Worker type: Farm Workers

Farm Workers

My work permit is expiring or expired. What are my options?

Expiring soon

If you are on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) for 8 months or less, your work permit expires on December 15 every year (check your work permit if you’re unsure). It is legal for you to stay in Canada until this date.

If you have a valid work permit (not expired) and want to stay in Canada longer you have 3 options:

  1. Apply for a visitor visa
  2. Apply for a work permit extension
    • You must apply to extend your work permit at least 30 days before it expires. That means, if your permit expires on December 15, you must apply before November 15.
    • Tap here for more information about what you need to do to apply.
    • Most importantly, you must have a job offer from an employer with a valid Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) – this means they have permission from the Canadian government to hire you as a migrant worker. Your employer must complete all the required steps (tap here for a link to employer requirements).
  3. Apply for spousal sponsorship

These options aren’t good enough! We are uniting to take action and win changes to unfair immigration rules – tap this link to take action with us.

Expired Permit

If you have an expired work permit, you have 3 options:

  1. Restore your status
    • You only have 90 days after your permit expires to apply for restoration. [Tap this link for a video to learn more.]
    • Processing and restoration fees are over $450
    • For many of us, 90 days have already passed since we lost status and we’re ineligible for restoration. That’s not fair! Keep reading to learn more about your options.
  2. Apply for spousal sponsorship
  3. Humanitarian & Compassionate (H&C) application
    • If you lost status, you may be able to apply for H&C if you can prove there are exceptional reasons you should be granted permanent resident status and you can’t access any other program
    • You must be able to prove that you have established a life in Canada, and more
    • Processing fee is $550
    • [Tap this link for a guide to applying for H&C]

If you are not able to apply for these options, you are not alone. We are uniting to take action and win changes to unfair immigration rules – join us!

Take action

  • Use + share the email tool to win permanent status for all undocumented migrants, including people like you with expired permits. Tap here to take action and send a message to PM Carney
  • Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is led by migrants like you! Interested in becoming a member?
    • Send a WhatsApp message to Kit at 905-324-2840
Farm Workers

Help Jamaican Farm Workers Recover from Devastating Hurricane

After the most powerful hurricane to ever hit Jamaica, migrant farm workers are asking for your help.

As flights resume to the island, workers urgently need assistance getting home from the airport. Road closures due to landslides, downed power lines, and fallen trees mean a 20-minute taxi trip now requires an expensive 3-hour detour. They have no idea to what level of devastation they will arrive.

What Your Donation Will Support

Immediate Emergency Needs:

  • Transportation assistance from airport to affected communities
  • Emergency food and clean water supplies
  • Critical medications and medical supplies
  • Temporary shelter and urgent roof repairs
  • Flood recovery and debris removal
  • Other immediate costs as needed

About This Effort

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is providing direct support to Jamaican farm worker members impacted by the devastating storm. Many of these workers split their time between Canada and Jamaica as part of seasonal agricultural programs, and they’re facing this crisis both in Canada and now in Jamaica.

Your contribution goes directly to migrant workers and their families who need it most— no administrative fees, just direct relief.

How to Help

Donate Now

Suggested amounts:

  • $100 – Provides emergency food supplies for one family
  • $150 – Covers transportation from the airport to home
  • $300 – Funds urgent roof repairs to prevent further damage
  • $500 – Comprehensive support package including food, clothing, medicine, and shelter repairs
  • Other amount – Every dollar makes a difference

Why This Matters

These are the same workers who help feed Canada. When disaster strikes their communities, they deserve our support. The combination of destroyed infrastructure and disrupted income means families are struggling to meet basic needs.

Share this campaign: Help us reach more supporters by sharing on social media

Care WorkersFarm WorkersFishery WorkersMigrant Students

November Assembly: Immigration Levels Plan & Important Updates for Migrants!

What do you need to know about the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan, the federal budget and long immigration processing times? Are there more raids? What about expiring permits? How does all this impact you? 

Join November’s Migrant Assembly to discuss all these updates and hear how migrants like you are taking action to fight the cuts. This assembly is led by migrants – don’t get scammed by immigration consultants and other people who want to make money off of our struggles by spreading misinformation. 

Sunday November 9, 2025

Hybrid meeting, for migrants only

In-person, with dinner

Toronto, 6:00 PM

Online

Vancouver, 3:30 PM
Calgary, 4:30 PM
Atlantic, 7:30 PM

Farm Workers

Migrant Farmworkers United: October 2025 Newsletter

👋🏿 Welcome to the latest newsletter! Here you will find news and activities for migrant farm workers this October.

