documents decide more files than people expect. IRCC assesses your work history from the employment letter for Express Entry, which has to state your title, dates, hours, salary and main duties in a form an officer can match to a National Occupational Classification code. Your test result then feeds straight into the Express Entry language requirements, which carry more points than almost anything else on the profile. Both take weeks to obtain properly, so start them now rather than when a form appears.

Which Canadian route fits your H-1B profile?

There is no single Canada H1B route. The right one depends on whether your US employer has a Canadian arm, your occupation, your nationality and whether you already have a Canadian connection.

How a Canadian work permit differs from the H-1B you hold now

The two systems look similar from a distance and behave very differently in practice. The differences below are the ones that change how people plan the move: who controls the permit, whether your partner can work, and how the permanent residence step is reached.

Intra-company transfer: moving inside the employer you already work for

If your US employer already operates in Canada, an intra-company transfer to Canada (ICT) is usually the fastest legal way in. It is an LMIA exempt work permit under the International Mobility Program, and it moves executives, senior managers and specialised-knowledge staff into a qualifying Canadian parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate. You typically need at least one year of continuous employment with the company in the last three years, and both the US and Canadian entities must be genuinely, actively doing business, not just paper affiliates. Nationality is not a factor: an Indian, Chinese or any other H-1B holder qualifies on the same terms as an American one. The permit can lead to permanent residence once you have built qualifying Canadian work experience.

Global Talent Stream: the fastest employer-led route for tech and engineering roles

Without a Canadian entity, a Canadian employer willing to hire you can use the Global Talent Stream (GTS), a faster LMIA work permit route built for innovative employers hiring highly skilled talent, largely in technology. The employer still obtains an LMIA, but on an expedited service standard often quoted at around ten business days, and eligible workers can then get their work permit processed in around two weeks under the Global Skills Strategy, a target IRCC aims to meet for complete applications. Category B covers roles on the Global Talent Occupations List, largely software, data and systems roles, exactly the profile of many H-1B holders. Like the ICT, it does not care what passport you hold, only the role and the employer.

Why CUSMA usually does not help H-1B holders

Several guides list the CUSMA work permit (formerly NAFTA) alongside the ICT and GTS as a fast route, without flagging the catch that trips most H-1B holders up: CUSMA work permits are limited to citizens of the United States and Mexico. It does not matter that your visa is issued by the US, or that your employer is American; what matters is your citizenship. Since most H-1B holders are Indian or Chinese nationals working for US employers, CUSMA is simply not available to them, no matter how well their profession fits the CUSMA professional list. If you personally hold US or Mexican citizenship and work in a listed profession with a Canadian job offer, CUSMA is genuinely fast, sometimes issued at the border. For everyone else, the ICT and GTS are the nationality-neutral equivalents.

Express Entry: what a typical H-1B profile scores on the CRS

Without a Canadian employer, most H-1B holders move to Canada through Express Entry, which ranks candidates by the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Your H-1B years count as foreign skilled work experience, and age, education and language do the heaviest lifting. A Canadian job offer no longer adds CRS points on its own, IRCC removed those points in 2025, so a strong CRS score now rests on the candidate's own profile plus a provincial nomination. Our free CRS calculator scores your specific numbers in a couple of minutes.

The harder truth is timing. Through most of 2026, IRCC has not run a single general, all-program Express Entry draw, inviting candidates instead through Canadian Experience Class rounds (which need Canadian work experience you do not have yet) or category-based rounds tied to a specific occupation list. The September 1, 2026 CEC round landed at a CRS cut-off of 521, and the pool itself was crowded: as of August 30, 2026, Express Entry held 226,673 candidates, with the single largest band, CRS 451 to 500, holding 74,105 of them. In practice, a strong profile with no Canadian employer and no provincial nomination can sit in the pool without an invitation for a long time. That is the real gap a provincial nomination closes.

Mapping your H-1B occupation to a Canadian NOC code

Every Canadian application, work permit or permanent residence, runs on the TEER categories of the 2021 National Occupational Classification rather than on your US job title. Most H-1B technology roles land in TEER 1: software developers and programmers at NOC 21232, software engineers and designers at 21231, data scientists at 21211, cybersecurity specialists at 21220, computer engineers at 21311 and computer and information systems managers at 20012. IRCC matches the duties written in your reference letter to the code, not the title on your offer letter, so a solutions architect can sit in more than one code depending on what the letter actually describes. Getting it right matters twice over, because category-based Express Entry rounds and most provincial tech streams draw from occupation lists, and the wrong code quietly leaves you out of the draw you were counting on. Our NOC code finder is the fastest way to check yours before an ECA or an employer letter is finalised.

Provincial Nominee Programs, including Alberta, for H-1B holders

A Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) nomination adds 600 CRS points, which is enough to clear almost any recent cut-off outright. Provinces run streams both with and without a local job offer. Alberta's AAIP, the program we know best from our Canmore base, runs an Alberta Express Entry Stream that can nominate candidates from the federal pool without a job offer, alongside job-offer-based streams for workers already in the province. Alberta also runs an Accelerated Tech Pathway for candidates holding a qualifying tech job offer in the province, which is often the closest fit for a software or data profile arriving from an H-1B. Other provinces run comparable programs; British Columbia and Ontario both draw heavily from tech and engineering occupations that overlap with common H-1B roles. A PNP route generally suits an H-1B holder who has a strong CRS base but no Canadian employer yet, or one whose employer cannot support an ICT or GTS application.

