The International Mobility Program (IMP) lets employers hire temporary workers without a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). Exemptions from the LMIA process are based on
Find out if you need an LMIA, or contact the International Mobility Worker Unit (IMWU) serving your province or territory if you need help determining if you need an LMIA. Submit an offer of employmentIn most cases, to hire a temporary worker through the IMP, you must
Note: If you are hiring a temporary worker who has an open work permit, you do not need to submit an offer of employment form or pay the employer compliance fee. An open work permit allows the permit holder to work for any Canadian employer. Employer compliance fee exemptionsSome employers do not need to pay the employer compliance fee. To find out if you do not need to pay this fee, review the list of employer compliance fee exemption codes. If you do not need to pay the compliance fee, you will need the exemption code that applies to your situation when completing the offer of employment form. Find out if you are exempt from the employer compliance fee. After you submit an offer of employmentAfter you submit an offer of employment through the Employer Portal, you will receive an offer of employment number. You must give this number to the temporary worker you plan to hire or are continuing to employ. Once the temporary worker has this information, they can complete the work permit application. CIC or the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) will review the application to see if the temporary worker is eligible to work in Canada. If the application is approved, the temporary worker will receive
If the temporary worker is still eligible when they arrive in Canada, a border services officer will issue the work permit at the point of entry. Other important hiring information
Under the International Mobility program, an open work permit enables a person to work for any employer for a specified period of time. An open restricted permit may, however, restrict the occupation or location but not the employer. An open work permit can be issued only to a foreign national exempt from a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). A foreign national may apply for an open work permit outside of Canada, at a port of entry or after arrival to Canada, as per program requirements. Types of open work permits There are two types of open work permits:
Open employer/unrestricted occupation work permit
Note: Medical surveillance must be imposed for persons assessed as M2/S2. Remarks on the permit should indicate “medical surveillance required”. Open employer/occupation- or location-restricted work permit
Note: Persons assessed as M4 or M6 (risk to public health or safety) are not allowed to work. If the condition is controlled, a new medical examination is required before a work permit may be issued. Conditions to be imposed for open employer/occupation‑restricted work permits If a medical examination was not completed, one of the conditions below must be imposed. The specific occupational sector restriction will depend on whether the person has resided in a designated or non-designated country.
Who can be issued an open work permit?
Applicants in the following categories are eligible:
If a medical examination has not been completed, work permits should be open employer/occupation-restricted. Open work permit holder fee Subsection R303.2(1) requires that a fee is payable by a person for the rights and privileges conferred by means of an open work permit if that person is intending to perform work under section 204 or 205, or is described in paragraph 207(b) and does not have an offer of employment. Note: Work permits issued under section 206 or 208 are not subject to the open work permit holder fee. There are exceptions to the payment of the open work permit holder fee for specific persons. Subsection R303.2(2) provides the list of exceptions. Officers must be aware that the work permit application is no longer an isolated event but the second step in the employer compliance regime. It is extremely important that the offer of employment be correctly reviewed to ensure that there are no issues if an inspection is initiated. The employer compliance regime began in April 2011 with the requirement to confirm the genuineness of the offer of employment. In December 2013, the compliance regime was enhanced to automatically impose conditions on employers and the provision of inspection authorities. The employer compliance regime has effectively made the employer a client of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada. In 2015 with the regulations pertaining to employers hiring foreign nationals under the International Mobility Program (IMP), officers must now ensure that they are assessing the genuineness of the offer of employment, that the employer is eligible and that the foreign national meets the requirements of the offer of employment. The changes introduced on February 21, 2015 included the addition of:
In November 2015, the Employer Portal became the electronic system referred to in the regulations. However, in rare situations employers who are having extreme technical difficulties or who are unable, because of a physical or mental disability [R209.11(3)], to provide the information using the electronic system, may be authorized by Operational Management and Coordination Branch (OMC) to submit the Offer of Employment to a Foreign National Exempt from a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) form [IMM 5802] using an alternate method. Employers must always contact the Employer Portal mailbox first to provide information on their technical issue or disability in order to obtain authorization for alternate submission. Note: The offer of employment information replaces the job offer letter previously required to support LMIA-exempt work permit applications from foreign nationals. Regardless of the method used (i.e., Employer Portal or alternate submission), IRCC must receive the offer of employment information and the employer compliance fee or proof of fee exemption prior to the foreign national’s work permit application [as per paragraph R200(3)(f.1) and section R209.11]. Note: The “before the foreign national submits their application” requirement has no specific time frame. As long as the foreign national includes the offer of employment (LMIA Exempt) number (or if authorized, a copy of the IMM 5802 form with a valid receipt number), IRCC or the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) should accept that the requirement is met, regardless of whether it was submitted days or minutes prior to the submission of a work permit application. On successful submission of the offer of employment using the Employer Portal, an Offer of employment (LMIA-exempt) number is automatically assigned to the information submitted. The employer must provide the Offer of employment (LMIA-Exempt) number to the foreign national for inclusion in their work permit application form, as this provides the necessary evidence to satisfy the requirement in paragraph R200(3)(f.1). Linking the offer of employment to the work permit applicationThe process of linking or matching the work permit to the offer of employment (LMIA-exempt offer) is the second step in the work permit process. This step is necessary to ensure the proper allocation of fees and the ability for inspections to be conducted. Employers are required to provide accurate information to IRCC. If the information provided is determined to be inaccurate it could result in the revocation of the work permit. Employer Portal Submission
