Highly skilled is not the test, and that is why this category gets refused.

The relationship between the two entities

• Parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate. Those are the four. The factors that establish them are ownership and control. Ownership means the right of possession with full power and authority to control. Control means the right and authority to direct management and operations. Both must be legal entities, meaning any enterprise constituted or organised under applicable law, privately or government owned, including a corporation, trust, partnership, sole proprietorship or joint venture.
• Non profits qualify on the same footing. Religious, charitable, service and other non profit organisations are included, provided they can show a parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate relationship. The department states there is no difference in the relationship requirement between commercial and non profit entities.
• What does not qualify, in the department's own list. A supplier or client relationship, where the foreign enterprise sells products or services to the Canadian entity. Contracts, licensing arrangements and franchise agreements. Ownership of a small amount of stock in another company. Exchange of products or services. Membership on boards of directors. And the formation of consortia or cartels.
• The foreign enterprise must be a multinational already. It needs revenue generating business operations in at least one country other than its home country. An enterprise outside Canada cannot become a multinational by using this route to establish its first foreign entity in Canada. Where an entity is already established in Canada, that Canadian operation itself satisfies the definition.
• Owners and their families are largely excluded from the start up route. A person, or their immediate family members, who owns a controlling interest in the foreign enterprise and seeks entry to start a new business is not eligible as a transferee unless the enterprise meets the multinational definition. Where it does not, the department directs them to the business owner category, coded C11. The business owner route.
• A merger or acquisition is survivable. The question is whether a qualifying relationship remains. If it does, transferees may continue working for the new owner on their existing permits. If it does not, a new permit is needed. For a new entry after an acquisition, a transferee employed by the acquired company for at least a year in the previous three may still qualify where the successor entity has assumed the interests, obligations, assets and liabilities and continues the same type of business.

The three categories and what each one gets

Executive capacity means the employee primarily directs the management of the enterprise or a major component or function of it, establishes its goals and policies, exercises wide latitude in discretionary decision making, and receives only general supervision from higher level executives, the board or the shareholders. Managerial capacity means the employee primarily manages the enterprise, a department, a subdivision, a component or an essential function, oversees and controls the work of other managers, supervisors or professionals or an essential function, has authority over personnel decisions or otherwise functions at a senior level in the hierarchy, and exercises discretion over day to day operations.

• A managerial title is not a managerial capacity. The department excludes people in positions more accurately described as lower level management, people whose functions align with those of managing supervisors, and people with managerial sounding titles only. A first line supervisor is not in a managerial capacity unless the employees supervised are professionals.
• An executive or manager does not make the product. The guidance says plainly that they do not perform tasks or functions related to the manufacturing of a product or the delivery of a service, and that the organisational structure of the Canadian business must show a reasonable need for the role. The size of the Canadian enterprise is treated as an important factor.
• You can change category, on conditions. There is no need to spend time outside Canada first, provided you can show the required experience with the foreign enterprise for the new category, being one year in a similar position in the preceding three years, and you have not reached the cap. The department's own example is a worker with two years of specialised knowledge experience and one year as a manager who entered as a manager and later applies as a specialised knowledge worker.
• Experience gained on the Canadian permit may not help you. Work experience used to show you can do the new job must not have been gained through the initial transfer permit if that would mean you had breached its conditions. A specialised knowledge permit holder who performed executive duties puts both themselves and the employer in non compliance, and cannot then rely on that experience.
• Recaptured time exists and is worth tracking. Documented time not working for the Canadian enterprise can be added back so that you get the full five or seven years of actual work. Parental leave is the department's example. Periods under thirty consecutive days do not count, recapture is granted as extensions in increments of no more than two years, and no further recapture may be claimed for time not worked during that extension.
• Short term project permits have their own limit. Rather than issuing multiple short permits for individual projects, a permit of up to one year may be issued for a number of specific projects, whether at company premises or a client site. The department says long term permits should not be issued for service personnel living outside Canada whom the company wishes to send into a client site as needed.

