Work Permit Canadian Work Permit

Work Permit

If it is your goal to work in Canada, you will need the proper authorization to do so, namely: a Work Permit. Every year, millions of people come to Canada to enjoy the benefits that Canada has to offer. If you are able to secure employment in Canada, you can be one of the many who gain worthwhile experience in the Canadian Labour Market. As well, this may open the doors to future permanent residence in Canada depending on the nature and duration of your occupation in Canada.

Qualifying for a Work Permit

If you wish to work in Canada and enter the Canadian labour market, you will require a Work Permit. In order to obtain a Work Permit, you will additionally and firstly require a Labour Market Opinion.

A Labour Market Opinion is typically required prior to obtaining any Work Permit and is a validation of the position being offered. Your prospective employer will obtain this through an application submitted to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and will receive either a positive or negative Labour Market Opinion.

You will then need to apply for a Work Permit and submit a positive Labour Market Opinion obtained through this process. The labour market opinion must be completed prior to your application for a work permit.

You will then receive an authorization letter when the Work Permit has been approved.

What Is A Labour Market Opinion?

Prior to obtaining a Work Permit, your employer may be required to obtain a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) before they can hire you as a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW).

An application for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) is submitted to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada/Service Canada. The Labour Market Opinion (LMO) confirms that there is no Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident who can do the job for which you are seeking employment.

The opinion also assesses any impact hiring a foreign worker may have on the Canadian Labour market. The Labour Market Opinion (LMO) is essentially an authorization to hire a Foreign Worker in Canada and assess the validity of the job being offered including the wages, hours of employment and the duration of the permit.

Labour Market Opinion – Employer Basics

If you are an Employer seeking to hire a foreign worker, the first step you will need to take is applying for a Labour Market Opinion. A Labour Marked Opinion is an assessment of the position being offered as well as your compliance with current work standards.

As the Employer, you will be making the application to the Temporary Foreign Worker Unit who will be making a decision on your Labour Market Opinion. The Unit will be assessing your application on:

What You will Need

Qualifying Factors

  • Whether the job offer is genuine
    • Your past compliance with employment and recruitment laws
    • Whether you can financially meet the terms of the job offer
    • Whether you are actively engaged in the business
    • Whether or not the job offer aligns with your current employment needs
  • Whether there is a need for the foreign worker in the local labour market
  • Whether the hiring of the foreign national will result in Canadians or Permanent Residents losing their jobs
  • Whether the employer has demonstrated that the employee will be paid in accordance with current wage rates for the geographical area

Demonstrating Recruitment Efforts

An essential part to receiving a positive labour market opinion relies on your employer’s recruitment efforts. These recruitment efforts allows employers to find qualified and enthusiastic candidates for vacant job opportunities All employers are encouraged to conduct ongoing recruitment efforts, including updating job postings.

A job posting is an announcement of an employment opportunity through a specific resource such as a newspaper, website or notice board. It is advantageous that we live in a digital world; therefore advertisements can be posting on the internet.

The employer must meet the minimum advertising requirements:

  1. Advertise on the National Job Bank, for a minimum period of four weeks. The posting must be active until the labour market opinion (LMO) is issued. As Canadian citizens and permanent residents are afforded greater rights, the postings allows for an advance search of employment before any opportunity can be presented to a foreign worker.
  2. In addition, the employer must use a minimum of two methods of recruitment, specifically one method among the print media (bulletin boards, newspapers) and employment websites (Craigslist, Workopolis). The advertisement must be posted for a minimum of four weeks.

A Work Permit allows a Foreign Worker to work in Canada for a designated employer; this is called a closed Work Permit. This means you will only be able to work for the employer that has been indicated on the Labour Market Opinion at the time of application.

In order to come to Canada as a worker, you will also need to satisfy an officer that you are a bona fide temporary resident, meaning:

  • You have strong ties to your home country and will not remain in Canada beyond your authorized period of stay;
  • You have enough funds to support yourself while you are in Canada;
  • Your purpose in Canada is that of a visitor;
  • You will exit Canada once your stay is over.

Further, simply because you have received a positive labour market opinion does not necessarily mean that you will automatically obtain your work permit. You will also need to demonstrate that you have the necessary skills, education and experience to fulfill your intended duties in Canada.

