Compliance & Employer Support
When you hire a foreign worker you make commitments to the Government of Canada about how you will employ them — and you agree to be inspected on whether you kept them. Most employers find this out after the letter arrives rather than before the offer goes out.
What you actually agreed to
That the person will do the job you described, at the wage you stated, under the conditions you set out, at the location you named. That your workplace will be free of abuse. That you will comply with federal and provincial employment law, and that you will keep records to prove all of it.
The commitments are made in the LMIA or the offer of employment, and they are read literally. A worker hired as one thing and doing another, or paid less than stated because the role changed, is a violation whether or not anybody intended one.
Inspections are routine, not accusatory
Employers can be inspected for six years after the permit is issued, and selection is often random rather than triggered by a complaint. An inspection can ask for documents, interview your staff and the worker, or visit the premises — normally with notice, though not always.
What determines the outcome is almost entirely whether the records exist. Payroll, time sheets, the offer, the advertising, the contract, the amendments. An employer who did everything right but cannot evidence it is in a materially worse position than one who can.
What it costs to get wrong
Consequences run from a warning through administrative monetary penalties — which reach into six figures per violation, with a substantial annual ceiling per employer — to bans from hiring foreign workers for one, two, five or ten years, or permanently. Employers found non-compliant are named on a public list on canada.ca, with the violation and the penalty.
For most businesses the public listing is the part that hurts longest.
Things change, and that is allowed
Roles evolve, businesses restructure, people get promoted. None of that is a violation in itself — the violation is letting the employment drift away from the authorisation without doing anything about it. Some changes need a new LMIA or a new permit, some need an amended offer of employment, and some need nothing. The mistake is assuming which, silently.
Where something has already gone wrong, there is a voluntary disclosure route. Coming forward is treated very differently from being found out, and it is almost always the better of the two.
Where Skylam comes in
Setting up the record-keeping before you need it, reviewing existing files for the things inspections actually find, responding when an inspection letter arrives, and handling voluntary disclosure where it is the right call. For employers hiring regularly, an annual review costs less than one penalty.
Requirements
Who qualifies
Conditions every employer must meet
- Employ the worker in the same occupation, at substantially the same wage and under substantially the same working conditions as set out in the LMIA or offer of employment.
- Comply with federal and provincial employment and recruitment law.
- Make reasonable efforts to provide a workplace free of abuse — physical, sexual, psychological and financial.
- Remain actively engaged in the business the offer was made for.
- Not recover the LMIA fee, or recruitment costs, from the worker.
- For low-wage positions and some streams: transportation, housing assistance and private health insurance obligations until provincial coverage begins.
Records to keep for six years
- The LMIA or offer of employment, and any amendments.
- The employment contract and job description.
- Payroll records, time sheets and pay statements.
- The full recruitment file where an LMIA was involved: advertisements, applications received, interview notes, reasons for not hiring Canadians and permanent residents.
- Evidence of any benefit you committed to, including a Labour Market Benefits Plan.
- Proof of insurance and of transportation or housing provided, where required.
An inspection may
- Request documents, with a deadline.
- Interview you, your staff and the worker — the worker may be interviewed without you present.
- Visit the workplace, sometimes without prior notice.
- Look back over the six years, not only at the current permit.
Consequences of non-compliance
- Warnings for minor administrative matters.
- Administrative monetary penalties, scaled by the violation, the employer's size and its history — reaching six figures per violation with an annual ceiling per employer.
- Bans from hiring foreign workers: one, two, five or ten years, or permanent.
- Publication on the public list of non-compliant employers, naming the business, the violation and the penalty.
- Revocation of LMIAs already issued.
If something has already gone wrong
Voluntary disclosure exists and is weighed in your favour. Correcting a wage, amending an offer of employment or reporting a change before an inspection finds it is treated very differently from the alternative. Get advice first: what needs disclosing, and what simply needs fixing, are not the same list.
Penalty amounts, conditions and record-keeping rules are set by the Government of Canada and revised — confirm the current position rather than relying on a summary.
Requirements change without notice. Check IRCC’s own page
Every case turns on its own facts. Book a consultation and a licensed consultant will tell you where you stand on Compliance & Employer Support.
Book a ConsultationLast updated 22 September 2026
Skylam Consultancy and Immigration Services
Trusted & Certified
Our immigration consultants are members of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) and are accredited as Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCIC).
The CICC is the only regulatory body that promotes and protects the public interest by overseeing regulated immigration and citizenship consultants and international student advisors.
Verify status with the CICC