What are your options?
1. Reconsider your need for a live-in caregiver
Least hassle, that's for sure. Find a day care or a nursing home.
2. Hire an agency
Agencies charged, until now, a fee to the employer for recruitment and obtaining a Labour Market Opinion. They also charged the foreign worker for all the work done on her behalf, including immigration paperwork. The fees, together, would range between $ 4,000 to $ 6,000 per caregiver. This fee would cover:
- recruitment of the foreign caregiver
- drafting employment contract that would protect both parties
- preparation of the application for Labour Market Opinion
- verification of the documents presented by the caregiver who is interested in working in Canada
- consultations with the caregivers before they can be presented to you to ensure that she qualifies for the program
- preparation of the file that is presented to you when you start looking - collecting documents, pictures, questionnaires, references
- preparation of the caregiver's application for work permit to ensure compliance with Canadian immigration law
- coordinating departure of the caregiver
- help with any issues arising from the employment of the agency's client
- safety network for the caregiver after arrival in Canada (if you decide that you don't need or want the caregiver anymore, someone has to help her to find a new job and make sure that she has a place to live, food and some support.
The new rules say that if one agency, or one person is involved in the recruitment and immigration work, that person or agency may not charge the caregiver anything. Any fees charged to the caregiver will be considered hidden fees for recruitment.
Take me, for example. I am a licensed immigration consultant, member of the Canadian Society of Immmigration Consultants. I pay annually over $ 5,000 for the privilege of being licensed. I work with an agency in Cyprus. The agency screens and selects the applicants, collects their documents. The agency employees verify their references, explain to them the principles of the program, certify copies of their documents, prepare a file, and then send all the documents to me for assessment. If I believe that the caregiver qualifies, she will be accepted by the agency. We then start looking for a job for them. If you, the employer, are interested in one of the clients, I would charge you for the work done on your behalf - help with advertisement, preparation of the application for Labour Market Opinion, help with the payroll and anything else you might need to get your caregiver in Canada. The agency in Cyprus charges its clients for all the work they do on their behalf, and I then charge them for my work related to their application for work permit and representation before Canadian immigration authorities. That involves monitoring the file, keeping track of the processing, writing to the visa officer if something is out of order, answering requests from the visa officers for additional documents, etc.
Once the caregiver is in Canada, I make sure that if she has a problem, she gets help. If she loses her job, I find her another job, as soon as possible, so that she won't lose precious time leading to permanent residence. I function as an advisor, help line, social worker, friend. I make sure that she doesn't make a silly mistake that could cost her her and her family's future in Canada.
In the future, I won't be able to charge the caregiver anything as long as I am involved in finding her the job.
Solution? You either pay the entire cost or you recruit directly.
3. Recruit directly
- Place advertisement on every website you can think of
- Make sure that the advertisement meets the requirements of Service Canada. Don't know what they are? Visit their website
- Collect responses and interview everyone who seems to qualify
- Check their qualifications to make sure that the caregiver you like would qualify for the Live-in caregiver program (if you don't know what the criteria are, study the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act)
- Register your payroll account. If you don't know how, go to Canada Revenue Agency website.
- Calculate your cost of hiring a live-in caregiver
- Draft an employment contract between you and the caregiver.
- Prepare your application for Labour Market Opinion. The forms are on Service Canada website. Make sure you do it right or the application will be refused.
- If the Labour Market Opinion is positive, forward it to the foreign caregiver.
- Tell the caregiver to prepare her application for work permit and send it to the visa office that is responsible for the area where she lives. If she doesn't know where that is, she can find the information on Citizenship and Immigration website. She can also download the appropriate form and guide on the website.
- Wait for the result of her application
- If successful, arrange her flight to Canada. If not successful, go to the first step and repeat.
3.1 Once the caregiver is in Canada:
- Calculate her payroll and deduction. Information can be found at the CRA website
- Remit the deductions to Canada Revenue Agency, preferably on time.
- Make sure that you comply with the provincial labour standards. Don't know what that is? Find the appropriate website and read.
3.2 Did she leave the job?
Not much you can do. Report it to Service Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Go back to step 1 under whatever option you selected the first time, or perhaps you will take the other option, hoping for a better result. The caregiver has no investment in the process, she has no duty to anyone but herself. She won't lose anything if she finds a better job or one closer to her friends. That's the beauty of the new rules. Canadians are a generous nation - why would we not finance someone's way to Canada?
3.3 You don't need the caregiver anymore?
Give her a notice of termination.
Are you asking what will she do now? Well, since there is no agency involved, she is on her own. It's not your worry. She didn't pay anything to come to Canada, right?
- Health care plans
- Workers' compensation
- BC Employment standards
- AB Employment standards
- SK Employment standards
- MB Employment standards
- ON Employment standards
- NB Employment standards
- NS Employment standards
- PEI Employment standards
- YK Employment standards
- QC Employment standards
- Canada Revenue Agency
- Payroll account registration
