Employers must obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to hire foreign workers to fill temporary labour and skill shortages. The LMIA verifies that there is a need for a temporary worker and that no Canadians or permanent residents are available to do the job.

Express Entry

As part of this process, the government assists firms in filling skilled labor shortages by supporting higher-skilled foreign immigrants based on their potential to establish themselves economically in Canada.
Employers can use the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Express Entry system to make a job offer to skilled foreign employees in support of their permanent residence visa application. The job offer must meet the criteria of 1 of the listed economic immigration programs. These programs include:

• Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)
• Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)
• Canadian Experience Class (CEC)

Employers who want to hire skilled foreign workers under one of these immigration categories may seek to hire them on a temporary basis while their permanent residency application is being handled by IRCC. Employers can now apply for a dual-Intent Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), which comes with a processing cost. These dual-Intent LMIAs can be used to assist a foreign national’s IRCC application for:

• Permanent resident visa, and
• Temporary work permit.

Global Talent Stream (For Firms/Employers in Canada)

The Global Talent Stream provides a quick, responsive, and predictable client-focused service to assist companies in gaining access to highly trained global talent in order to grow their workforce in Canada and remain globally competitive. This Stream is for innovative Canadian businesses that have been referred to Employment and Social Development Canada by a designated referral partner and require one-of-a-kind and specialized foreign nationals to scale-up and grow. It’s also for Canadian businesses looking to fill a high-demand, high-skilled position on the Global Talent Occupations List.

Eligibility for the Global Talent Stream

Category A: If you were referred to the Global Talent Stream by one of the Stream’s recognized partners and are employing an employee with unique and specialized talent, you may be qualified for this category of the Global Talent Stream.
Note that if the requested occupation is included on the Global Talent Occupations List, it will be processed as a Category B application and must meet the conditions for Category B.

Category B: If you’re looking to hire highly talented foreign workers to fill positions in in-demand occupations on the Global Talent Occupations List, you might be eligible for Category B of the Global Talent Stream. It is not necessary to get a referral to be eligible for Category B.
You must meet the Program requirements for the Global Talent Stream as an employer applying through the Global Talent Stream. In addition, while hiring a temporary foreign worker, you must follow the criteria and procedures outlined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
The Temporary Foreign Worker Program has standards in place to check and ensure employers’ compliance with these requirements, and employers who fail to do so will be subject to consequences for non-compliance.

Academic

In collaboration with universities, degree-granting colleges, and unions representing Canadian academics, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)/Service Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) devised special recruiting criteria. These criteria are intended to take into account the advancement and employment of Canadian academics.

An academic is a person having at least one postgraduate degree (after a bachelor’s degree) who works at universities or university colleges in Canada and earns the majority of their income from teaching or conducting research.
If your institution wants to hire a foreign worker for a position where most of the job responsibilities are not related to teaching or research (for example, management, finance, or administration), the standard ESDC process for employing foreign workers applies. Also, community colleges and Quebec’s Collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel (Cégep) are subject to the standard ESDC process for employing foreign workers, unless they are associated with a university and their students can earn degrees.

Exemptions

Universities and colleges in Canada can hire certain types of foreign academics without a labor market impact assessment from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and/or without requiring a work permit for a foreign academic under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

If you have more questions on how to hire an academic, please contact us through phone or email.

Agricultural Worker

Primary Agriculture

Primary agriculture is described as tasks that must be completed in order to:

• be performed within the boundaries of a farm, nursery or greenhouse
• involve at least one activity, such as:
  • operation of agricultural machinery
  • boarding, care, breeding, sanitation or other handling of animals, other than fish, for the purpose of obtaining raw animal products for market
  • collection, handling and assessment of those raw products, or the planting, care, harvesting or preparation of crops, trees, sod or other plants for market
• be consistent with one of these National Occupational Classification codes: (NOC codes 2016/2021 Version)

0821/80020 – Managers in agriculture
0822/80021 – Managers in horticulture
8252/82030 – Agricultural service contractors and farm supervisors
8431/84120 – Specialized livestock workers and farm machinery operators
8252/85100 – Livestock labourers
8611/85101 – Harvesting labourers
8432/85103 – Nursery and greenhouse labourers.

You can hire a temporary foreign agricultural worker under one of the following streams:

1-Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program

To qualify for the SAWP, employers must meet 3 criteria:

• the TFWs hired must be citizens from Mexico or participating Caribbean countries
• production must be in specific commodity sectors (National Commodities List
• the activity must be related to on farm primary agriculture

The SAWP applies only to TFWs who are citizens from:

• Mexico
• Caribbean countries of:
  • Anguilla
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Barbados
  • Dominica
  • Grenada
  • Jamaica
  • Montserrat
  • St. Kitts-Nevis
  • St. Lucia
  • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Trinidad and Tobago

2-Agricultural stream

In the absence of Canadians and permanent residents, the Agricultural Stream allows employers to hire Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) for a maximum period of 24 months.

To qualify for this stream, employers must meet 2 criteria:

• production must be in specific commodity sectors, and
• the activity must be related to on-farm primary agriculture
• temporary foreign worker can be from any country

3-Stream for high-wage positions

To qualify for this stream, below criterial must be met by employer:

• production is not included on the National Commodities List
• temporary foreign worker can be hired for any high-wage agricultural position

4-Stream for low-wage positions

To qualify for this stream, below criterial must be met by employer:

• production is not included on the National Commodities List
• temporary foreign worker can be hired for a low-wage agricultural position

Caregiver

Families can hire a foreign caregiver to provide care, in a private residence, to children, seniors or persons with certified medical needs, when Canadians and permanent residents are not available. Families can hire foreign caregivers through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). However, caregivers must:

• provide care on a full-time basis (minimum 30 hours per week)
• work in the private residence where the care is being provided
• satisfy the conditions outlined by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)/Service Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

These families or private household employers will be permitted to hire foreign workers, for two types of in-home workers, on a live-in or live-out basis:

1. Caregivers for children under 18 years of age

This category could include positions such as Childcare provider, live-in caregiver, nanny (NOC 4411/44100)

2. Caregivers for people with high medical needs

• elderly persons, 65 years of age or over
• people with disabilities, a chronic or terminal illness.

This category could include positions such as:

• Registered nurse or registered psychiatric nurse (NOC 3012/31301)
• Licensed practical nurse (NOC 3233/32101)
• Attendant for persons with disabilities, home support worker, live-in caregiver, personal care attendant (NOC 4412/44101)

Please note that the NOC code shows their equivalent 2021 version.