Manitoba Workers May Get Permit Extensions Until 2027

About 2,700 workers in Manitoba may soon have a chance to extend their work permits while they wait for progress on their permanent residence applications through the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program.

The update was shared by two federal members of Parliament from Winnipeg. Kevin Lamoureux, MP for Winnipeg North, announced the planned extensions in a Facebook post on July 6, 2026. Terry Duguid, MP for Winnipeg South, later said on X that the extensions would run “till the end of 2027.”

Duguid said the measure would allow affected workers to keep working while their provincial applications continue to be processed.

Details Still Awaited

The federal government has not yet released full instructions on the measure. It has not said how workers will apply, who will qualify, or when the extensions will officially begin.

An image shared by Lamoureux appears to show a draft federal government news release. The document refers to the proposed measure as the “Manitoba Workforce Transition Bridge,” or MWTB.

According to that draft, the proposal is now before the Province of Manitoba for consideration. The measure can only move forward if the province accepts it.

Linked to Earlier Permit Policy

The proposed bridge follows a 2024 temporary public policy that helped prospective Provincial Nominee Program candidates obtain open work permits. That earlier policy allowed eligible workers to receive open work permits for up to two years.

The draft release shared by Lamoureux says more than 1,600 workers who received permits under the 2024 policy have already become permanent residents. Another 2,700 workers are still waiting for provincial nominations.

The province is expected to miss the December 31, 2026 deadline that had been set for issuing nominations to this group.

The 2024 policy began on August 11, 2024, and was set to expire on December 31, 2024. It ended without a formal renewal or replacement. However, a federal summary page later showed the open work permit pathway for Manitoba and Yukon as open until December 31, 2025. That page was last modified on March 5, 2026.

Manitoba Nomination Spaces Reduced

The new proposal comes after Manitoba’s provincial nomination allocation was reduced. The province had 9,500 nomination spaces annually in 2023 and 2024. That number fell to 6,400 in 2025 and 6,239 in 2026.

Under a provincial nominee program, applicants must first receive a nomination from the province. They can then apply to the federal government for permanent residence.

For many foreign workers, the process can take two or three years from the time they enter a provincial pathway to the time they receive permanent residence. During that period, some risk losing legal work status.

This issue is especially important for international graduates. Many hold post-graduation work permits, which are usually issued once in a lifetime for up to three years and generally cannot be extended.

In June 2026, the federal government also introduced a separate measure to help some provincial nominees keep work authorization while waiting for an acknowledgement of receipt from the immigration department.