Visit Canada for 6 Months and Live Forever on Canadian Nomad VISA.
The Government of Canada has launched a New work scheme for remote workers. The New work scheme is called Canada Digital Nomad Visa 2023. It will allow those working from home for any company, Freelancers, or Youtubers to come to Canada and stay there for up to 6 months. During these six months, they can also look for employment opportunities in Canada and if they get a Job there they can apply for a work permit within Canada.
With this in mind, the Government of Canada is planning to launch a new Innovation Stream of the International Mobility Program by the end of 2023. This means that IRCC will create a new exemption from the labour market impact assessment process to help high-growth employers and talented workers in support of Canada’s innovation priorities and high-tech industries.
Apply directly through Canadian Visa for Nomads
A digital nomad is a person who can perform their job remotely from anywhere in the world.
Under current Canadian immigration rules, a digital nomad only needs visitor status to relocate to Canada for up to six months at a time while they perform their job remotely for a foreign employer.
IRCC has always allowed people to work remotely in Canada on visitor’s visas for companies with no Canadian affiliate.
The digital nomad initiative, which hasn’t even been launched is assessing whether Canada needs to do more around regulating digital nomads, and/or what may be done to attract them to Canada.As a visitor, you should be able to continue to work remotely, as long as three things are all true.
1: Your work is truly long distance and remote. If you’re actually able to complete all of your duties electronically or via telephone, you’ll be fine. However if your work requires you to carry out things like in-person meetings, business dinners, networking events, even things like physically mailing products or samples, etc, then technically you may no longer be considered to be working remotely, and the border agent may refuse entry as a tourist.
2: Your work is for an employer that is located outside of Canada, and you are paid outside of Canada, and your clients are outside of Canada.
It is absolutely imperative that you should continue to be paid in the currency of your home country, into a bank account located in your home country. You will not be eligible to open a Canadian bank account, or accept payment in Canadian currency, or from a local subsidiary.
As for your employer and clients are multiple potential complications here. If the company is a multi-national with offices in Canada, if you are working with Canadian businesses and clients even just as a small part of your overall work, if your employer draws a significant part of its income from inside Canada, even if you’re not working directly on those projects, or if you are working on things that will end up in the Canadian marketplace, even though the work is for a company entirely located in some other country, again, technically it’s possible that the border agent will conclude you are engaging in work, and not eligible to enter Canada as a tourist.
3: Your work doesn’t “directly compete” with the Canadian workforce. That includes both work that Canadians should have the opportunity to do, or work which can take away opportunities from Canadian workers. This means that while a lot of jobs like freelance work, writing, and support type jobs can be completed remotely, the border officer may conclude that this kind of work may rob Canadians of the opportunity to bid for these jobs, and may refuse you entry.
However, assuming you can prove that all three of the above are true, technically, there is no reason you should not be allowed to work remotely for a foreign company while staying in Canada as a tourist.
That said, since immigration and border officers both have pretty broad discretion in who they allow into the country and who they turn away, can refuse entry for almost any reason, without any real consequences, and are likely to get pretty uncomfortable about allowing someone into Canada as a tourist, who has explicitly told them they are planning to work while there, you’re going to want to make sure you have all your paperwork in order before trying.
You’re going to want to be able to prove all of the above three things beyond a shadow of a doubt, and be able to point to this Canadian policy. You’re going to want to be very clear about your intentions and your reasons for entering Canada, and be able to explain why it is important that you both come to Canada, and why you must continue to remotely work while here.
Recently everybody is talking about Canadian immigration new policy that allows freelancers, contractors, and digital nomads to enter and live in Canada for 6 months under new updated Canada’s tech talent strategy and this is why i thought of disclosing this wonderful news with you guys so that you may also take advantage of this new Canadian immigration scheme.
You might wonder why Canada opened doors for digital nomads all of a sudden which actually feels like they literally cut the red tape of their standard immigration lane to process visas for foreign digital nomads via a brand new immigration policy. So the reason for this is exponential growth of digital nomads over the last few years which as per recent report is as follows for US digital nomads (Ref):
Growth Chart of US Citizen Digital Nomads
Years Nomads Growth
2019 7.3 Million –
2020 10.9 Million 49%
2021 15.5 Million 42%
2022 16.9 Million 9%
You will also be surprised to know that the income of these digital nomads increased by 3 folds during last few years which is why nowadays every other country is launching these digital nomad visa policies to capture these high earner digital nomads because when they will start living in a specific country then their foreign earned income will actually land in that host country of digital nomad hence contributing to the economy of that country.
As long as it is incidental to your visit yes. If being in Canada is somehow essential to your remote work (journalism, photography etc.) you may need a work permit, as conceivably a Canadian could be contracted to carry out the work.
This is why fraser’s agency recently created exemptions in Canadian Labor Market Impact Assessment process to allow digital nomads to apply for Canadian digital nomad visa said by Nicole Cieslicki, Senior Director of International Services at MBO Partners.
If you are a digital nomad who moved to Canada then in your first six months you will be exempted from paying any income tax in Canada but you may have to file your income tax returns in US as per 183 days rule.
Not an expert, just common sense. Remember information gathered from here may not reflect actual, authoritative information available from government websites of Canada.
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