No Free Movement, and a Regulation That Points Somewhere Else
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Uruguay on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
107 exceptions recorded across 42 countries · none match Uruguay to Canada · Residency under a regional treaty
Canada belongs to no union that gives anyone a right to live here. What it has instead is section 204 of the Regulations, which lets a work permit be issued for work performed under an agreement between Canada and a foreign state, under a federal-provincial agreement, or under a youth mobility arrangement - without naming a single state. The rights are real and they are in the agreements, not in the Regulations. One of those agreements has been read for this corpus: Chapter 16 of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, whose Section D makes a Party grant temporary entry to a professional listed in its Appendix 2 on proof of citizenship of a Party, and forbids labour certification tests and numerical limits on that entry.
At a glance
- Free movement
- None: no agreement we have read gives a right of residence in Canada
- What section 204 gives
- A work permit without a labour market assessment, where an agreement covers the work
- Which agreements section 204 names
- None - it describes them by kind
- What we have read
- Chapter 16 of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement
The chapter is titled Temporary Entry for Business Persons.
- What that chapter turns on
- Citizenship of a Party, and a profession set out in its Appendix 2
Section D, paragraph 1.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Uruguay
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«204 A work permit may be issued under section 200 to a foreign national who intends to perform work under - (a) an agreement or arrangement between Canada and the government of a foreign state or an international organization, other than an agreement or arrangement concerning seasonal agricultural workers; - (b) an agreement entered into by one or more countries and by or on behalf of one or more provinces; - (c) an agreement entered into by the Minister with a province or group of provinces under subsection 8(1) of the Act; or - (d) a youth mobility agreement or arrangement between Canada and the government of a foreign state or the competent authority of any other foreign territory, or between Canada and an international or domestic organization, that would create or maintain reciprocal employment for Canadian citizens in a foreign state or territory.»About this source
Canada's consolidated federal statutes and regulations, served whole as plain HTML at a stable address built from the Act's chapter or the regulation's registration number. Each consolidation states the date it is current to and the last amendment applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are official under the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act, but the site itself warns that where a consolidation and the original statute differ, the original prevails. The date a page is current to is printed in a side panel our capture does not carry, so a stored reading here shows the text without the line that dates it. Immigration practice in Canada also sits largely in ministerial instructions and programme delivery guidance, which are not law and are not published here, and Quebec selects its own immigrants under an accord this site does not carry.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Section D: Professionals 1. Each Party shall grant temporary entry and provide confirming documentation to a business person seeking to engage in a business activity at a professional level in a profession set out in Appendix 2, if the business person otherwise complies with the Party’s measures applicable to temporary entry, on presentation of: - (a) proof of citizenship of a Party; and - (b) documentation demonstrating that the business person will be so engaged and describing the purpose of entry. 2. No Party shall: - (a) as a condition for temporary entry under paragraph 1, require prior approval procedures, petitions, labor certification tests or other procedures of similar effect; or - (b) impose or maintain a numerical restriction relating to temporary entry under paragraph 1.»Paragraph 2 is the part that bites: no prior approval, no petition, no labour certification test, no numerical restriction. Paragraph 3 preserves a visa requirement notwithstanding that.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The department publishes the consolidated texts of Canada's trade agreements chapter by chapter, in the language of the agreement, including the appendices that carry the lists the operative articles point at.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: A treaty text is not Canadian law. An agreement reaches an immigrant through section 204 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, and what an officer asks for is in ministerial instructions rather than in the chapter. The department publishes the text it is a party to and says nothing about how the other parties implement it.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Temporary entry is not residence and the chapter says so by its title. A professional admitted under Section D is a temporary entrant whose status depends on the work continuing.
The agreement binds all three parties, so the same clause is what lets a Canadian work in Mexico. Reciprocity is the mechanism, which is why section 204 can describe it without naming anyone.
- publishesCanada-United States-Mexico Agreement, Chapter 16
Global Affairs Canada
About this source
The department publishes the consolidated texts of Canada's trade agreements chapter by chapter, in the language of the agreement, including the appendices that carry the lists the operative articles point at.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: A treaty text is not Canadian law. An agreement reaches an immigrant through section 204 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, and what an officer asks for is in ministerial instructions rather than in the chapter. The department publishes the text it is a party to and says nothing about how the other parties implement it.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source