Three questions before you make the offer
Most employer files start here rather than abroad, and the person in front of you may already be able to work for you today. Whether they can turns on three things, and only one of them is about your business.
- What does the person hold, and what does it say. There are two kinds of work permit, being open and employer specific, and a study permit is neither. The difference decides whether this is a same week conversation or a several month one.
- Does it bind them to somebody else. An employer specific permit names an employer, a location and an occupation, and the holder must comply with everything printed on it. If it names someone else, they cannot simply move to you.
- What do you have to do before they start. For an open work permit holder, nothing beyond the ordinary hiring checks. For an employer specific hire that is not exempt from the compliance process, either a new labour market impact assessment or a new offer of employment through the Employer Portal with the $230 compliance fee paid before the worker applies.
- The cheapest hire is often the one already on your payroll. A person you already employ who needs to keep working is a renewal problem, set out at keeping someone whose permit expires, and a person you already employ who wants to stay permanently may qualify with no job offer and no assessment at all.
Reading what the person actually holds
| What they hold | Can they work for you | What you have to do |
|---|---|---|
| An open work permit | Yes, for any employer other than one on the non compliant list or one regularly offering striptease, erotic dance, escort services or erotic massage. Check for restrictions printed on it, which can limit the type of work or confine it to one province | No assessment, no offer of employment, no compliance fee. Verify the permit and any restriction |
| An employer specific work permit naming you | Yes, in the occupation and at the location printed on it | Nothing new, unless the occupation, wages or conditions are changing substantially, in which case treat it as a change and see the renewal page |
| An employer specific work permit naming somebody else | No, not until a new permit is issued or a specific authorisation is granted | A new assessment if one is needed, or a new offer of employment and the $230 fee if it is not. Then the change of employer route below |
| A study permit with off campus work conditions | Yes, up to 24 hours a week while classes are in session and unlimited hours during a scheduled break, if they meet the conditions | No permit application. Verify the conditions printed on the permit and the enrolment |
| A study permit with no work conditions printed on it | No, until the conditions are added | The student requests an amendment, at no fee, before they can obtain a social insurance number |
| A co-op or intern work permit | Yes, for a placement that is part of the program | The placement has to be required for the credential and total half the program or less |
| Maintained status on an employer specific permit | Only for the employer named on the expired permit, in the same job at the same location | Nothing you can do to accelerate it beyond the change of employer route. They cannot start with you on the strength of maintained status |
| Nothing, or an expired permit | No | Do not employ them. Employing a person in a capacity they are not authorised for is an offence, and failing to check is deemed knowledge |
What each permit gives the holder is set out from their side at open work permits and employer specific work permits. The two most common open permits you will meet are the post-graduation work permit and the spousal open work permit.
Verifying it, and why not asking is the worst answer
Failing to check is treated as knowing
It is an offence to employ a foreign national in a capacity in which they are not authorised to be employed. On conviction on indictment the penalty is a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for up to two years, or both. On summary conviction it is up to $10,000 or six months, or both.
The provision that matters to an employer is the deeming rule that follows it. A person who fails to exercise due diligence to determine whether the employment is authorised is deemed to know that it is not. There is no version of this in which not looking at the document helps you.
- Ask for the immigration document and read it. Service Canada tells employers in terms that the social insurance number alone does not allow a person to work, and that you must verify all the terms and conditions on the work permit before hiring, including the authorised dates and work locations.
- A number beginning with nine is a temporary resident number. It is valid only until the expiry date on the immigration document authorising the work. If a nine number has no expiry date at all, it is not valid and the person should be sent to a Service Canada Centre.
- Three days to get it, six days to report the absence. You must request each new employee's number no more than three days after the day employment begins. If the person does not have one they must apply within their first three days and give it to you within three days of receiving the confirmation, and they may work in the meantime. If you have not received it, you must inform Service Canada within six days of the start date. The Canada Revenue Agency can charge $100 for each number an employer made no reasonable effort to obtain.
- Expiry dates move, so build a reminder. Employees must tell you a new expiry date within three days of receiving it, and once a new permit is issued you have to verify the document and the new date. Nothing arrives to tell you that a permit has lapsed.
