The Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) is a common pathway for immigration to Canada. It allows multinational businesses with a parent company, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in Canada to transfer key employees from outside Canada through the ICT Canada visa.

If you are employed by an international company and hold a key position, the ICT Canada work visa can be a suitable route for your immigration to Canada.

مهاجرت به کانادا از طریق ICT

What is ICT Canada visa?

Canadian ICT visa is one of the types of Canadian temporary work visa and is specific to international companies that are located outside of Canada and have established an office in Canada. In order to develop their business or transfer their business to Canada, these companies transfer some of their high-ranking and expert employees to the Canadian company.

What company can act? Any international company that can demonstrate that moving labor into Canada has a positive impact on the quality of their service to Canadians. So the interest of Canadians is involved? Yes, serving this company will ultimately lead to improving the lives and profits of Canadians.

Benefits of using the ICT visa


Obtaining an ICT work visa without the need for an LMIA permit
Shortening the application process for the ICT Canada visa
Shortening the ICT work visa issuance process using the Global Skills Strategy program
The possibility of accompanying family members with the holder of the work visa for intra-company transfer in Canada
No need for high language skills
The possibility of converting a Canadian intra-company transfer visa to a Canadian permanent residence
Conditions for obtaining a Canadian intra-company transfer visa

In order to obtain a Canadian ICT visa, both the employees of the foreign company and the companies themselves must comply with certain conditions and rules. ICT work visas will not be issued to foreign employees if either party does not comply with Canada’s intra-company transfer rules.

iss immigration organization is made up of the most experienced official immigration lawyers and trusted advisors, and with more than 2000 successful cases, it is by your side at all stages from immigration to residence in Canada. We will be with you in this difficult path so that you, dear ones, only think about the growth, dynamism and well-being of the life ahead in an environment full of opportunities for progress and peace.

Canada ICT visa requirements for company employees

Transfer employees must have at least one year of full-time work experience in a foreign company during the last three years.

Transfer employees must be posted to the Canadian office to do the same work they would do in their home country.

A job title to work in Canada must fall under one of the following three categories:

Executive: To be in charge of managing the company or a major part of it.

Senior Manager: Manage all or part of the company and supervise and control the work of other managers and specialist employees.

Specialized Knowledge: An employee who has specialized knowledge about the company’s products or services or a high level of expertise in the organization’s processes and procedures.

Canada ICT visa requirements for the companies themselves

The address of the company’s office in Canada must be known. In exceptional cases such as startups, another address can be introduced until the office is rented or purchased.

A company that wants to establish an office in Canada must have a realistic and defensible business plan to justify its activities in Canada (business plan).

The company must have the financial ability to start a business in Canada and pay the wages of the employees.

If the company wants to transfer its high-level managers to Canada, it must show that the scale of the company’s work in Canada will be large enough to require management-level work.

When companies want to send their specialist employee to Canada, they must be able to demonstrate that:

This specialist workforce definitely plays a role in their business and their activities in Canada are under the direction of the company’s Canadian manager.

شرایط اخذ ویزای ICT کانادا برای کارکنان شرکت‌ها

What is the financial capacity for ICT Canada visa?

The applicant must prove to the Canadian government with his financial ability documents that he has sufficient financial ability to stay and start a business in Canada and that he will not face any problem to meet the minimum requirements of living in this country. Therefore, financial resources can be divided into two parts:

Financial ability to cover the cost of living

Canadian immigration officers use the Lyco chart as a tool to assess an applicant’s financial means. LICO stands for Low-income cut-off and means the lowest amount of income and is used to show the poverty line in urban areas of Canada with a population of at least half a million people. In other words, if your income is less than the LICO, in Canada’s eyes you are below the poverty line.

In short-term visas, the officers expect you to show 12 months of credit in your bank account.

Number of family members

Minimum amount required in Canadian dollars

1 person

26620

2 people

33140

3 people

40742

4 people

49466

5 people

56104

6 people

63276

7 people

70448

More than 7 people: these amounts are added per person

7172

The point that you should pay attention to is that the budget and financial resources mentioned in the table must be owned by the individual or shared with his spouse, and the applicant cannot borrow the amount from another person.

Financial ability to finance investment (starting a business in Canada)

The minimum amount required for investment will be determined and notified according to the type of business in Canada

.

iss immigration organization is made up of the most experienced official immigration lawyers and trusted advisors, and with more than 2000 successful cases, it is by your side at all stages from immigration to residence in Canada. We will be with you in this difficult path so that you, dear ones, only think about the growth, dynamism and well-being of the life ahead in an environment full of opportunities for progress and peace.

Ways to prove financial ability:

Proof of financial ability through bank letter and quarterly circulation of short-term accounts
Proof of financial ability through a bank letter and one to two months’ circulation of short-term accounts along with sources such as affidavit
Proof of financial ability through a bank letter from long-term accounts (and financial source if needed)
Proof of financial ability through a foreign currency account along with providing a financial source
Proof of financial ability through bank letter and official real estate appraisal
Official real estate appraisal

Note that the last two are less recommended.

راه های اثبات تمکن مالی

Introduction of ICT work visa types

As we discussed in the previous section about the requirements for the Canadian ICT work visa, three categories of people can apply for the Canadian intra-corporate transfer program, based on which we will have three types of ICT work visas. With this type of visa, you will be able to immigrate to Canada through the ICT program.

