Global Talent Stream (GTS)

Global Talent Stream (GTS) is one of the programs in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which enables Canadian employers to hire foreign workers to the positions that cannot be filled by Canadian citizen or permanent resident.

This program can be applied under two categories:

  • Category A: for those who are nominated by the Stream’s designated partners.
  • Category B: for those who are hiring highly-skilled foreign workers to fill positions in in-demand occupations found on the Global Talent Occupations List. A referral is not required to be eligible for Category B.

Eligibility for Global Talent Stream

There are some common criteria for the two categories:

  • Processing fee: You must pay $1,000 for each position requested under the Global Talent Stream to cover the cost of processing your application. The processing fee cannot be paid by nor be recovered from the temporary foreign workers.
  • Business Legitimacy: All employers applying to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) must supply documents along with their Labour Market Impact Assessment application, including a Global Talent Stream application, to demonstrate that their business and job offer are legitimate
  • Labour Market Benefits Plan: You are required to work with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to develop a Labour Market Benefits Plan that demonstrates your commitment to activities that will have lasting, positive impacts on the Canadian labour market.
  • Wage: Wages offered to temporary foreign workers should be similar to wages paid to Canadian and permanent resident employees hired for the same job and work location, and with similar skills and years of experience.
  • Labour Market Impact Assessment: you must have applied for the positive Labour Market Impact Assessment before you can proceed to apply for this program.
Category A

For Category A of the Global Talent Stream, an innovative company must be referred by 1 of the Stream’s designated referral partners on the basis that the position being requested requires unique and specialized talent to help the firm scale-up and grow.

In order to be eligible for Category A, a designated referral partner must validate that a company meets the following eligibility criteria at the time of each referral to ESDC:

  • is operating in Canada.
  • has a focus on innovation.
  • has a willingness, and is capable of growing or scaling up
  • is seeking to fill a unique and specialized position in the company, and
  • has identified a qualified foreign worker for potential hire into that unique and specialized position.

A unique and specialized position is indicated by:

  • at least $38.46 per hour ($80,000 annual base salary), or equivalent to the prevailing wage for the occupation if it is higher, and
  • advanced knowledge of the industry, and
  • advanced degree in an area of specialization of interest to the employer, and/or
  • minimum of 5 years of experience in the field of specialized experience.

In general, an innovative company that is eligible to be referred to Category A should also be seeking to fill a very limited number of unique and specialized positions (for example, 1 or 2 positions per year) on the basis that very few specialized individuals exist with the unique skill-set required for the positions being requested under Category A of the Global Talent Stream.

Category B

For Category B of the Global Talent Stream, applications will be accepted from firms in Canada that need to hire highly skilled foreign workers for occupations found on ESDC’s Global Talent Occupations List, which have been determined to be in-demand and for which there is insufficient domestic labour supply.

Global Talent Occupations List includes the following occupations:

  • Computer and information systems managers
  • Computer engineers (except software engineers and designers)
  • Mathematicians and statisticians
  • Information systems analysts and consultants
  • Database analysts and data administrators
  • Software engineers and designers
  • Computer programmers and interactive media developers
  • Web designers and developers
  • Computer network technicians
  • Information systems testing technicians
  • Producer, technical, creative and artistic director and project manager – Visual effects and video game
  • Digital media designers.