Have news, ideas, or questions?
✅ Message Kit on WhatsApp: 905-324-2840

📰 News

  • 🎤︎︎🎶 September 8: Congratulations to all participants in the karaoke contest in NOTL! Philip won best performance 🏆
  • 📣 September 20: Over 20,000 people took action in 70 cities across Canada to send a message to PM Carney and demand:
    • Respect Indigenous rights
    • Stop arming genocide
    • Permanent immigration status for all
    • End the era of fossil fuels
    • Protect public services

🗓️ Events & Actions

  • October 5: MWAC organizers visit Leamington and Kingsville. Message Kit on WhatsApp to link up: 905-324-2840
  • October 7-8: MWAC organizers visit Tillsonburg and Simcoe. Want to connect? Message Kit on WhatsApp: 905-324-2840
  • October 26: Online info session about end-of-season rights for seasonal workers. Message Kit to sign up: 905-324-2840

👥 Meetings

  • September 29, 8pm: Monthly farmworker members meeting. 📍Online
  • October 27, 8pm: Monthly farmworker members meeting. 📍Online

Want to join a meeting in October and help shape the farm work program for future generations? We’d love to see you! Just send a WhatsApp message to Kit at 905-324-2840.

✅ Stay up-to-date

⚠️ Report abuse & unsafe work

If you face disrespect, abuse, or unsafe work or housing:
Try to get proof if you can. You have rights!
Without proof, your options are limited.

Need support?
Message Kit privately on WhatsApp at 905-324-2840.
Everything you share is confidential. You’re not alone.

United, we are stronger!

Farm Workers

Support Eric’s Recovery

He fed Canadians for 18 years. Now he needs our support.

Eric is a 52-year-old father of four from Jamaica who has spent nearly two decades living and working in Norfolk County, putting food on Canadians’ tables.

But now Eric is fighting for his life. He has survived three strokes – the first in 2022, another in May 2025, and the most recent at the end of July 2025. After his stroke in May, Eric struggled to keep up in the fields under the hot sun and lost his job, leaving him without income for rent, food, or medication. His most recent stroke left him unable to swallow. He now relies on a feeding tube and urgently needs a suction device to breathe and eat safely.

Ontario’s Assistive Devices Program will cover 75% of the cost, but Eric must pay the remaining amount up front. He also needs feeding bags, a blender to prepare food himself, plus ongoing medications. Having given up his apartment when he entered hospital in July, Eric now faces discharge from the rehabilitative therapy program without a safe place to live. We are seeking to raise $10,500 to cover 6 months of living expenses (see below for breakdown of costs).

Eric is a kind, soft-spoken man who has contributed to this country for almost 20 years. Today, he is left without income, housing, or health support. This is where you come in.

👉 Donate now to help Eric cover the costs of his urgent medical equipment, food, housing, and recovery.

👉 Share this fundraiser with friends, family, neighbours, and coworkers.

👉 Support migrant farm workers’ demand for permanent status for all. Without permanent status, thousands of migrant workers like Eric are excluded from basic rights and access to life-saving care. Sign the petition: migrantworkersalliance.org/WeFeedCanada

This fundraiser is part of a larger struggle for migrant justice. We demand permanent resident status for all, so that all migrants have equal access to healthcare, housing, and family unity.

After feeding Canadians for nearly two decades, let’s make sure Eric receives the care and dignity he deserves.

Breakdown of expenses

Housing: $900/month

Medication (including insulin, test strips, and stroke prevention): ~$500/month

Phone: $50/month

Food: ~$300/month

Farm Workers

NEWS: Bad Boss Fined for Injuring Another Worker

Highline Produce faces another fine – this time for $115,000 – after another mushroom farm worker was critically injured by a netting machine at one of their facilities in Kingsville, Ontario. An investigation by the Ontario Ministry of Labour determined that proper safety measures and procedures were not in place to keep workers safe in 2023. Highline pleaded guilty to violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

This isn’t the first time that Highline has failed to keep workers safe. The company was fined two times in 2019 : 1) $75,000 after a worker was caught in a moving cable, and 2) $90,000 when a worker was caught and dragged into a conveyer.

This shows that fines alone do not help keep workers safe, and for bad bosses they are just another cost of doing business. Without permanent status, migrant workers are denied the tools we need to speak up about unsafe conditions and protect ourselves!