Specialised knowledge, the category that gets refused

• The off the shelf product example is the clearest test in the guidance. Skill in implementing an off the shelf product does not by itself meet the standard, unless the product is new or is being customised to the point of being a new product. An applicant is more likely to have truly specialised knowledge if they contribute to the development or redevelopment of a product rather than the implementation of an existing one.
• Training is the second test. If the knowledge can be obtained through a short period of in house or on the job training, it likely is not specialised. If it requires a series of progressively more complex training combined with hands on experience over an extended period under a more experienced person, it more likely is. And the transferee should not need training at the Canadian enterprise in their own area of expertise, nor receive specialised training from Canadian employees, because that would displace Canadian workers.
• Experience is weighed, and two years is published, not informal. The requirement of significant and recent experience carries two footnotes in the instruction itself. Significant experience, depending on the industry or sector, should be two or more years, the footnote noting that the longer the experience, the more likely the knowledge is indeed specialised. Recent experience is within the last three years. Both are on the face of the published page, so treat two years as the stated figure rather than a rule of thumb. The longer the experience, the more likely the knowledge is specialised. For someone in a high TEER position with an appropriate degree and less than two years at the company, the guidance says a case has to be made as to how they hold both advanced proprietary knowledge and advanced expertise. It is possible in rare cases, where the applicant shows comprehensive knowledge of a specific facet of the company together with study in the field or years of experience in the industry.
• A low TEER application is not barred, but it is scrutinised. Applications for a position at TEER 3, 4 or 5 are reviewed in greater detail. The guidance says it is unlikely that lower TEER occupations will meet the requirements, and that installers, servicers and assemblers would not normally qualify unless they clearly demonstrate an advanced level of proprietary knowledge and experience uncommon among the general work force of installers, servicers or assemblers. Where a permit is issued at a lower TEER the officer must note the justification.
• Wage is treated as evidence of the claim. Under the general provision there is a mandatory wage floor at the prevailing wage for the occupation and region, taken from the Job Bank comparison tool, on the reasoning that a genuine specialist would be receiving above average compensation at home. Non cash per diems such as employer paid hotels and transport are excluded from the calculation. There is no requirement to be paid by the Canadian entity or in Canadian dollars, but the wage in the offer must be consistent with the Canadian prevailing wage in whatever currency it is stated.
• The Canadian position must be at a similar level to your own. The occupation in the offer of employment must be in the same capacity as your current occupation with the foreign enterprise, and the department uses the occupation code to test whether the salary reflects specialised knowledge.

Sending someone to open the Canadian operation

Code C61 is a different animal from the other two. It exists for an employee sent to establish a new branch, subsidiary or affiliate, and it is deliberately short.

• One year, and no extension as a rule. The expectation is that within that year the enterprise becomes actively engaged in providing a good or service, and that the person then moves to the executive and manager category or the specialised knowledge category for any further work. An extension of six months may be granted only where the delay was outside the applicant's or the employer's control, and the department's own example is a delay in obtaining construction permits or approvals.
• The foreign enterprise must already be a multinational. It must have revenue generating operations in at least two countries, being its home country of incorporation and at least one other, before establishing anything in Canada. A company whose only operations are in the country where it is incorporated is not eligible under this code.
• What the employee has to bring. Executive or management level, or specialised knowledge. Entry to secure physical commercial premises for the new enterprise, though counsel's address may be used initially. Reasonable human resource plans showing that the Canadian enterprise will be large enough to support the function for the whole duration of the permit. And a business plan with financial documentation showing that the foreign enterprise can cover the cost of establishing the business and of operating it through the ramp up period.
• A timeline is required, not an intention. The applicant must provide a timeline and supporting evidence establishing when the new enterprise will begin doing business. Articles of incorporation, profit and loss statements, partnership agreements, a business licence, corporate tax returns and registration of a payroll account with the Canada Revenue Agency are the published examples of acceptable evidence that an enterprise is actively engaged.
• Where the multinational test fails, there are two other doors. The department directs these applicants either to the business owner category under paragraph 205(a), coded C11, or to the treaty provisions in paragraph 204(a) where a free trade agreement covers intra company transfers. Both are set out on the exemptions page.

Where a free trade agreement differs

Other agreements carry their own families of codes, including the Canada European Union agreement with T44, T42 and T41, the Trans Pacific Partnership with T51, T54 and T55, the United Kingdom trade continuity agreement with F61, F62 and F63, and Chile, Colombia, Korea, Peru and Ukraine each with their own. Several of those also carry a code for the transferee's spouse, which the Canada United States Mexico Agreement does not. Intra company transfer commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services are handled through the general codes C62 and C63 rather than a treaty code.

Requirements checker

A structured way to see where you stand against the published criteria. It returns an indication only, not an eligibility decision, not legal advice, and not a prediction that you will be invited.