IN-HOME CAREGIVER RECRUITMENT AND ADVERTISEMENT LOW-WAGE POSITIONS

As an employer, you must comply with all the Temporary Foreign Worker Program requirements for the position you are requesting. Learn about employer compliance and the possible consequences of non-compliance.

Processing fee

Notice:
Effective December 8, 2017, families or individuals seeking to hire a foreign caregiver to provide home care for individuals requiring assistance with medical needs are exempt from paying the Labour Market Impact Assessment application processing fee. Families or individuals with a gross annual income of $150,000 or less, seeking to hire a foreign caregiver to provide childcare in their home to a child under 13 years of age, also qualify for the processing fee exemption.

You must pay $1,000 for each position requested to cover the cost of processing your Labour Market Impact Assessment application.

• The processing fee payment (in Canadian dollars) can be made by: Visa，MasterCard，American Express
• The processing fee will not be refunded if your application is withdrawn, cancelled or if your Labour Market Impact Assessment is negative. Refunds are issued only if a fee was collected in error.
• The processing fee cannot be paid by nor be recovered from temporary foreign workers.

 

Third-parties

Use of a third-party

If you choose to use the services of a third-party representative (paid or unpaid), you must complete the appropriate section of the Labour Market Impact Assessment application form.

You must not recover the costs for the services of a paid representative from the temporary foreign worker.

We may communicate directly with you to verify information provided on the Labour Market Impact Assessment application from the third-party representative.

We will not mediate a dispute between you and a third-party representative nor communicate complaints to a regulatory body on your behalf.

If you have a complaint about your third-party representative, there are ways to get help.

Paid third-party representatives

You may choose to ask a third-party representative to act on your behalf when seeking to use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire a temporary foreign worker. A paid representative must be authorized to collect a fee or to receive any other type of payment to act on your behalf or to advise you in the Labour Market Impact Assessment application process. An authorized third-party representative is:

• a member in good standing of a Canadian provincial or territorial law society or students-at-law under their supervision, or the Chambre des notaires du Québec
• a paralegal in the Province of Ontario’s law society
• a member in good standing of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council

Unpaid third-party representatives

An unpaid representative can also assist you but is not authorized to collect a fee or to receive any other type of payment for rendering services. An unpaid representative can be a:

• family member
• friend
• not-for-profit group
• religious organization
• Business legitimacy

All employers applying to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) must supply documents along with their Labour Market Impact Assessment application to demonstrate that their business and job offer are legitimate.

 

Business legitimacy

All employers applying to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) must supply documents along with their Labour Market Impact Assessment application to demonstrate that their business and job offer are legitimate.

Cap on proportion of low-wage positions

If you are hiring temporary foreign workers and offering them a wage that is below the provincial or territorial median hourly wage, you are subject to a cap on the proportion of temporary foreign workers that you, as an employer, can hire in low-wage positions at a specific work location.

The cap, implemented on June 20, 2014, was phased in to provide employers time to transition to a Canadian workforce which means that they are limited to a:

• 20% cap on the number of temporary foreign workers in low-wage positions, or the employers’ established estimated cap (whichever is lower), if they hired a temporary foreign worker in a low-wage position prior to June 20, 2014
• 10% cap on the number of temporary foreign workers in low-wage positions if the employers did not employ a temporary foreign worker in a low-wage position prior to June 20, 2014

Calculating the cap

To calculate the cap, you must complete the Cap for Low-wage Positions section of the Labour Market Impact Assessment application form. You may be asked to provide documentation, such as payroll records, to support the information provided.

Exemptions to the cap

Exemptions include applications for:

• on-farm primary agricultural positions such as:
  • farm managers/supervisors and specialized livestock workers (National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes 0821, 0822, 8252 and 8255)
  • general farm workers, nursery and greenhouse workers and harvesting labourers (NOC codes 8431, 8432 and 8611)
• caregiving positions in a:
  • private household (NOC codes 3012, 3233, 4411 and 4412)
  • health care facility (NOC codes 3012, 3233 and 3413)
• positions for which you are submitting an application to support a temporary foreign worker’s permanent residence under an Express Entry Program
• low-wage positions, if your business has fewer than 10 employees nationally, including the vacant positions you are applying to staff with temporary foreign workers
• highly mobile or truly temporary positions (120 calendar days or less); this duration could be extended on a case-by-case basis if you can demonstrate that the peak season, project or event operates beyond 120 calendar days:
  • Highly mobile is defined as a workforce that regularly crosses inter-jurisdictional boundaries (for example provincial or territorial and/or international) as part of the business’ ongoing operations.
  • Truly temporary is defined as a specific short-term period or singular event where the position will not be filled after the worker leaves the country.
• low-wage positions in seasonal industries that do not go beyond 180 calendar-days:
  • Seasonal is defined as when both the industry and the occupation experience significant fluctuations in labour demand between “peak” and “off-peak” periods, usually occurring on or around the same dates every year.
  • You can use this exemption one time per work location during the application period. If you want to hire workers for more than one occupation, you must fill out an application for each NOC code and submit them all at the same time in order for them to be included in the one-time exemption. For the year 2017 this applies to applications received between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. For the year 2018, this applies to applications received between January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018.

Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of finding and selecting qualified employees. As part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program requirements, you must conduct recruitment efforts to hire Canadians and permanent residents before offering a job to a temporary foreign worker.