Visitor Visa to Work Permit in 2026: Inside-Canada Option Ended

Visitor Visa to Work Permit in 2026: Inside-Canada Option Ended

Visitors generally can no longer apply for a work permit from inside Canada, because the temporary policy ended on August 28, 2024. If you are in Canada as a visitor with a job offer, you usually need an LMIA or an LMIA-exempt offer, and you must apply from outside Canada unless you fit an inside-Canada category that IRCC still lists.

Policy timeline

The temporary inland route for ordinary visitors is closed. What follows is the standing IRCC framework, not that expired policy.

Who can still apply from inside Canada

Most people cannot apply for a work permit from inside Canada. IRCC says you can apply from inside Canada only if one of these situations applies to you:

• You have a valid work or study permit.
• Your spouse or common-law partner, or your parents, have a valid work permit.
• You, your spouse or common-law partner, or your parents have a valid study permit.
• You are eligible for a post-graduation work permit and your study permit is still valid.
• You or your family members are in Canada waiting on a permanent residence decision in the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class, or the overseas family class.
• You have been recognized as a Convention refugee or protected person by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
• You have been legally working in Canada without a work permit and now need a work permit for a different job (this does not include business visitors).
• You made a claim for refugee protection.
• You hold a temporary resident permit that is valid for 6 months or more.
• You are a trader, investor, intra-company transferee, or professional under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.
• You are a Quebec skilled worker who applied under Quebec’s skilled worker selection program.

A visitor status alone, even with a job offer, is not on that list. That is why the old visitor-to-worker temporary policy mattered, and why its end changes the filing place for most visitors.

Decision chart: visitor in Canada with a job offer

Use this sequence only after you have a real employer-specific offer path (positive LMIA or LMIA-exempt offer). It does not create a new exemption.

Do not start work until you hold the work authorization IRCC issues for that job. Visitor status does not authorize employment.

In Canada as a visitor with a job offer? Send us your status expiry date and the type of offer. A licensed immigration lawyer can tell you which route still works.

Sources

• IRCC notice ending the visitor-to-work temporary public policy (August 28, 2024)
• IRCC news release starting the temporary public policy (August 24, 2020)
• IRCC notice extending the temporary public policy to February 28, 2025
• IRCC: Apply for a work permit from inside Canada (eligibility)
• IRCC: Apply for a work permit from outside Canada (eligibility)
• ESDC: Hire a temporary foreign worker with an LMIA
• IRCC operational instructions on the visitor work-permit public policy