How We Can Help

Obtaining a work permit in Canada and the ability to earn a living in this great country is the goal of many hopeful. However, obtaining a work permit in Canada means that you have first found an employer in Canada who is willing to hire you and obtain a Labour Market Opinion first. This means that you will first need to find a prospective job before you can even attempt to apply for a work permit. Once you have found possible employment, your employer will need to apply for a Labour Market Opinion and you will need to apply for your work permit. As such, obtaining a work permit in Canada is a two stage process. We will help you with both.

We will assist you:

  • Draft the necessary forms;
  • Work with you and your employer to obtain the proper documentation;
  • Draft appropriate supporting documentation like a contract, employment offer letter, etc.;
  • Assist with demonstrating recruitment efforts which are essentially to any Labour Market Opinion;
  • Help demonstrate how you meet the conditions of a Temporary Resident;
  • Compile the strongest possible case as per your unique situation; and
  • Of course, be with you every step of the way.

For more information on the Labour Market Opinion and Work Permit, feel free to browse our vast collection of information on the subject or contact us directly at 1-877-622-8182 or 416 477 2570. You can also email at Info@ToImmigrate.com.

The open work permit is a work permit under temporary visa and it is not job-specific. This means that applicants do not need to have a job offer nor do they need a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LIMA).

From December 22, 2014 Citizenship and Immigration of Canada (CIC) will start providing open work permits to some spouse or common-law partners in Canada (SCLPC) before they obtain a final decision or approval in principle.

If you already applied for permanent residence under the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class but you have not apply for open work permit along with your permanent residence application, you can apply for open work permit and pay the required processing fee that shows that you are applying for open work permit.

We can assist with this matter!

The application essentially will need to be submitted to the Case Processing Centre in Vegreville and the address of this office is:

CPC- Vegreville

WP- Unit 777

6212-55 Avenue

Vegreville, AB

T9C 1X6

If you already have obtained approval in principle, you can also apply for an open work permit online.

If you are applying now as SCLPC then you have to complete both applications (permanent residence and an open work permit) and pay required fee and submit both applications to the case processing Centre in Mississauga.

The applicants who apply for permanent residence after December 22, 2014 will receive their work permit within four months once CIC receive the complete work permit application.

If you would like our assistance in obtaining you an open work permit, call us today!

Are you in a situation where you have completed a degree, diploma, or certificate in Canada and you wish to remain in Canada? If so, the Post-Graduation Work Permit is the program may be geared for you.

As with any application, there are many requirements that must be met before you can be successful. I will now review some important conditions that are required of applicants in the Post-Graduation Work Permit program. It is important to understand that this is not an exhaustive list. Some conditions include,

  • Completing a program that had a length of eight months or more
  • Passing the program in which you were enrolled and being eligible to receive your degree, diploma, or certificate
  • The school in which you graduated must have been,

o A public post-secondary school

o A private post-secondary school that functions and is regulated like public post-secondary schools

o A private secondary or post-secondary school that offers a lead into specific programs that can only be found in Quebec

o Specific programs in a private post-secondary school that will lead to an authorized degree (authorization comes from the provincial government)

  • Applying for a work permit within ninety days of getting a validation letter
  • Your study permit being valid when you are making an application for your work permit

It is important to know that your work permit length will not be granted at a longer length than your study permit. This means that, the longer you have studied, the longer your work permit may be issued, and vice versa. For example, if the official length of your study was ten months, then you will only be granted a maximum of ten months for your work permit.

If you wish to explore this program, or options you may have, or what you can do after being successful in the Post-Graduation Work Permit, contact Akrami & Associates today, because with Akrami & Associates, there is always a way.

Work permit is an authorization given to a person, who is neither a Canadian citizen nor a permanent resident, to work in Canada. Like every other permit there is a list of requirements you need to meet in order to qualify for a work permit.

One of the main requirements to qualify for a work permit is proof of employment. You need a job offer from a Canadian employer, in addition to a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) from the employer. LMIA provides proof of the fact that the employer has made substantial efforts to first employ a Canadian resident first. You would be required to fill out an application and provide the listed documents. The list of documents may be specific to your case, which makes the application process very tedious and comprehensive. The documents will usually include your job offer, your assets back home, and LMIA from the employer.

In addition to the application process, you have to ensure the officer that you meet all the requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and are in fact admissible to enter Canada (Criminally and medically). Additionally, the officer must be satisfied of the fact that you will leave Canada at the end of your employment. As a temporary foreign worker, once you receive a work permit, you can usually work in Canada for a period of no longer than four years.

If you have any further questions about the list of required documents, the application process or about work permits in general please contact us today! Our team of experienced professionals will be happy to answer your questions.

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