No. The Agri-Food Pilot ended on May 14, 2025, and IRCC no longer accepts new applications. Applications accepted before that date continue to be processed, while workers who never applied need a separate assessment for options such as Express Entry, a Provincial Nominee Program, or the Rural Community Immigration Pilot.

Part One: The Agri-Food Pilot Status and Former Rules

Which situation describes you?

Your next step depends on whether IRCC accepted an application before the pilot closed.

• You never applied: You cannot submit a new Agri-Food Pilot application. Preserve your work, language, education, status, and family records for assessment under a current program.
• You submitted an application before May 14, 2025: The closure did not cancel applications IRCC had already accepted. Monitor correspondence, respond by the stated deadlines, and keep your contact and employment information current.
• You submitted something that was not accepted before closure: Do not assume that sending documents or beginning an online process created an active pilot file. Check the correspondence you received and identify whether IRCC accepted the application for processing.
• You want permanent residence through agricultural or food-processing work: Do not treat the former pilot’s rules as a current route. Compare your experience with current Express Entry, provincial, or rural-community requirements.

The reduced intake announced for 2025 and the final closure were separate events. The 2025 reduction limited the number of applications the program would take during its final intake period. The later closure ended new intake altogether. IRCC confirms the May 14, 2025 end date and says applications accepted before that date will continue to be processed. Read the current Agri-Food Pilot status before relying on older information.

This distinction matters because a worker can still have strong agricultural experience without having an active Agri-Food Pilot file. Current employment in a former eligible occupation does not preserve the pilot, reopen the intake, or create an automatic route to permanent residence.

Which Industries and Occupations the Former Pilot Covered

The former pilot covered selected parts of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector: meat product manufacturing, greenhouse, nursery and floriculture production including mushroom production, and animal production excluding aquaculture.

Former eligible occupations included specified butchers and meat cutters, agricultural service contractors, specialized livestock workers, livestock labourers, harvesting labourers, and labourers in food and beverage processing. Current employment in one of these areas does not reopen the pilot or create automatic eligibility for another program. See the historical eligible industries and occupations list for reference.

Job titles alone were not enough to establish an occupation. A proper historical review required the actual duties, workplace, employer, dates, hours, and employment conditions. That same principle remains useful when assessing a current route because immigration programs classify work by duties and program rules, not simply by a familiar job title.

Former Agri-Food Pilot Requirements at a Glance

The requirements below describe the pilot’s former rules. They may help with an application submitted before closure or with organizing your immigration history, but they are not a checklist for a new application.

The work and job-offer evidence had to tell one consistent story. For example, the duties in an employer letter should make sense alongside the payroll history, work permit, schedules, and claimed occupation. A mismatch could require clarification even when the total hours appeared sufficient.

The key point is that these are historical requirements. A worker who met every former threshold still cannot start a new Agri-Food Pilot application after the closure date.

How the Former Canadian Work-Experience Rule Worked

The former rule was not simply an hours calculation. Applicants generally needed at least 1,560 hours of qualifying Canadian work over at least 12 months within the relevant three-year period, with the work meeting the pilot’s other conditions.

For example, a worker who regularly worked 40 hours per week could reach 1,560 hours sooner in total hours, but the schedule did not turn the required 12-month period into a shorter period. Overtime did not compress the minimum period.

The three-year lookback also made dates significant. A worker needed to show when the qualifying period began, whether employment remained within the relevant window, and how separate periods of work fit together. Pay statements, schedules, employer letters, tax records, and permits were useful because they could establish both the work performed and when it occurred.

Dates, duties, employer identity, wages, schedules, non-seasonal status, and the relationship between the work and the eligible occupation also mattered. Keep those records together if IRCC is reviewing an accepted application.

What Happens If You Already Submitted an Application?

IRCC continues to process Agri-Food Pilot applications accepted before May 14, 2025. The closure affects new intake, not the existence of a previously accepted file.

Keep your email, mailing address, telephone number, passport details, work authorization, and family information current where the process requires updates. Save employment records and respond carefully to requests for documents, biometrics, medical information, or other evidence.

Do not use a historical processing estimate to plan a fixed departure date, permit expiry response, or family move. Older estimates are not promises about an individual file. Completeness, verification, admissibility checks, background processing, further requests, and IRCC operations can affect timing. Follow the correspondence connected to your application for deadlines and instructions.

If you have not received clear confirmation that the application was accepted, separate the questions of submission and acceptance. Keep the submission receipt, payment record, confirmation messages, and any later correspondence together so the status of the file can be established.

Part Two: Current Routes for Workers Who Missed the Pilot

There is no single replacement program. The appropriate route depends on your Canadian or foreign work experience, duties, language, education, trade qualifications, employer, province, intended community, family situation, and current status.

A practical route comparison

Use the table as a starting point, not as a finding of eligibility. The most useful first step is to collect the facts in the right-hand column and then compare them with the current requirements for that route.

Express Entry manages applications for the Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker Program, and Federal Skilled Trades Program. The process generally involves creating a profile, entering the pool, receiving an invitation, submitting a permanent-residence application, and waiting for an IRCC decision. Review the current Express Entry process.

