Live-in caregivers applying for permanent residence would need to request parallel processing for some or all of their family members living inside or outside Canada. Officers at a visa office could process the applications of family members living abroad concurrently. If the applicants meet all admissibility requirements, the responsible visa office would need to issue permanent resident visas to all eligible family members of live-in caregivers who have received permanent residence from within Canada.
Once the live-in caregivers become permanent residents, they have the ability to sponsor family members, whom the officers have not processed concurrently, as members of the family class. However, the caregivers would only be able to do this provided the officers examined these family members at the time of the live-in caregiver’s application for permanent residence from within Canada.
Responding to Representations
The Privacy Act officers release information concerning clients only to the client or a designated representative. This designated representative could be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident. Before responding to a representation made in person or in writing, the officers would need to confirm the identity of clients or their representatives.
The Definitions
- Family Member
- The definition of “family member” in respect of a person denotes:
- The spouse or common-law partner of the person
- A dependent child of the person or the person’s spouse or common-law partner and,
- A dependent child or a dependent child referred to above
- This is in accordance with the provisions specified in R1 (3)
- Live-in Caregiver
- A live-in caregiver is a person who resides in and provides:
- Child care
- Senior home support care or,
- Care of the disabled
- This caregiver would typically provide these services without supervision in the private household in Canada where the person being cared for resides
- This is in accordance with the provisions specified in R2
Processing an Employment Contract
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada will typically inform employers of the legal requirements of having employment contracts with their live-in caregivers. It is worth noting that employers would need to:
- Provide signed employment contracts to their prospective live-in caregivers
- Have their live-in caregivers sign the employment contracts and return them to the employers and,
- Provide copies of the signed employment contracts to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada along with their Labour Market Opinion (LMO) applications
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada will need to provide employers with the relevant information that includes, but is not necessarily confined to, the following:
- The acceptable wage standards
- Taxation
- Health insurance and,
- Workers’ compensation and other employment issues
Prospective employers would need to submit complete Labour Market Opinion (LMO) applications and signed employment contracts to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada. Thereafter, officers of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada would need to review the applications and the employment contracts. On assessing the offers of employment, the officers would need to confirm:
- The need for live-in care
- That the job offers are genuine
- That the employers are offering wages and working conditions that meet various provincial or territorial employment standards and labour laws
- That the job duties are applicable to full-time live-in caregivers and,
- That the prospective employer has carried out a reasonable search for identifying qualified and available Canadian citizens or permanent residents and unemployed foreign caregivers already in Canada
After reviewing these aspects, the officers would need to feel satisfied that the offers of employment meet the assessment criteria. Thereafter, the Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada officers would need to issue a letter confirming the positive or neutral Labour Market Opinion (LMO) to the prospective employer. If the officers reject the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) application, the Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada officers would need to issue refusal letters to the prospective employers.
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada is responsible for informing employers that their prospective live-in caregivers would need to submit copies of the signed employment contracts to the Case Processing Centre in Vegreville, Alberta (CPC-V). These copies would serve as part of the documentation the authorities typically require for the work permit applications. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada also instructs the employers to send copies of the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) confirmation letters to the live-in caregivers.
Officers would need to record the details of the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) in the Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) Foreign Worker System (FWS). Besides this, officers at the Case Processing Centre in Vegreville, Alberta (CPC-V) would be able to find the job validation information through the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) Foreign Worker System (FWS) link
Note:
- For prospective employers in Quebec, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada and the Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés Culturelles (MICC) would need to jointly assess the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) application against all the relevant federal and Quebec Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) requirements
- Once the officers are satisfied that the offer of employment meets the assessment criteria, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada would need to issue a letter to the prospective employer
- The Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés Culturelles (MICC) would need to jointly sign this letter along with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada
- This letter would typically confirm a positive or neutral Labour Market Opinion (LMO)
- In some situations, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada and the Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés Culturelles (MICC) might jointly render a negative decision on the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) application
- In this scenario, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) / Service Canada would need to issue a refusal letter to the prospective employer
Source: Citizenship and Immigration