Does applying to Canada put your H-1B status or green card process at risk?

This is the question that keeps a lot of H-1B holders from acting, and it deserves a straight answer. Applying for a Canadian work permit or permanent residence does not, by itself, end your US status. Where it can matter is the practical detail: relocating changes the address the US consulate has on file, time outside the US can affect an in-progress case, and an in-flight I-140 petition or a priority date under recapture rules has its own US-side sensitivities that a Canadian filing does not touch but can complicate logistically. We are a Canadian practice regulated by the CICC and do not give US immigration advice, so we tell every H-1B client the same thing: coordinate the timing with a US immigration lawyer before you give notice or let a US filing lapse, so the two processes do not collide.

Your spouse and children: work permits, school and status in Canada

A spouse or common-law partner can often apply for their own open work permitalongside certain principal work permits, which lets them work for almost any Canadian employer without a job offer of their own, a real upgrade from an H-4 EAD's more limited scope. Eligibility depends on the skill level and duration of the principal permit, so it is worth confirming before you commit to a specific route. Children can generally attend Canadian public school as visitors or study permit holders, and dependants are included on most permanent residence applications, so family members do not need a separate PR process once you are approved. The wider practicalities of the move, from healthcare enrolment and school registration to banking, credit history and driving licences, sit in our guide to moving to Canada from the US.

Do you need an eTA or a visitor visa to enter Canada?

Your H-1B visa is a US document and carries no weight at the Canadian border on its own; what governs entry is your passport nationality. Citizens of a specific, short list of visa-required countries can apply for a Canada eTA instead of a visitor visa if they currently hold a valid US nonimmigrant visa and are flying to Canada. Neither India nor China is on that list, which matters because most H-1B holders hold one of those two passports. In practice, this means the majority of H-1B holders still need a full Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) for Canada to fly into Canada, even for a short visit or an interview, not simply an eTA. If your work permit or PR application is approved, IRCC issues the matching visa alongside it, so this mainly matters for anyone planning to visit or scout before applying.

Extending an existing Canada H1B open work permit before the December 2026 deadline

If you already hold the 2023 open work permit and it was issued for less than the full three years, you can apply to extend it, but only if you apply before December 16, 2026 and only from inside Canada. IRCC will not issue an extension for longer than the remaining three-year validity period or your passport's expiry, whichever is sooner. The application uses the general open work permit extension process, with two field codes that IRCC checks specifically: enter “H1BP” in the Job Title field of the IMM 5710 if you are the original H-1B holder, or “H1BF”plus the holder's extension application number in the Brief Description of Duties field if you are a family member extending alongside them. Get either field wrong and IRCC cannot match your application to the policy, which risks delay or refusal.

Mistakes we see H-1B holders make

Most of the problems that reach us are not close calls on eligibility. They are avoidable sequencing and paperwork errors, and they repeat:

• Waiting for the accelerated pathway. There is no form, no criteria and no date. Every month spent waiting is a month not spent on an ECA, a language test or an employer conversation.
• Assuming CUSMA applies because the employer is American. Eligibility follows your citizenship, not your visa or your payroll.
• Booking a scouting trip without checking entry documents. Indian and Chinese passport holders generally need a Temporary Resident Visa, not an eTA, and that application has its own processing time.
• Claiming a NOC code from the US job title. Officers read the duties in the reference letter. A mismatched code can put you outside a category-based draw or a provincial tech stream.
• Resigning before the Canadian permit is issued. Approval is never certain, and an employer-specific permit is tied to a job offer that has to still exist when it is issued.
• Budgeting on an old assumption about a job offer. A Canadian job offer no longer adds CRS points on its own; the value of an employer now lies in the work permit, not the score.

What an H-1B move to Canada costs and how long it takes

Costs split into government and third-party charges. Government fees vary by route, from work permit processing to the permanent residence fees for Express Entry and PNP applications; check current amounts on canada.ca before budgeting, since they change periodically. Third-party costs are more predictable across routes: an ECA, a language test, an FBI identity history summary and, for most Express Entry applicants, the Express Entry proof of fundsyou have to be able to evidence on the day you apply. On timing, an ICT or GTS work permit can often move in weeks once the employer's side is filed, while a complete Express Entry application typically finishes about six months after an invitation, and a provincial nomination round adds its own timeline on top. Our fees guide sets out our professional fee separately from government charges.

How Wild Mountain Immigration helps H-1B holders

Working under a licensed RCIC (CICC #R706497), we help H-1B holders find the route that actually applies to their employer, occupation and nationality, rather than the one a search result happens to mention first. We represent clients entirely online, by video call and secure document sharing, and we do not promise a specific outcome or timeline on any application.

1. 01

   Assess your profile

   We review your employer, occupation, nationality and CRS potential to identify whether an ICT, a GTS-sponsored offer, Express Entry or a PNP fits you best.

2. 02

   Build the case

   We coordinate your ECA, language test, police certificates and employer letters, and prepare a complete application built for the route you are using, with clear written fees.

3. 03

   Apply and represent you

   We submit your application and represent you with IRCC through to a decision, and where relevant help you plan the sequence with your US immigration counsel.

If you are weighing a Canada H1B move, the honest starting point is that the 2023 open work permit is closed and the accelerated pathway is not yet a thing you can apply to. What is real is the intra-company transfer, the Global Talent Stream, Express Entry and a provincial nomination, and any one of them can be started this month rather than waited on. Tell us your employer, your occupation and your nationality, and we will tell you which of them fits, with written fees agreed before any work begins.