All three types of visas are Canadian temporary residence visas and have the same process:

People can apply for this type of visa who are in charge of managing a company or managing a major part or a subsidiary part of a company. These managers are under the overall supervision of higher-level managers, the board of directors or the company’s shareholders.

People can apply for this type of visa who are in charge of managing a company or managing a department or a sub-section of it and supervise the work of other managers and supervisors.

Employees can apply for this type of visa if they have specialized knowledge about the products or services of the company they are working for and also have specialized information about the products or services of the host company and its application in international markets.

Documents required to immigrate to Canada through ICT

The documents required to apply through the ICT intra-corporate transfer program are as follows:

Documents proving that the transferring employees outside of Canada are employed by the international company and intend to transfer to its Canadian office.

Documents that show that the transferee has worked in that company for at least one year in the three years before applying for an ICT visa. This work must have been done full-time (not part-time) and in the same position that is to be done in Canada. These documents can be in the form of legal slips or contracts.

Summary of the status and description of the duties of the transferee in an executive or managerial position. This document includes the job position, job title, job position in the company’s administrative organization and description of his duties in the country of origin.

The same documents for the future position in Canada.

In situations where the transferee needs specialized knowledge, documents must be presented to show that the proposed person has this specialized knowledge.

A descriptive document indicating the existence of a tangible connection between the company’s activities in the country of origin and its Canadian office, or any other company that is considered its partner in Canada.

Receive invitation from Canadian company

Detailed business plan

Apply for Canada intra-company transfer visa

If you have all the required conditions for the ICT work visa and also provide all the necessary documents, you can apply for the Canadian ICT visa and do the following steps:

Log in to the Canadian Immigration website.

Choose the following options to apply for a work permit:

Work –> Get a work permit –> Temporary workers –> Apply for a work permit

Create an account and answer the questions of the online application (choose Intra Company Transfer among the types of work permits).

Download the necessary forms from within the application and fill and sign them.

Sort the required documents and upload them in the relevant sections of the application.

Pay the application fee and the fingerprinting fee.

Make an appointment for fingerprinting from the Canadian Embassy in one of Iran’s neighboring countries and do it on the specified date.

After receiving the ICT work visa, pick up your passport to insert the visa label in it.

How long is the ICT application review period?

The duration of companies’ application for ICT visa is on average between 2 and 10 weeks. Of course, this period of time varies depending on the conditions and busyness of the Canadian Immigration Department.

What is the duration of the work permit with the ICT Intercompany Transfer Program?

The validity period of a work visa in Canada’s ICT program is one year. At the end of the first year and of course at the end of the following years, it is possible to extend the visa.

When applying for a visa extension, you must provide documents that show that you have tried to start a business and convince the immigration officer that you have made the most of your work visa in the first year.

Canada ICT visa extension

In order to extend the validity of the Canadian ICT visa, your company must provide documents to show that:

The relationship between the Canadian office (or Canadian company) and the home company is still valid.
The Canadian office has been active in providing goods and services for the past one year.
The Canadian office has secured the staff it needs.
Startup companies in Canada’s ICT program

Canada has made it possible for companies outside of Canada to launch and establish a Canadian start-up company through the intra-company transfer program or ICT.

What is a startup company?

A startup is a business that has been established in Canada for less than a year. Start-up companies, unlike other Canadian companies that use the ICT program, do not have the condition of “doing active business” because a short period of time has passed since the establishment of these companies and business owners or executives, senior managers or their employees with knowledge Get a special ICT work visa and after entering Canada, start and develop that business and make it active.

The organization and structuring of the startup company must be done before applying for the transfer of business owners, managers and specialized employees to Canada. Because applying for an ICT work visa is conditional on having a job offer from a Canadian company. Therefore, that company must be registered in Canada and have a CRA business number.

How is it possible to stay in Canada through an intra-company transfer with one year of work experience?

Everything is done with three simple changes. Of course, instead of changing, it is better to say improvement of points. Let’s take a look at three basic improvements after the end of the first year of the work visa, in facilitating the conditions for obtaining permanent residence.

The first improvement Obtaining additional points in the Express Entry system:

Without work experience in Canada, you will not earn any points in the work section for the Express Entry Subcategory Canadian Experience Program. Having one year of Canadian work experience will get 35 points for the main applicant, and if you have 2 years of work experience in Canada, this point will increase to 46.

The second improvement Participating in the Canadian Experience Immigrant Program instead of participating in the federal Skilled Worker Program:

As it is known, since April 2021, the minimum score of the Canadian experimental program has been between 350 and 370. However, in February 2021, a new record was broken and the minimum draw score reached 75, which is a very low score, and more than 27,000 people were accepted.

In contrast, the federal Skilled Worker Program minimum scores in recent draws have been higher than the average Canadian Experience Program minimum scores. So, your chances will be much higher in the Canadian experience subgroup.

The third improvement Improving English: There is no guarantee, but it is likely that your presence in Canada will improve your English and as a result, you will get a higher score in the Express Entry system. Usually, our presence in Canada is the depth of language disaster! informs and leads to more seriousness in strengthening it.

ISS immigration Organization is made up of the most experienced immigration attorneys and trusted advisors, with over 2,000 successful cases in all stages from immigration to residency in Canada

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