Hiring Foreign Workers

A Canadian employer can hire a foreign national, but not simply by offering them a job. The worker needs authorisation to work, and which authorisation depends on the role, the company and sometimes the worker's nationality.

The first question is not "how do I get an LMIA"

It is whether you need one. Work permits fall into two systems, and they behave completely differently.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program requires a Labour Market Impact Assessment — you advertise the role, show no Canadian or permanent resident was available, and satisfy ESDC that hiring from abroad will not harm the labour market. It is slow, it costs a fee per position, and it is the default.

The International Mobility Program covers everything that is LMIA-exempt, because the role carries a broader benefit to Canada or is covered by a trade agreement. No advertising, no labour market test, and far less time. Intra-company transfers live here, as do CUSMA and CETA professionals, and spouses of skilled workers and students who already hold open work permits.

Check the exemptions before you start advertising. An employer who discovers on week six that the candidate's spouse already holds an open work permit has spent six weeks proving something nobody needed proved.

Somebody already in Canada may need nothing from you

An open work permit holder — a post-graduation work permit, a spousal open work permit, a working holiday participant — can accept your offer today. No LMIA, no application by you, no wait. When a candidate says they are "allowed to work in Canada", ask what document says so and look at it, because the answer changes everything that follows.

Hiring is a commitment, not a transaction

Once you employ a foreign worker you are subject to inspection. You must employ them in the job, at the wage and under the conditions you set out, keep records for six years, and be able to produce them. Penalties run to substantial amounts per violation and to bans from the programme, and the list of non-compliant employers is public. See Compliance & Employer Support before you make the offer, not after the inspection letter.

Permanent, not temporary

If you want the person to stay, a work permit is the beginning. OINP and the other provincial nominee programmes let an employer support a worker towards permanent residence, and a job offer can also strengthen a candidate in Express Entry. Employers who plan this from the start keep people; those who treat the permit as the goal tend to repeat the exercise in two years.

Where Skylam comes in

Deciding which route the role belongs on before any money is spent, running the one you need, and keeping the file in the shape an inspector expects. For employers hiring more than occasionally, the useful work is a process rather than an application.