The Agricultural Stream allows employers to hire Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) for a maximum period of 24 months when Canadians and permanent residents are not available.
You can only hire a temporary foreign agricultural worker in occupations and activities related to primary agriculture.
Primary agriculture is defined as work duties that must:
- be performed within the boundaries of a farm, nursery or greenhouse
- involve at least one activity, such as:
- operation of agricultural machinery
- boarding, care, breeding, sanitation or other handling of animals, other than fish, for the purpose of obtaining raw animal products for market
- collection, handling and assessment of those raw products, or the planting, care, harvesting or preparation of crops, trees, sod or other plants for market
- be consistent with one of these National Occupational Classification codes: 0821, 0822, 8252, 8255, 8431, 8432, and 8611
To qualify for this stream, employers must meet 2 criteria:
- production must be in specific commodity sectors, and
- the activity must be related to on-farm primary agriculture
National commodity list：
- apiary products
- fruits, vegetables (including canning/processing of these products if grown on the farm)
- mushrooms
- flowers
- nursery-grown trees including Christmas trees, greenhouses/nurseries
- pedigreed canola seed
- sod
- tobacco
- bovine
- dairy
- duck
- horse
- mink
- poultry
- sheep
- swine
