Quebec Fast-Tracks Skilled Worker Prs with Employer-Specific, LMIA-Exempt Permits

(QUEBEC) — Canada and Quebec launched a temporary measure on March 13, 2026 that allows certain foreign workers in Quebec to apply for an employer-specific, LMIA-exempt work permit for up to 12 months while their permanent-residence file moves forward.

The measure targets workers whose existing authorization is ending or has just ended, and it lets them remain with the same Quebec employer as they wait for a decision on permanent residence. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada also set a 30-day service standard for these applications.

Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement and Quebec Lieutenant, announced the measure on March 13, 2026 on behalf of Lena Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

Eligibility turns on both immigration status and where a worker stands in Quebec’s permanent-selection process. The measure applies to certain foreign workers who are actively employed in Quebec, have been invited to apply under Quebec’s Skilled Worker Selection Program, have submitted a Demande de sélection permanente, and hold, or recently held, a closed employer-specific work permit under either the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or the International Mobility Program.

That design places the policy squarely at the intersection of Quebec selection and federal work authorization. Workers must already have moved beyond a general interest stage and into the provincial selection stream tied to permanent residence.

The new permit is not open-ended. It is valid for up to 12 months, and the application window runs until December 31, 2026.

Three groups fall within the measure. The first covers current permit holders whose employer-specific work permit expires on or before December 31, 2026.

The second covers workers whose permit already expired but who applied to extend it before expiry and are now on maintained status. Those workers kept their ability to remain in Canada and continue under the terms created by a timely extension application, and the temporary measure gives them a path to keep working with the same employer while the permanent-residence file is processed.

The third group covers workers whose employer-specific permit expired between March 13, 2026, and December 31, 2026 and who must apply for both a new permit and restoration of status. That brings in people who fell out of status during the period covered by the policy but still remain within the narrow class the governments chose to protect.

The ineligibility rules are equally exact. Workers cannot use the measure if they let their permit expire and then changed to visitor status in Canada.

Workers also cannot qualify if their permit expired before March 13, 2026, even if they are still within the 90-day restoration period. That cutoff date sharply limits who can benefit and excludes people whose status problems began before the policy took effect.

The permit itself remains tied to one employer. Ottawa and Quebec framed the measure as a way to stop eligible workers from losing status while also helping Quebec employers keep staff in place during the permanent-residence process.

That employer link carries a practical requirement inside the application process. The employer must make a job offer and use the public policy identifier PPTR2PRQC2026 in the employer portal.

Because the permit is employer-specific, the worker does not receive a broad authorization to move freely between jobs. The measure instead preserves continuity with the same Quebec employer while the permanent-residence file remains pending.

The LMIA-exempt feature removes the need for a Labour Market Impact Assessment for this temporary bridge. That matters for timing, because the governments paired the public policy with a 30-day service standard rather than leaving applicants to wait through longer processing tied to other pathways.

The policy also reflects the structure of Quebec immigration selection. Foreign workers covered here are not simply asking for more time in Canada; they already have an invitation under Quebec’s Skilled Worker Selection Program, known in French as the Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés, or PSTQ, and they have already submitted a Demande de sélection permanente.

In practice, the measure creates a bridge between a provincial invitation and a federal work permit. It addresses a point where temporary status can run out before permanent residence is finalized, especially for workers on closed permits tied to one employer.

Workers in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program can fall into that gap because their status is fixed to a named employer and a defined period. The same pressure can affect workers under the International Mobility Program when they hold a closed employer-specific permit rather than an open one.

The governments limited the measure to people who are actively employed in Quebec, which narrows it further. Someone with the right invitation and the right type of recent permit still must meet that Quebec employment condition to fit within the class described on March 13, 2026.

Maintained status is one of the central dividing lines in the policy. A worker who applied to extend a permit before it expired remains eligible under the second category, while a worker who let the permit expire and then switched to visitor status falls outside the measure.

That distinction gives the policy a compliance component as well as a labour-retention purpose. The measure rewards people who kept their status process alive before expiry, while denying access to those who moved into visitor status after the permit ended.

The restoration category, meanwhile, draws a second line around timing. Workers whose permits expired within the window from March 13, 2026 to December 31, 2026 can seek both a new permit and restoration of status under the measure, but people whose permit expired before the launch date cannot use it even if the usual restoration clock has not yet run out.

That means the launch date is not just the announcement date. It functions as a hard legal threshold inside the temporary policy.

Quebec employers also stand to benefit from the arrangement because the measure keeps existing employment relationships intact. A worker who qualifies can remain with the same employer rather than leaving the job solely because the prior permit expired before permanent residence was completed.

The structure suggests a narrow labor-market response rather than a broad reopening of work authorization. Only workers already tied to Quebec employment, already invited under Quebec’s selection stream, and already inside the permanent-selection process can use it.

The deadline of December 31, 2026 applies to submissions under the temporary measure, giving the policy a fixed end point. Eligible workers whose permit expires on or before that date, or who fall into one of the two other covered groups, must file within that window.

Applicants and employers also face a specific administrative sequence. The employer must first make the job offer in the portal and enter PPTR2PRQC2026, after which the worker can pursue the federal permit request under the public policy.

Because the permit is both employer-specific and LMIA-exempt, the measure combines restriction with speed. It limits mobility between employers, but it removes the extra labour-market assessment step and adds the 30-day service standard.

The policy reaches only certain foreign workers in Quebec, not temporary residents across Canada and not all work permit holders in the province. Open work permit holders are outside the class described here, as are people without an invitation under Quebec’s Skilled Worker Selection Program or without a submitted Demande de sélection permanente.

Federal and provincial authorities presented the measure as a way to keep eligible workers from slipping out of status while their permanent-residence case is still in process. The immediate effect is narrower and more concrete: a temporary bridge, tied to one employer, available until December 31, 2026, for workers whose place in Quebec’s immigration system has already advanced far enough to qualify.