Clinical steps (services offered)
The PRAIDA intake team offers these services:
- Assessment of basic needs and guidance on arrival in Canada or when filing an application for asylum in Canada;
- Assessment of transportation and housing needs;
- Guidance and assistance with immigration processes connected to seeking asylum (finding a lawyer, explaining the process, applying for a work permit, assisting vulnerable people, etc.);
- Guidance and assistance with settling in Quebec (finding housing, enrolling children in school, learning French, food banks, volunteering, etc.);
- Referrals to various community organizations for support, as needed;
- Emergency and temporary shelter on arrival in Canada, conditional on processes connected to seeking asylum and social assessment.
- Short-term financial support in the form of public transit passes and food vouchers, conditional on a social assessment;
- Financial assistance for families seeking asylum and receiving welfare who have three or more children;
- Psychosocial assessment and referral to the PRAIDA follow-up team for vulnerable people: trauma victims, people with mental health problems associated with the migration process, victims of intimate partner violence, complex immigration cases, children with special needs, etc.
- Crisis intervention (suicidal thoughts, disorganization, etc.)
- Initial assessment and referral to the PRAIDA care team for unaccompanied minors (child asylum seekers who have arrived in Canada without their biological parents or a legal guardian)
Administrative Steps to Receive PRAIDA Services
Bring all your immigration papers with you to our offices, within the opening hours. You don’t need an appointment.
When you arrive, you will be directed to the reception room to register and/or open a new file, if it’s your first visit.
You will then meet a social worker, who will assess your needs.
Please note that we don’t do assessments over the phone. You must come to our offices in person.
Work permit
If you are in the process of claiming asylum, you can legally work in Canada once you receive your work permit. The permit is free and can also be renewed for free* if you are still waiting for your hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. There are two ways for asylum seekers to get their work permit:
- New protocol (since 2018) :
Check work permit application when filling the asylum claim forms, 
schedule 12** of IMM0008 form. Your work permit application will be processed as soon as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) receives the results of your immigration medical exam.
Wait after you’ve completed your medical exam and for IRCC to receive the results. Next, fill the IMM5710 form, and submit all the supporting documents. There are two ways you can then apply :
- Usual protocol:
- Online (about 3 to 4 weeks processing time)
- Paper application, submit at the IRCC Complexe Guy Favreau office or send by mail to the Case Processing Centre:
Case Processing Centre in Edmonton
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada
c/o Work permits/Same employer, Station 202
9700 Jasper Avenue NW, Suite 55
Edmonton, AB T5J 4C3
(6 to 8 weeks processing time)
Please note that it’s important to promptly report your new address to IRCC if you move or leave your temporary shelter, for you to be able to receive your permit at your new address.
If you are working and have applied for an extension of your work permit before the expiration date of your actual work permit, you can keep working at your actual job even if your permit is expired. However, you cannot start working at a new job before you receive your renewed work permit.
* The extension application must be done 4 months before the expiration date of the work permit.
** If you cannot find the “work permit” box to check in your form, you probably have the old version. You can request the Schedule 12 with work permit at the immigration’s office, or find it online and print it.