An intra-company transfer to Canada is the most reliable business route still open, and the one with the strictest entry condition. Three things have to be true before anything is filed, and the year of employment abroad is the one that cannot be fixed later.
About this work
A parent, a subsidiary, a branch or an affiliate. Those are the four, and an intra-company transfer to Canada stands or falls on the applicant's company fitting one of them. It is a question about the share register, not about how the two businesses describe themselves.
Two companies owned by the same individual are not automatically affiliates. If neither owns any part of the other and no common corporate parent owns both, there is no qualifying relationship, however identical the trade and however genuinely the owner thinks of them as one business. That is the most common structural refusal on this route.
Where the Canadian entity is being created for the transfer, that is code C61, and the clock is one year with no extension. It is a short runway for standing up an operating business in a new country, and it is why the premises, the banking and the first hires are worth arranging before the permit is applied for rather than after it is granted.
The department also examines whether both enterprises are genuine and actively doing business. A Canadian company with no premises, no staff and no activity does not survive that examination, and neither does a foreign parent that has stopped trading since the applicant's employment there ended.
The three conditions
The transfer is exempt from a labour market assessment under section 205(a) of the Regulations, so there is no advertising and no proof that a Canadian could not be found. The trade is that the department looks hard at the two enterprises and at the year behind the applicant.
It has to be real, operating, and still trading. A company that was incorporated to support the application, or that has wound down since the applicant left it, does not carry the transfer. The department examines the genuineness of both entities, and this is the one most often found wanting.
A parent, a subsidiary, a branch or an affiliate. Two companies owned by the same individual, with no corporate relationship between them, do not qualify however similar the work is. This is the point people get wrong most often, and it is a question of the share register rather than of intention.
In a similar position, outside Canada, with the foreign enterprise. Not one year at any point in a career. One year inside the three year window immediately before the application, and part time employment does not satisfy it.
Executive, senior or functional manager, or specialised knowledge. The category decides the exemption code, the length of the first permit and the ceiling on the total stay, so it is settled before the application is drafted rather than argued about afterwards.
Side by side
6 routes, each with its own clock
The department splits the transfer into three exemption codes. They were a single code, C12, and material written before the split still describes them that way. The category decides the ceiling, and the ceiling is what a five year plan has to be built around.
| C61, opening a business | C62, executive or manager | C63, specialised knowledge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Establishing a new qualifying Canadian enterprise | Executive capacity, or a senior or functional manager at TEER 0 or 1 | Advanced proprietary knowledge and an advanced level of expertise |
| First permit | One year | Up to three years | Up to three years |
| Renewals | None available under this code, except rarely | Two year increments | Two year increments |
| Total stay | One year | Seven years | Five years |
| Wage floor | None set by the instructions | None set by the instructions | Must meet the prevailing wage for the occupation and region |
| What has to exist first | Premises secured, and a plan the enterprise can actually be stood up on | The Canadian entity, operating | The Canadian entity, operating |
The route
5 stages, each with its own clock
Each category and period below comes from the department's own programme delivery instructions under section 205(a) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, and the code is named beside it. None of these is the firm's estimate.
Every category asks this first. Continuous full time employment with the foreign enterprise, in a similar position outside Canada, for at least one year within the three years before the application. Part time work does not count towards it, and the window does not stretch.
Somebody sent to secure premises and stand up a new Canadian entity transfers under code C61. It runs a maximum of one year and no extension is available under that code except in rare circumstances, so the enterprise has to be real and operating before the year is out.
Code C62, for work in an executive capacity or as a senior or functional manager in a position at TEER 0 or 1. The first permit runs up to three years, renewals come in two year increments, and the total period of stay cannot exceed seven years.
Code C63, for advanced proprietary knowledge and an advanced level of expertise. Same three year first permit and two year renewals, but the ceiling is five years. This is the only category with a wage floor: the compensation has to meet the prevailing wage for the occupation and the region of work.
Time already spent in Canada under one transfer code counts towards the five or seven year cap even where the applicant moves between categories, and even where some of the time was spent under a free trade agreement rather than under section 205(a). Somebody who has been here four years on specialised knowledge has one year left, not five.
Before the meeting
6 things to bring
Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.
Our approach
The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.
Book a consultationWe take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.
You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.
We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.
You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.
Reported decisions
7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023
Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.
