LMIA Application for High-Wage Positions

On this page

• Processing fee
• Recruitment fees
• Third-party representatives
• Recruiters
• New employers
• Business legitimacy
• Transition plan
• Recruitment and advertisement
• Wages
• Job duties and working conditions
• Health insurance
• Workplace safety
• Employment agreement
• Language of work
• Unionized 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. You must also ensure that the employment you want to offer to a temporary foreign worker is for a full-time position which means that is has to be for a minimum of 30 hours of work/week.

Notice:

New recruitment requirements for positions onboard a foreign vessel undertaking coasting trade effective as of September 11, 2018.

Note: The Governments of Canada and Quebec have reached an agreement to launch a pilot project under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The agreement will introduce new flexibilities for Quebec employers in the TFWP.

For more details on the Quebec pilot project, please refer to the section Hiring Temporary Foreign Workers in Quebec.

Processing fee

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
  • Certified cheque (shall be made payable to the Receiver General for Canada)
  • Money Order (shall be made payable to the Receiver General for Canada)
  • Bank draft (shall be made payable to the Receiver General for Canada)
• The processing fee will not be refunded if your application is withdrawn, cancelled or if your Labour Market Impact Assessment is negative.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 the temporary foreign workers

Recruitment fees

There may be a variety of fees and costs incurred in the process of recruiting temporary foreign workers, including but not limited to:

• cost of using a third-party representative
• advertising fees
• fees paid by a foreign national for assistance with finding or securing employment
• fees paid by an employer for assistance or advice in the hiring of foreign nationals

As an employer, you must confirm and ensure that you or anybody recruiting on your behalf does not charge or recover any recruitment fees, directly or indirectly, from the temporary foreign workers. Failure to do so will result in a negative LMIA decision.

Third-party representatives

Use of a third-party representative

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. The third-party representative also cannot demand or recover the processing fee or other costs related to recruiting from the TFW.

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 College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC)

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

Recruiters

A recruiter or anybody recruiting for the employer is someone who:

• finds or attempts to find an individual for employment with the employer, or
• assists another person in finding or attempting to find an individual for employment with the employer, or
• refers a foreign national to another person who finds or attempts to find an individual for employment with the employer

Some provinces and territories have specific requirements for recruiters and recruitment activities. It is your responsibility to ensure you comply with those requirements. As an employer, you are also responsible for the actions of anyone who recruits on your behalf.

New employers

Employers who have not employed a temporary foreign worker in the past 6 years prior to submitting a LMIA application will be subject to a review. The employer must demonstrate that they made reasonable efforts to provide a workplace that is free of abuse and that they were not an affiliate of an employer who is ineligible for the TFW Program or in default of any amount payable in respect of an administrative monetary penalty.