As part of an action to reform the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) the government of Canada is now enforcing a fee for processing of Labour Market Opinion (LMO) applications. Effective today, July 31, 2013, every LMO application comes with a price tag of $275 per position requested. Employers will now need to complete new forms and provide payment for each new employee they want to hire. All new LMO applications received on or after July 31, 2013 will have to include the cost recovery fee of $275; applications submitted without the fee will not be assessed. Any Labour Market Opinion submitted on or after July 31st, 2013 is subject to these new regulations.
In addition to this fee, a couple of other changes have been made in the Temporary Foreign Worker program. One of these changes includes a language restriction which only allows employers to list English or French as requirements for a job offer. This means that you cannot use a foreign language as a reason for hiring the foreign candidate. If the job however is one that requires the candidate to be proficient in a specific language, the employer must demonstrate how the language is crucial to the position offered and for the operation of the company. Another change requires employers to show a greater effort being made to hire Canadians. This change is meant to ensure that Canadians are not losing on employment opportunities. These new advertising requirements will not affect the Live-in Caregiver Program (LICP) and other certain Agricultural streams. Give us a call to find out if you are exempt from this particular change in the program.
Live-in Caregiver employers are not exempt from paying the cost recovery fee of $275.
If you are an employer looking to hire temporary foreign workers through the temporary foreign worker program to fill positions which you are experiencing difficulty to fill, you may be overwhelmed and confused by these changes. New questions have been added to the forms and the old forms will no longer be accepted. Can-Am Immigration has knowledgeable consultants who can answer any of your questions regarding these new rules and regulations. We are available to answer your questions by phone (call us toll free throughout North America at 1-888-808-7338) or by email at inquiries@theimmigrationteam.com.
We encourage you to share, tweet, and re-post this blog article so your friends, family, colleagues and others can benefit from this new information. You may also leave a comment below to tell us how you feel about these new changes.
I don’t like it. I don’t like that they threw this information on us so suddenly (effective immediately? why not give us a day or two to take in all this new information?). I understand the desire of Canadians to have first shot at jobs in Canada but it is unfair to Canadian employers and TFWs that they would make such a huge change without fair warning. I will share this information with as many people as I can to spread the word. Glad we were able to get this information out on the same day. This is like a slap in the face from the Canadian government.
And I say this being neither a Canadian, an employer, or a foreign worker. Spread the word.