Live in Caregiver Pros and Cons

Pros

• The caregiver will always be available and dedicated to providing the appropriate care to address your immediate needs. Having a live-in caregiver does provide continuous “peace of mind” to your family, knowing that your loved ones are receiving the care they require.
• Most caregivers are trained to provide CPR and First Aid and will call for help in case of a medical emergency.
• When sponsoring a live-in caregiver, with the exception of extreme cases, the employment period is for at least few years which allow the caregiver to get familiarized with the client’s special needs and care requirements.
• The overall cost is not calculated on an hourly basis which may result in a lower monthly cost.

Cons

• When sponsoring a live-in caregiver, the client will be the caregiver’s formal employer (which requires a business number). This includes the need to provide paystubs, a record of employment, providing annual T4 forms and paying CPP and EI (both employee and employer deductions). Although there are free online tools to perform these tasks, it is often recommended to use a professional accountant.
• As with any employee, the caregiver’s salary must meet the minimum wage and another work-related provisioning such as a maximum number of working hours per day and a maximum 5 day work week (2 days off), mandatory vacation days, allowing for sick days and allow sufficient time (that must be consecutive and uninterrupted) for sleeping and personal downtime. If a client requires more than 10 hours of daily service or around-the-clock supervision (e.g. Wandering issues) – special arrangements need to be made, such as a secondary caregiver.

In addition to all the costs mentioned above, the current sponsoring process requires that the sponsor will pay for the caregiver’s travel fare (usually a plane ticket) and will provide medical coverage for the first three months once the caregiver arrived to Canada.

We can Help You!

We have dealt with hundreds of immigration cases. We have helped our clients in their difficult situations and have guided them to draft a more effective application. We can help you draft your application and arrange the required documents. A well-planned and complete application will increase your likelihood of acceptance and will save you from hassle.