What If You Lose or Change Your Job?

Strategic Occupations: BC Provincial Nominee Program:

An employer can terminate or change your employment by giving you (the nominee or nominee applicant) the required notice or by paying you in lieu instead of giving you notice. Alternatively, you may refuse the offer of employment or change to a different employer.

NOTE: As a job offer is not required for the International Post-Graduate Pilot Project, nominee applicants/ nominees in that Pilot Project do not need to report any change in employment nor will their nomination be affected by any change in employment. Nominee applicants/nominees in this Pilot Project must however notify the BC PNP of any change in residence, including moving outside of BC.

What to do

If a change in employment has occurred, both the employer AND the nominee /nominee applicant MUST notify the BC PNP immediately of the change(s). If the nominee/nominee applicant plans to or takes a job with a new employer, the BC PNP MUST also be notified. 

How is Your Nomination Affected?

As the BC PNP is an employer-driven program any new employment must meet the program criteria specific to the applicable category under which the nominee was nominated.

A change in your employment status does not mean the BC PNP will automatically withdraw your nomination. If a change in employment occurs, the BC PNP will review the circumstances surrounding the change in employment and determine if program requirements continue to be met. Upon the completion of this assessment the BC PNP will notify the nominee applicant if the nomination will continue or be withdrawn.

Failure to advise the BC PNP of a change in employment could result in the nomination being withdrawn.

Payment of Costs

Foreign workers cannot be forced to pay a penalty for not finishing a work term or employment contract. Employers cannot reclaim any costs from a foreign worker paid to an employment agency or anyone else to recruit the foreign worker.

For more information, please refer to standards for foreign workers or to specific details on job termination.

Removal from Canada

An employer or an employment agency cannot force a foreign worker to return to their country of origin if the employer terminates an employment contract before the work permit expires or if the foreign worker finds a job with another employer. Only the federal government has the authority to remove a person from Canada.