Highline Produce employs over 120 migrant workers in Ontario and has facilities in Kingsville, Leamington, and Wellington (close to Belleville, ON).

Last year in their BC facilities, nearly 400 migrant farm workers unionized. In Ontario, farm workers are excluded from the right to unionize or bargain collectively.

Unfair laws don’t stop us from uniting together to take action and win change for all migrants!

Are you a migrant farm worker?

Are you worried about unsafe conditions at work? Are you tired of being mistreated by your boss or supervisor?

You are not alone! Workers like you are uniting together to take action and win change, and we want to hear from you.

✅ Send a message to MWAC organizer Kit on WhatsApp to learn more: 905-324-2840

✅ Tap to sign the petition to demand equality, not exclusion!: migrantrights.ca/equality

United, we are stronger!

Farm Workers

Migrant Farmworkers United: September 2025 Newsletter

👋🏿 Welcome to the latest newsletter! Here you will find news and activities for migrant farm workers this September.

Have news, ideas, or questions?
✅ Message Kit on WhatsApp: 905-324-2840

📰 News

  • ⚽ On August 10, MWAC farmworker members and supporters participated in the 6th Annual Farms of Norfolk Football Tournament in Simcoe. We met new workers and handed out helpline flyers and sunglasses. We shared food and dance moves. Congratulations to the winning team, see you next year!
  • ⚠️ In mid-August, we reported a farm in Niagara for housing violations. An inspector from Niagara Region Public Health gave their prompt attention to the report and inspected the houses. Do you have bad housing conditions on your farm? Message Kit to learn about your options: 905-324-2840
  • On August 24, a migrant farmworker from Mexico named Sergio was reported missing in Tsawwassen, BC. With deep sadness, he was found deceased days later. We extend our sincere condolences and solidarity to his family, coworkers, and community. His memory will remain with us always. 
  • On August 31, farmworker members of MWAC met online to connect with workers from other farms, discuss plans, and offer encouragement to each other. During our closing time of upliftment, one of our members shared:

“Protect your mental health. It’s not easy leaving our families, we need to find ways to cope. No matter what you’re going through, you’re not alone. Reach out and connect.”

– MWAC Farmworker leader

🗓️ Events & Actions

  • 🙏🏾 September 3, 10am: Migrant justice prayer circle (Online). A monthly time for prayer, reflection, and encouragement. Everyone is welcome – join from your phone! Message Kit for the Zoom link: 905-324-2840
  • 🎤︎︎🎶 September 8, 7-9pm: Karaoke Competition Night in NOTL. Free event with food, friends, and prizes! 📍 Message Kit for location.
  • September 14, 5:30pm: Caribbean-Canadian Centre + Evening Celebration Service. Join for food and fellowship at Southridge Church in Vineland.
  • 📣 September 20, 12pm: Draw the Line global day of action in Niagara Falls.
  • September 28, 5:30pm: Join the last Caribbean-Canadian Centre for games night at Southridge Church in Vineland.

👥 Meetings

  • August 31, 8pm: Monthly farmworker members meeting 📍 Online.
  • September 29, 8pm: Monthly farmworker members meeting. 📍Online.

Want to join a meeting in September and help shape the farm work program for future generations? We’d love to see you! Just send a WhatsApp message to Kit at 905-324-2840.

✅ Stay up-to-date

⚠️ Report abuse & unsafe work

If you face disrespect, abuse, or unsafe work or housing:
Try to get proof if you can. You have rights!
Without proof, your options are limited.

Need support?
Message Kit privately on WhatsApp at 905-324-2840.
Everything you share is confidential. You’re not alone.

United, we are stronger!

Farm Workers

Migrant Farmworkers United: August 2025 Newsletter

👋🏿 Welcome to the latest newsletter! Here you will find news and activities for migrant farm workers this August.

Have news, ideas, or questions?
✅ Message Kit on WhatsApp: 905-324-2840

📰 News

  • 📣​ Migrant workers speak out to expose secret government plan: Did you see farm workers speaking up in the Canadian news? Check it out!

The Canadian government plans changes to the farm work program that will impact you and your family. For more information, and to see how farm workers like you are responding to these changes – tap here to check out this informative post on Facebook.

