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LEGAL MATTERS
Playing by the Rules
What you need to know about
immigration and foreign worker
recruitment in Canada today
Does your organization need foreign workers in order
to complete its projects on time? Many employers are
still having trouble finding skilled workers.
Foreign worker recruiting can help to provide temporary or
skilled workers. But now, more than ever, the rules and requirements
are complex and the record-keeping requirements are onerous.
During the past two years, the Government of Canada made it
more difficult and expensive to hire foreign workers and increased
the record keeping obligations for employers of foreign workers. The
number of audits of those employers has also increased. Generally,
Canada has been trying to reduce employers’ reliance on foreign
workers.
Typically, employers who want to hire a foreign worker must first
receive permission from Service Canada through a positive Labour
Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), formerly called a Labour
Market Opinion (LMO). It is an in-depth process that involves advertising
the position in very technical ways and showing that there
BY PAUL HESSE, PITBLADO LAW
is a shortage of qualified Canadian applicants. The application fee
paid to Service Canada with the LMIA request is now $1,000 per
worker and is non-refundable regardless of whether the application
is approved.
On Dec. 1, 2015, new regulations came into effect that create new
fines of $500 to $100,000 per violations of the program as of that date
and bans from using the foreign worker program up to and including
permanent bans.
However, there are exceptions to this requirement and not all foreign
workers require an employer to receive an LMIA approval. For
example, some foreign nationals are eligible for open work permits.
Open work permits allow them to work for any employer in Canada
and in any occupation for which they are qualified. Those workers,
including recent international graduates from Canadian colleges
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