Super visa, parents and grandparents
2026 FC 99Docket IMM-23381-24
Application allowedWork permit, Temporary Foreign Worker Program
2026 FC 105Docket IMM-18690-24
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2026 FC 805Docket IMM-20802-24
Application allowedPermanent residence, Express Entry
2025 FC 275Docket IMM-1797-24
Application allowedWork permit, job offer
2024 FC 1928Docket IMM-6445-23
Application allowedStudy permit
2024 FC 1487Docket IMM-3700-23
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2024 FC 1453Docket IMM-10337-23
Application allowedUpdates
1 note
Dated notes on the rule changes that reach this work. Each records what moved and when it took effect; this page carries the position now.
The split matters most for the ceiling on how long somebody can stay, which now depends on which code the permit was issued under.
An intra-company transfer to Canada is decided on three things that exist before the application does: a genuine foreign employer, a qualifying corporate relationship, and a year of full time employment inside the previous three.
The category then sets a ceiling that the residence plan has to fit inside.
Common questions
8 answered here
Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.
Two things at once, and applications fail by proving only one. The instructions ask for advanced proprietary knowledge, meaning knowledge of the enterprise's own product, service, process or systems that is not widely held, and an advanced level of expertise, meaning specialised knowledge gained through significant experience.
Being good at the job is not enough. Being the only person at the company who does this particular thing is closer, and being able to show why the Canadian operation cannot function without that knowledge is closer still. The evidence is usually the training the person received, the systems only they operate, and what the enterprise would have to do to replace them.
This is also the only transfer category carrying a wage requirement. The compensation has to meet the prevailing wage for the occupation and the region of work, and non-cash allowances such as housing or travel are excluded from that calculation. An offer that reaches the threshold only once accommodation is counted does not reach it.
The ceiling is five years rather than seven, which matters for planning. A specialised knowledge worker who intends to settle here has five years to convert the permit into something durable, and the conversion is a separate application assessed on the person rather than on the company.
Separately, and it is not automatic. A transfer permit is temporary status. Turning it into residence is a fresh application under a different programme, usually Express Entry or a provincial nomination, and it is assessed on the applicant rather than on the business.
What the permit does produce is skilled Canadian work experience, and that is genuinely valuable. A year of it opens the Canadian Experience Class and moves an Express Entry score. For a good many transferees it is the most useful thing the permit generates, more useful than the role itself.
Language is the other lever and it is the one most often left alone. A business owner who has run a company in English for twenty years frequently has not sat a test, and the score moves more on a test result than on anything the company does.
The ceilings are the reason to plan this early. Seven years sounds long until the residence application is started in year six, and five years is shorter than it sounds when the first permit is three of them. The right moment to work out the residence route is when the first transfer permit is being drafted.
The spouse or common law partner of a transferee may be eligible for an open work permit, which allows work for any employer rather than only the Canadian entity. The rules on those changed in January 2025 and now turn on the principal applicant's occupation, so eligibility is checked against the current instructions rather than assumed.
Dependent children can generally study without a separate study permit while a parent holds a valid work permit, though the arrangements differ by province and by school board and are worth confirming before term starts.
The family side is frequently what actually decides whether a transfer works for the household rather than only for the company, and it is worth resolving at the same time as the principal application rather than three months later. Where the spouse's open work permit is not available, that is better known before anybody relocates.
Only if you have been employed by a real foreign enterprise for a year within the previous three, in a similar position, and the two companies have a qualifying corporate relationship. Incorporating a Canadian company and appointing yourself to it does not create that relationship, and a Canadian entity with no premises, no staff and no activity does not survive the examination of whether the enterprise is genuine.
It depends on the category. Opening a new Canadian enterprise under C61 is one year with no extension available under that code. An executive or manager under C62 can reach seven years in total. A specialised knowledge worker under C63 can reach five. Both C62 and C63 start at a maximum of three years and renew in two year increments.
No. Time spent under one transfer category counts towards the five or seven year ceiling even where the category changes, and even where some of it was spent under a free trade agreement rather than under section 205(a). The cap is on the total period of stay as a transferee, not on any single permit.
No. The transfer is exempt under section 205(a) of the Regulations, so there is no advertising requirement and nothing to prove about whether a Canadian could have been found. What replaces it is scrutiny of the corporate relationship, the genuineness of both enterprises and the applicant's year of employment abroad.
Usually not. The relationship has to be parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate, which means one company owns part of the other or a common corporate parent owns both. Common individual ownership with no corporate link between the entities does not qualify, and restructuring to create the link is a real option that has to be done properly and in advance.
Bring the ownership structure of both companies and your employment history abroad. An intra-company transfer to Canada is decided on those before anything else is looked at.
