Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, employers in Canada can hire foreign nationals temporarily. The program aims to fill the shortages in the labour force of Canada. The TFWP is operated jointly by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).
Even while allowing Canadian employers to hire foreign talent, the program makes sure that the hired foreign workers enjoy all the rights and protections they need to work safely in Canada.

Temporary foreign workers can come to Canada under one of the following streams of TFWP:

• High-Wage Workers
• Low-Wage Workers
• Global Talent Stream
• Foreign Agricultural Workers
• In-Home Caregivers
• Foreign Academics
• Labour Impact Assessment

The Canadian employers who wish to hire foreign workers through TFWP must obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). An LMIA demonstrates that the employer could not find a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to fill the vacancy. ESDC issues LMIA after assessing the impact of hiring a foreign worker on the labour market of Canada. If the LMIA is positive, it means that there is no Canadian citizen or permanent resident to fill the position and so, the employer can hire a foreign worker. A negative LMIA means the employer must fill the position with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.

The foreign national can apply for a Canadian work permit or permanent residence only after obtaining an LMIA. However, employers can hire foreign workers without an LMIA through the International Mobility Program.

International Mobility Program

Under the International Mobility Program, Canadian employers can hire temporary foreign workers without requiring a Labour Market Impact Assessment(LMIA). The employers are exempt from LMIA requirements in certain situations where the broader economic, cultural or other advantages for Canada are considered or considering the reciprocal benefits enjoyed by Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

A Canadian employer must follow three steps to hiring a foreign worker through the IMP:

• Confirm the position/worker is eligible for exemption from LMIA.
• Pay $230 as compliance fee.
• Submit a formal job offer through IMP’s Employer Portal.

The foreign worker will be able to apply for their work permit only after the employer completes these three steps. LMIA-exempt foreign workers shall enjoy expedited work permit processing under the Global Skills Strategy, provided their occupation is categorized under NOC Skill Level A or 0, and they are applying from a place outside of Canada.

Global Talent Stream

Global Talent Stream (GTS) is a two-year pilot program introduced in June 2017. The program operates based on a partnership between Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Under the Stream, certain Canadian employers can hire highly-talented foreign workers. The Canadian employers who are successfully referred to the program will be able to speed up the hiring of foreign workers through the Global Skills Strategy.

High-Wage Workers

If an employer wants to hire a temporary foreign worker who needs to be paid at/above the median hourly wage of the province or territory must apply through the High Wageworkers stream of TFWP. As the first step, the employer must obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) in order to demonstrate that they could not find a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to fill the vacancy. If the employer succeeds in obtaining a positive LMIA, the foreign worker can apply for the authorization to work in Canada before the validity of the LMIA ends. For this purpose, they need to submit the positive LMIA from an employer, and their official signed an employment contract. Depending on their eligibility, they can either apply for a work permit or permanent residence in Canada.

Low-Wage Workers

The employer has to apply the TFWP stream for low-wage workers if the temporary workers to be hired will be paid less than the median hourly wage of their province or territory. However, to obtain LMIA, the employer must meet certain conditions, which protect the workplace rights and safety of low-wage non-resident workers. If a positive LMIA is received, the foreign worker can apply for their authorization to work in Canada before the validity of the LMIA ends. To apply for a work permit or Canada permanent residence, these workers have to submit the positive LMIA and their official signed employment contract along with the application.

Foreign Agricultural Workers

Employers can hire temporary foreign workers to fill certain positions in the agricultural production sector through one of the TFWP agricultural streams. There are two TFWP streams to hire temporary foreign workers in the field of agriculture–the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), which is commonly known as the regular agricultural stream. To qualify under one of these streams, the employer must meet specific requirements:

• Production must be in the specific commodity sectors that are featured on the national commodity list of Canada.
• The activity must be on-farm primary agriculture categorized under National Occupation Classification (NOC) Codes: 0821, 0822, 8252, 8255, 8431, 8432, and 8611.

Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP)

Under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), an employer can hire temporary foreign workers for a maximum period of eight months at a time. All the positions to which the foreign workers have to be hired must meet the general conditions for hiring foreign agricultural workers. The foreign workers being hired must be the citizens of either Mexico or one of the Caribbean countries participating in the bilateral agreement that facilitates the SAWP. The participating countries in the SAWP are Mexico, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The employer must meet certain conditions with regard to transporting workers to and from their country of residence, providing them with accommodation in Canada as well as arranging adequate workplace health and safety conditions for these workers. If the employer meets these requirements, they can apply for an LMIA.

Foreign Academics

By facilitating the hiring of foreign academics in post-secondary institutions, Canada expects to increase the quality of education in the country and also make Canadian institutions competent at a global level. So IRCC and ESDC have developed several procedures to facilitate the hiring of foreign academics. In many cases, foreign academics can be hired to research positions at post-secondary institutions without an LMIA, a work permit, or both. However, those foreign academics who are not eligible for these exemptions must undergo regular procedures for hiring workers through the TFWP.

Global Skills Strategy

Under the Global Skills Strategy, certain foreign nationals can have their work permits processed within just two weeks. To be eligible,

• The candidate must be applying from outside of Canada.
• If the candidate is an LMIA-exempt worker, must be coming to Canada to work in a position at NOC Skill Level O or A.
• If the candidate requires an LMIA, he/she must possess a positive LMIA issued through the Global Talent Stream of the TFWP.

The candidates can submit the application for expedited processing under Global Skills Strategy online on IRCC’s web portal. Along with that, their accompanying spouses, common-law partners, and dependent children can also apply for visitor visas/study permits/work permits, and these will also be processed in an expedited manner.

Temporary Foreign Worker in Quebec

Quebec’s immigration policies and procedures are distinct from the rest of Canada; these differences can also be seen in the procedures for hiring foreign workers. Some of the significant differences include
Language of Submission: The applications for LMIA must be submitted in French except for the LMIA applications for in-home caregiver positions. However, if the employer is finding it difficult to meet this requirement, they can approach ESDC, who will then provide assistance to them.

Application to MIDI:

The applications for LMIA must have obtained approval from both Quebec authorities as well as federal authorities. So the applications must be submitted to Service Canada for ESDC processing at the federal level and to the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion (MIDI) for processing at the provincial level.

LMIA Exemptions

In some instances, an employer need not obtain an LMIA to hire foreign workers. To be eligible for such exception, the foreign worker to be hired must meet the following criteria:

• Must have a valid work permit
• Must hold a Quebec Selection Certificate
• Must be residing in Quebec
• Must have applied for PR under Quebec Skilled Worker Class

Facilitated LMIA

Through the facilitated LMIA process, Quebec employers can apply for LMIAs without proving that they took the effort to hire a Canadian citizen/permanent resident for filling the vacancy.