Straight Talk About Arranged and Temporary Employment For Foreign Workers

As many Canadian industries are experiencing relatively steady streams of growth, the ability to maintain adequate levels of qualified staff has become a real dilemma for some employers. In some communities, employers consistently identify labor shortages and retention as the most challenging aspect of their operations. This applies to a variety of sectors. Shortages in these occupations mean that Canadian employers are depending more and more on landed or potential immigrants to meet demand.

Arranged Employment Opinion (AEO)

This is also called long term job offer and not so difficult to obtain. However please bear in mind that you will need someone in Canada to assist you with this as this a employer driven program just like the Provincial Nominee Program, which is also employer driven.

Positive Labour Market Opinion from HRDC is one requirement that Citizenship and Immigration Canada considers when deciding to issue a work permit or a permanent visa allowing the person to come and work in Canada. Certainly, this factor is one which can be of great benefit to potential applicants. At the same time, a Positive Labour Market Opinion, the work permit, and your permanent job offer also strengthens your application for permanent residency to Canada. If you have between 52 and 67 points, Arranged Employment will get you get you the extra 15 points you need to reach the pass mark or possibly over the pass mark. People with sufficient points will also benefit from this type of job offer as they would have a job to go to.

The "Fast track system”

Applications for permanent resident status can take up to 1 to 2 years to process (the official line is 12 -15 months). People who have Arranged Employment opinion from HRDC (AEO) they can expect to see their applications jump the queue as the government is determined to fast-track skilled workers entering Canada with jobs already waiting for them. Worldwide, CIC have complete 25% of all applications from skilled workers in 6 months. These normally included the high-priority cases, including people with arranged employment, or business and investor applicants in the business immigration category.

The new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act regulations provide the legal authority for HRDC to provide CIC with two distinctly different types of opinions:

Service Canada (Formerly known as HRSDC)

Arranged Employment Opinion (AEO)

Labour Market Opinion (LMO)

The Service Canada Arranged Employment Opinion (AEO) to CIC factors into the assessment of a Skilled Worker application for Permanent Residency. With this type of opinion there is no consideration of the Canadian Labour Market or whether there is an occupational shortage or surplus of skills in Canada. What this means is that the job does not have to be advertised by a Canadian employer as it is a long term job offer and you are NOT taking a job away from a Canadian national. This is because you can only take up the job once you have landed permanently in Canada. You may wonder if a Canadian employer will wait that long? Generally speaking if you managed to impress an employer by bringing new skills and ideas and will add to the growth of his company then the answer is yes. From my experience from the past year by placing many candidates from the UK the employers have waited for candidates to take up jobs for up to 8 months to 1 year. The same thing has happened for my PNP candidates. The reason for this has been the level of skills and experience that candidates have brought to a Canadian company. Remember, any application with HRDC opinion is fast tracked.

Service Canada will determine if the applicant has a genuine offer of full-time, year round, indeterminate employment that provides wages and working conditions that are sufficient to attract and retain Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents.
HRDC reviews the wages that employers are offering the Skilled Worker, and compares them to wages paid to Canadians in the same occupation based on labour market information from Statistics Canada, HRDC, provincial ministries, and other reliable sources. If employers are offering wages below rates paid to Canadians in the occupation, Service Canada will not confirm your job offer.

Service Canada also expects you to provide working conditions that are consistent with federal and/or provincial standards for the occupation and workplace.

The Labour Market Opinion (LMO) allows for Service Canada to consider whether the job can be filled from within Canada or if the foreign worker’s presence will help maintain or increase employment and training opportunities of Canadians.

Note:

You cannot arrange for a Service Canada confirmation. Your employer or a third party must do this.
Service Canada will confirm job offers in occupations listed in Skill Type 0, Skill Level A or B of the National Occupation Classification.

Depending on the timing of the employer’s human resource needs there are three possible situations:

1. Permanent Position: No interim Work Permit
The foreign national will be assuming an indeterminate position but will not be applying for a work permit to cover the time the application for a Permanent Resident Visa will be in process.

2. Permanent Position: Interim Work Permit
The foreign national will be assuming an indeterminate position but applying for both a Permanent Resident Visa and an interim Work Permit in order to work in Canada while the application for Permanent Residence is being processed.

3. Temporary Position: Temporary Work Permit only

Temporary Employment

If you are interested in coming to Canada to work temporarily, before you apply for permanent residence, or before your application is approved, you should look into getting some professional help who can assist you get a work permit and job offer.
The processing time for employment authorizations involving HRDC validations can take up to 2 to 3 weeks and in some provinces such as Alberta up to 10 weeks. The process generally requires consultation with the employer or third party and HRDC, extensive advertising of the position and/or recruitment efforts, substantial documentary support and possible involvement of other government agencies. Once Service Canada has provided validation, immigration officers will accept the validation as a basis for approving an employment authorization.

The Canadian government ensures that job and career opportunities are protected for Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada referred as the "Canadians First Policy". In general, Canadian employers can hire foreign workers when it will not adversely affect employment and career opportunities of Canadians/permanent residents or when there are significant benefits attached to the recruitment of a foreign worker.

Service Canada is responsible for assessing a request from an employer to obtain a work permit for a foreign worker.Service Canada will check to see:

Whether a job offer itself is bona fide and not designed to be inaccessible to Canadians/permanent residents.
Whether a wage and a working condition offered is sufficient to attract and retain Canadians/permanent residents in employment.
Whether an employer has made responsible efforts to hire or train Canadians/permanent residents for an employment in request.

In general, an employer can extend a job offer to a foreign worker after establishing that Canadians/permanent residents are not readily available. This can be demonstrated by advertising. An employer can provide evidence to support either one of the two conditions:

1. reasonable efforts were made to recruit and train qualified Canadians/permanent residents for the employment.

2. the foreign worker possesses a combination of skills and experience not readily available in Canada such as Trades workers (the employment of the foreign worker is critical to the company being able to maximize its human resources in such ways as creating or maintaining jobs and/or transferring specialized knowledge and skills to the company's labour force)

After job validation is granted you can then apply for an Employment Authorization (work permit), which is permission from Immigration Canada to work in Canada.
There are practically dozens of exceptions to the above rule, much too detailed to address here. There are exemptions in the Immigration Act, and within international treaties such as NAFTA and GATS. There are also certain jobs which are exempt from job validations, as well as others which are exempt from employment authorization.
I think the most important thing to remember here is to Know and Research your occupation and evaluate and discuss your options. Network with people in Canada, including employers! This will certainly simplify your way to gain employment before arrival!