Appendix I – The International Mobility Program – Employer-specific Work Permits with Labour Market Impact Assessment Exemptions
The authorities brought new regulations into effect on February 21, 2015. These regulations required that employers who provide offers of employment to foreign nationals in the International Mobility Program would need to:
- Provide their offers of employment directly to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) using the provided forms and electronic systems and,
- Pay the new employer compliance fees electronically
In addition, these employers would need to provide copies of these offer of employment forms to the foreign nationals. The foreign nationals would, thereafter, include these forms along with their work permit applications.
The new regulations serve to improve the integrity of the International Mobility Program. At the same time, they help in supporting a more robust employer compliance scheme.
The New Regulations
Section R209.11 specifies that:
“… an employer who has made an offer of employment to a foreign national referred to in subparagraph 200 (1) (c) (ii.1) must, before the foreign national makes their application for a work permit in respect of that employment, provide the following information to the Minister by means of the electronic system that is made available by the Department for that purpose:
- their name, address and telephone number, and fax number and electronic mail address, if any;
- the business number assigned to the employer by the Minister of National Revenue, if applicable;
- information that demonstrates that the foreign national will be performing work described in section 204 or 205 or is a foreign national referred to in section 207; and
- the offer of employment made in the form provided by the Department.”
The Direct Submission of the Offer of Employment from the Employer
Employers would need to submit their offers of employment using the electronic system provided by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) for submission. In addition, they would need to pay the fee electronically prior to the submission of a work permit application based on the offer. Typically, for the employers, this process comprises the following three steps:
- The payment of the employer compliance fee using the Pay Your Fees web page
- On receiving the receipt number, the employers would need to complete the Offer of Employment to a Foreign National Exempt from a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) form i.e. IMM 5802
- Thereafter, once they have completed the IMM 5802 form, the employers would need to submit the form electronically by selecting the “Submit” button and following the appropriate steps for choosing their preferred e-mail application
- This step helps in populating the e-mail with the correct information and attaches the offer of employment for direct submission to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)
- It is worth mentioning that this form replaces the job offer letter that the authorities previously required for supporting Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exempt work permit applications from foreign nationals
- The employers would then need to provide copies of the completed IMM 5802 forms to their foreign workers for inclusion with the work permit applications
The Processing of Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exempt Employer Specific Work Permit Applications
- The officers would need to review the work permit applications for employer specific, Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exempt work permits
- Thereafter, they would need to confirm that:
- The work permit application is fully complete (including the receipt number) and includes the IMM 5802 form
- The receipt number is valid
- Officers would need to capture the employer compliance fee separately from the work permit processing fee
- For this, they would need to use the work permit Fee view tab in the Global Case Management System (GCMS)
- On confirming the receipt number for meeting the requirement of ‘before’ [refer to the note below], the processing officers would need to review the IMM 5802 forms as they previously did with the job offer letters
Note:
- It is worth highlighting that the ‘before the foreign national makes their application’ requirement has no specific timeframe
- Therefore, as long as the foreign national includes a copy of the IMM 5802 form with a valid receipt number, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) or the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) would accept that the foreign national meets the ‘before’ requirement’
- This is regardless of whether the foreign national submitted the form days or minutes in advance of the work permit application
Related link
Dealing with Concerns Regarding the Genuineness of Canadian Job Offer
Source: CIC