👀 Tap the photos below to read the full articles and see what farm workers are saying:


🗓️ Events & Actions

  • 🙏🏾 August 6, 10am: Migrant justice prayer circle (Online). A monthly time for prayer, reflection, and encouragement. Everyone is welcome – join from your phone! Message Kit for the Zoom link: 905-324-2840
  • ⚽ August 10, 9am-4pm: 6th Annual Farms of Norfolk Football Association. 📍660 West St. Soccer Fields, Simcoe.
  • 🎶 August 11, 7-9pm: Open Doors Night in NOTL. Chill monthly space to hang out, relax off the farm, and connect with friends. Games, giveaways, and more! 📍 Message Kit for location.
  • 🍗 August 24: Bridges Niagara Migrant Workers Appreciation Day & BBQ. 📍 Virgil Farmworker Hub. Need a ride? Message Kit: 905-324-2840.

👥 Meetings

  • 🎊 August 17, 7-8pm: Annual MWAC Members’ Assembly. Every year, members from all sectors – farmworkers, careworkers, students, & workers without papers – come together to celebrate our wins and build strength for the fight ahead. 📍Online. Message Kit for sign up: 905-324-2840
  • August 31, 7:30pm: Monthly farmworker members meeting. 📍Online & in-person. Message Kit for location.

Want to join a meeting in August and help shape the farm work program for future generations? We’d love to see you! Just send a WhatsApp message to Kit at 905-324-2840.

✅ Stay up-to-date

⚠️ Report abuse & unsafe work

If you face disrespect, abuse, or unsafe work or housing:
Try to get proof if you can. You have rights!
Without proof, your options are limited.

Need support?
Message Kit privately on WhatsApp at 905-324-2840.
Everything you share is confidential. You’re not alone.

United, we are stronger!

Farm Workers

Migrant Farmworkers United: July 2025 Newsletter

👋🏿 Welcome to the latest newsletter! Here you will find news and activities for migrant farm workers this July.

Have news or ideas?
✅ Message Kit on WhatsApp: 905-324-2840

📰 News

  • 🏆 Cricket tournament winners: Congratulations to Coach Prophet, Captain Chris, and the Niagara Clippers team for their win over the Vineland Lions on June 8. Captain Collin and the Lions team played a great match. Thank you CWOP for organizing another successful tournament!
  • 🗣️✊🏾 Farm workers show up for care workers!: On June 16, a group of migrant care workers protested at the immigration building in Toronto to demand Status For All. Farm workers made signs to show their support (see photos below).
  • 📣​ Farm workers speak out: Our survey about changes to the farm worker program wrapped up and WOW – we heard from over 500 farm and fishery workers like you from across the country, great job! 💪🏽 We created a report based on your responses (always anonymous) and will be sharing full results in the coming weeks.
    • 81.25% demand immediate permanent resident status for all
    • 83.55% of migrant workers report that current wages are not enough to support family
    • 66% report poor or very bad housing conditions
  • 🥵 Farm workers speak out AGAIN!: During last week’s heat warning in Ontario, workers like you shared what they’re going through and demanded heat protections. Check it out on our Facebook page or Instagram.

🗓️ Events & Actions

  • 🙏🏾 July 9, 10am: Migrant justice prayer circle (Online). A monthly time for prayer, reflection, and encouragement. Everyone is welcome – join from your phone! Message Kit for the Zoom link.
  • ⚽ July 13, 10am: En Lace football tournament. Let’s cheer on our Mexican comrades! Veterans Memorial Park, NOTL. Message Kit for transportation.
  • July 14, 7-9pm: Open Doors Night in NOTL. Chill monthly space to hang out, relax off the farm, and connect with friends. Games, giveaways, and more! 📍 Message Kit for location.
  • 💒 July 27, 6pm: Caribbean-Canadian Centre + church service. 📍 Southridge Church, Vineland.

Want to join in? Message Kit at 905-324-2840.

👥 Meetings

  • July 20, 1-4pm: Annual MWAC Members’ Assembly. Every year, members from all sectors – farmworkers, careworkers, students, & workers without papers – come together to celebrate our wins and build strength for the fight ahead. 📍Toronto. Message Kit for sign up.
  • July 27: Emancipation Day celebration and farmworker members meeting. 📍 Lakeside Park, St Catharines.

Want to join a meeting in July and help shape the future of farm work? We’d love to see you! Just send a WhatsApp message to Kit at 905-324-2840.

✅ Stay up-to-date

⚠️ Report abuse & unsafe work

If you face disrespect, abuse, or unsafe work or housing:
Try to get proof if you can. You have rights.
Without proof, your options are limited.

Need support?
Message Kit privately on WhatsApp at 905-324-2840.
Everything you share is confidential. You’re not alone.

United, we are stronger!