Review the Canadian Experience Class if your Canadian work is skilled and documented

Review CEC if your Canadian work experience matches the program’s current occupational and authorization requirements. Agriculture or food processing alone does not establish eligibility. Your duties, classification, dates, paid hours, language results, and status history must fit the current rules.

A useful first test is to write down what you actually did during a normal shift, who supervised the work, what training or responsibility you held, and how the employer recorded your hours. That description is more useful than relying on a title such as “farm worker,” “processor,” or “production worker.”

Review the Federal Skilled Worker Program if foreign skilled work is your strongest evidence

Review FSW if your qualifying foreign skilled work is the strongest part of your profile. Current rules include requirements concerning the occupation, paid work, timing, language, education, and other factors. The official Federal Skilled Worker requirements identify skilled work in TEER categories 0, 1, 2, or 3 and a minimum qualifying work threshold.

Prepare employer letters that explain duties and dates in plain language, not just a job title. Add payroll or tax evidence where available, then compare the records against your language, education, settlement-fund, and family information.

Review the Federal Skilled Trades Program if trade qualifications are central

Review FST if your occupation is a qualifying trade and you can document the trade background required by the program. A former pilot occupation is not automatically a skilled trade under Express Entry.

Start with certificates, licences, apprenticeship records, examination results, employer letters, and the duties you performed. Licensing can be a separate provincial issue, so distinguish proof of past experience from permission to practise a trade in a particular province.

Review a Provincial Nominee Program when the provincial connection is real

Review a PNP when your employer, occupation, work history, education, language ability, or settlement plan aligns with a province or territory’s current stream. Requirements differ widely, and a province can change its intake, occupation priorities, employer conditions, or invitation process.

For an Express Entry-linked PNP, you must meet the provincial or territorial requirements and qualify for one of the three Express Entry programs. The federal stage remains separate from nomination. Review the Express Entry-linked PNP rules.

Review the Rural Community Immigration Pilot only when the employer and community fit

The Rural Community Immigration Pilot is open for skilled workers who want to work and settle in participating rural and remote communities. It is not the former Agri-Food Pilot under a new name.

Before applying for permanent residence through RCIP, an applicant needs a job offer from a designated employer in a participating community. Identify the community, designated employer, job duties, wage, language, education, work history, and settlement plan before treating this route as realistic. Review the current RCIP conditions and job-offer requirements. A rural job or nomination does not guarantee permanent residence.

How Agricultural Experience May Fit an Express Entry Assessment

Canadian agricultural or food-processing experience can be useful background, but it does not automatically qualify you for Express Entry. The decisive questions include your actual duties, occupational classification, work location and dates, authorization, pay, and the specific program.

• Canadian experience: Record the employer, dates, hours, duties, wage, permit conditions, and whether the position was skilled under the program being considered.
• Foreign experience: Identify the occupation, employer, dates, paid hours, duties, and employment evidence.
• Trade experience: Gather trade certificates, licences, apprenticeship records, employer letters, and duty evidence.
• Language and education: Preserve test results, transcripts, certificates, and assessments where required.

Do not copy the former pilot’s 1,560-hour rule into an Express Entry profile. Current programs use their own requirements, and factors such as language, education, age, family circumstances, classification, and invitations can affect the outcome.

Category-based rounds do not guarantee an invitation because someone works in agriculture. Candidates must first meet an Express Entry program’s requirements, then satisfy the criteria for the applicable category. See category-based selection.

Build a Document File Before Choosing a Program

Prepare a pathway-neutral file before deciding whether Express Entry, a PNP, RCIP, or another route deserves review.

• Identity and status: Passports, permits, visas, entry records, status documents, and restoration or extension correspondence.
• Employment: Employer letters, contracts, offers, pay statements, tax records, schedules, timesheets, duties, locations, wages, and employer contacts.
• Work classification: A plain-language description of daily duties, tools, training, supervision, products handled, and responsibility level.
• Language: Current test results and records of any retake.
• Education: Diplomas, degrees, certificates, transcripts, translations, and assessments where required.
• Financial evidence: Bank records and proof of funds where the selected pathway requires them.
• Admissibility: Police certificates, medical information, travel history, and prior immigration decisions where relevant.
• Family information: Relationship evidence, birth certificates, passports, permits, addresses, travel history, and dependent-child details.

Check consistency before submission. Employment dates should align across employer letters, pay records, and permits. Duties should support the proposed occupation, and family and travel histories should match across forms.

Family Planning, Timing, and the Next Conversation

Whether a spouse or child can accompany you or be included as a dependent depends on the selected program and your family’s circumstances. Prepare identity, relationship, status, and travel information early, but do not assume inclusion or approval is automatic.

Processing time is also program-specific. The former pilot’s estimates do not predict timing for Express Entry, a PNP, RCIP, or an existing application. Completeness, background checks, medical and police requirements, further requests, and program changes can affect the timeline.

Settlement planning includes more than immigration forms. If an employer is arranging an orientation, training day, or workplace move for new staff, practical planning such as meals and scheduling can be handled separately from the immigration assessment. A general guide to office catering options can help with that operational detail.

If you never applied, build your work, status, language, education, employer, community, and family record before choosing a route. If you already submitted an application, preserve your records and follow IRCC’s correspondence.

Maxx Life Immigration Services Inc. provides Express Entry services and other Canadian immigration services, including provincial nominee, work permit, and LMIA guidance.