You must first try to hire a Canadian citizen or permanent resident for the available job. When you apply to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada for approval; to hire a foreign national, you will be asked to show what efforts you made in this regard. These are known as recruitment efforts.

If you have been unable to hire a Canadian or permanent resident, your next step is to apply to HRSDC for what is known as a Labour Market Opinion, or LMO, which confirms that there is no Canadian worker available to do the job. If HRSDC issues you a positive LMO, you are then authorized to hire a foreign national. It also tells you which documents you must give your future employee so that he or she can apply for a work permit through a Canadian visa office outside Canada.

You are responsible for finding a foreign live-in caregiver. To do so, you can use advertisements, personal contacts or hiring agencies.

When you have found a foreign live-in caregiver you wish to hire, you must first contact Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). If your future employee applies for a work permit and meets the program’s requirements, he or she will receive a work permit. The approval process could take several months. Check the latest information on CIC’s processing times. Your caregiver cannot work for you until CIC approves a work permit showing your name as the employer.