When an employer in Canada wants to hire a foreign worker, they must first get approval from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)/Service Canada. This approval will come in the form of a positive labour market opinion. The foreign worker will need to include this opinion with their application for a work permit.

Before you can offer a job to a foreign worker, you, as the employer, must submit this application and obtain the proper authorization to do so. This is not something that is typically handled by the intended foreign worker as you will be required to demonstrate aspects of your business as well as your efforts made on first seeking Canadian citizens or permanent resident to first fill the position before looking to foreign workers to fill the gap.

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As an employer attempting to hire a foreign worker, you will first need to make sure that the position you are attempting to fill is a position that you cannot first fill by employing a readily available Canadian permanent resident or citizen. In order to demonstrate this, you will need to be recruitment efforts.

This means that you will first have to attempt to find workers readily available in Canada who are able to fill the position. In order to do this, you will need to advertise for the position and go through the regular hiring process. Who knows, maybe a Canadian is available, and you do not need to hire.

After your recruitment efforts, such as news postings, online job postings, reviewing resumes and interviewing appropriate candidates – if you still cannot find someone suitable, then you may qualify for a positive Labour Market Opinion – should you find a foreign worker who you feel would be a good fit for the intended occupation.

Once you have made sufficient and qualifying recruitment efforts and have found a suitable foreign worker, you will need to demonstrate these efforts to HRSDC/Service Canada in your application for a labour market opinion. You will also need to demonstrate how and why the foreign worker is a more suitable fit than the readily available Canadians who had applied.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Unit, a division of HRSDC, whose primary purpose is to process applications such as the labour market opinion, will make a decision on your matter. They will issue you either a positive or negative labour market opinion.

Depending on the nature of the work, you will need to submit different application types with different criteria. They are also dependent on the National Occupational Classification matrix as well as the intended duties of the intended foreign worker.

The current application types are:

• Agricultural Workers
• Live-in Caregivers
• Lower-skilled Occupations
• Higher-skilled Occupations