Officers should review this information and ensure that the foreign national meets the requirements listed in the Offer of employment information. IMPORTANT Note: The validations in GCMS require that the biographical information included in the offer of employment must exactly match the passport information provided by the work permit applicant in order for the linkage to be made in GCMS, this includes hyphens, accents, spaces, capitalization and numbers. If the Employment Details view tab does not auto-populateWhere the Case Type field is set to “52” and the LMIA/LMIA Exempt # field is populated but no information populates the Employment Details – LMIA Exempt view tab, it may be because:
A) Verifying if the LMIA Exempt # is correct
B) Verifying the data match between the offer of employment and the work permit applicationOfficers can verify if the name and passport details in the offer of employment are exactly the same as the work permit application by
and reviewing the biographical information in the fields in the Worker Information section against what is provided in the work permit application. Note: The biographical information on both the offer of employment and the work permit application must always match exactly what is in the passport. Any difference, such as a hyphen, accents, capitalization or an incorrect letter or number, will stop the validation. If the biographical information in the offer of employment does not match the passport provided by the foreign worker, the processing officer can:
Important: Officer should not change the Case Type to anything other than ‘52’ just to get around the validation. For reference: instructions on cancelling and resubmitting the employment offer can be found in the Employer Portal user guide. Further instructions regarding reviewing the offer are found in Reviewing the offer of employment information. Alternate Submission Employers will only be authorized to submit their offer of employment using an alternate method (usually email) by Operational Management and Coordination Branch (OMC) after their technical issue has been evaluated. Employers must submit their technical issue to the Employer Portal mailbox. If the technical issue is serious enough to warrant waiving the Portal requirement, OMC will then:
Note: For applications where the foreign national is submitting the work permit application with the IMM 5802 form and employer payment receipt, the case type “20” should be used. This case type should not be used as a method of circumventing the validations in GCMS. Allocation of the of the employer payment receipt numberIf the receipt number is not available for use in GCMS, there are three possible reasons:
Prior to November 2015, employers may have paid multiple employer compliance fees as a batch on one receipt. To find the payment number for association in the work permit application, the Integrated Payment Revenue Management System (IPRMS) receipt number should be queried in the Payments screen tab. Reviewing the offer of employment information Officers should review the information in the Employment Details view or the IMM 5802 to ensure that the foreign national meets the requirements listed in the Job Details section (or Details of Job on the IMM 5802), that the offer meets the genuineness requirements in R200(5) and that the employer is not ineligible. Note: Officers should never change any information provided by the employer including exemption codes, as the employer is expected to ensure that the information included in the offer of employment is accurate. Any change by IRCC or the CBSA to the information provided by the employer, without the employer’s knowledge and consent, renders subparagraph R209.2(1)(b)(i) unenforceable, as the information is no longer provided by the employer and cannot be verified as accurate. If the information in the work permit application does not match the information provided by the employer (e.g. worker documentation indicates a different LMIA-exemption, wages or location are different, etc) the processing officer can:
Officers should not request information pertaining to the offer of employment directly from the foreign worker as only information provided directly from the employer can be inspected. Concerns regarding genuineness of the offer of employment [R200(5)]If the officer has concerns regarding the employer or the genuineness of the offer of employment, the officer may request further information directly from the employer as per the contact information supplied in the offer of employment. Subparagraph R200(1)(c)(ii.1) provides officers the authority to request information from employers without having to use the foreign national applicant as a conduit for that request. In order for the information to be inspected for accuracy it must be received by IRCC directly from the employer. Information submitted by the work permit applicant is not subject to inspection. Therefore, officers should always contact the employer directly to request further information, such as the following:
Important: Subparagraph R209.2(1)(b)(i) makes it a condition that employers demonstrate that any information they provided under subparagraph R200(1)(c)(ii.1) or section R209.11 is accurate. Information provided by or requested from the foreign national is not “provided by the employer” and is therefore not included in the information that can be inspected for accuracy. The employer’s contact information should be included in the Offer of employment form provided by the employer, as per section R209.11. The method of contact (e.g., email, regular mail, or fax) should be determined by individual offices according to their internal procedures. Employer compliance fee exemptionsSome employers are exempt from the fee requirement under subsection R303.1(5). If there is no corresponding fee payment (listed in the Payment view tab) for an offer of employment, the employer should have provided proof of their fee exemption. The employer is required to upload ‘proof of fee exemption’ in the Employer Portal if they indicate they are fee exempt. The proof of fee exemption document may be found in the eDocs view tab. Officers should confirm that no fee-exemption was indicated and no fee payment was made before refusing under R200(2)(f.1). No offer of employment information or employer compliance fee submittedThe IRPR states that when hiring LMIA-exempt foreign workers, employers must pay the employer compliance fee and submit an offer of employment to IRCC. Some employers may be exempt from paying the employer compliance fee under subsection R303.1(5) and subsection R303.2(2). Despite the fee exemption, these employers must submit the offer of employment to IRCC, as per section R209.11. A work permit application shall be refused under paragraph R200(3)(f.1) if the employer has not
Refunds A refund of the employer compliance fee must be initiated if
Refusal of the work permit applicationIf a work permit application is refused, a refund of the employer compliance fee should be initiated by IRCC or the CBSA in accordance with the standard guidelines. Withdrawal of the offer of employment prior to work permit issuanceAs of April 9, 2016, Employers may withdraw their offer of employment directly from their Employer Portal account. This will change the status of the offer of employment from ‘pending’ to ‘withdrawn’. Prior to April 9, 2016 an employer would send an email to Case Management Branch (CMB) to indicate that they were cancelling the offer of employment, CMB would:
If a work permit application has been received, but not yet approved (No letter of introduction or work permit issued)If the offer of employment is withdrawn/ cancelled after a work permit application is received, the processing office should
A template letter titled Employer Compliance refund to employer is provided in the GCMS templates folder Temporary Residents for use by processing offices. If a work permit application is approved but work permit not issued (POE)If the offer of employment is withdrawn/ cancelled after the approval by an overseas office but prior to work permit issuance at port of entry, the border service officer should
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