- An email from IRCC is not a document. Service Canada does not accept email messages from IRCC in place of the permit for the purposes of a social insurance number. Ask for the permit.
- Whether you may ask is a provincial question. Human rights and privacy limits on what an employer may ask for and retain are set province by province, and we did not source them for this page. What is federal, and what is set out above, is that you must verify the work authorisation.
If the permit binds them to somebody else
This is the situation employers get wrong most often, because the candidate is already here, already working and already qualified, and none of that makes them free to start.
- Work out whether you need an assessmentMost employer specific hires do. A good many do not, and the exemptions are worth checking before you commit to the long route. They are set out at work without an assessment.
- Do your side firstIf you need an assessment, apply for a new one, which means the advertising and the timelines on the hiring from abroad page. If you do not, submit a new offer of employment through the Employer Portal and pay the $230 compliance fee. The fee has to be paid before the worker applies, and you give them the seven digit offer of employment number.
- They apply for a new work permitFrom inside Canada, online. Most people already in Canada can no longer apply at a port of entry for either an initial permit or an extension.
- They request authorisation to start earlyUnder a published public policy, a person who holds an employer specific permit, or who is authorised to work without one, and who has applied for a new employer specific permit, can ask to be allowed to begin the new job before the decision. It is an IRCC web form carrying the code PPCHANGEWORK2020, and IRCC says it should respond in about 10 to 15 days, though its page does not say whether those are calendar or business days. Paper applications take longer.
- Wait for the email, and read itThe email tells them whether they are authorised to work while the application is processed. IRCC states in terms that this email is not a work permit. Do not put them on the schedule before it arrives.
If your candidate has already lost the job their permit was tied to, the position is worse. IRCC's instruction is that they must get a new job offer and apply to renew while remaining in Canada, and stop working for that or any other employer until the new permit is approved. The early start route runs from an application, so the sequence is offer, then application, then request, then work. Not work, then paperwork.
Maintained status, and what you may actually rely on
Maintained status keeps the old job alive, it does not open a new one
If a worker applied to renew before their permit expired and no decision has been made, their status continues and they may keep working without a permit until the decision. The condition employers miss is that it continues only under the conditions of the expired permit. On an employer specific permit that means the same employer, the same job and the same work location.
So a candidate who tells you they are on maintained status is telling you they are lawfully working for somebody else. They are not telling you they can start with you. If they have applied to change employer or job, IRCC states they must keep working for the employer named on the original permit until a decision is made, and cannot start with a new employer unless the early start authorisation has been requested and received.
It also depends on them staying in Canada. IRCC states that a worker who leaves Canada while on maintained status loses the ability to work when they return, and cannot work until the application is approved. A conference, a funeral or a weekend across the border can end the arrangement you were relying on.
- Ask for the proof, because there is a document. A person who applied online gets a letter in their account, referred to as WP-EXT except for the post-graduation work permit, showing they may keep working under the same conditions. The letter carries an automatic expiry 365 days from the day the application was received, and IRCC states they may keep working past that date until a decision is made.
- Some people get no letter, and that is not a red flag by itself. There is no letter for a paper application, none for a first work permit in Canada, and none where the extension was filed after the permit had already expired. In those cases the proof is the submission confirmation, or a request from IRCC for more documents.
- An expired social insurance number is not a bar here. A worker on maintained status may keep working with an expired number until the decision. They can only update it once the new permit is issued, and then must give you the new expiry date within three days.
- The employer's obligations run through it. The Regulations define the period of employment for compliance purposes as including the period during which the person may work without a permit under paragraph 186(u). Your conditions do not pause while you wait.
- A visitor record or a study permit application does not preserve work rights. A worker who applies for something other than a work permit must stop working when the permit expires. The wider mechanics of maintained status and restoration are set out at extending and restoring status.
Students, and two government pages that disagree
Twenty four hours a week, and one page still says twenty
An eligible study permit holder may work off campus without a work permit for up to 24 hours a week while classes are in session, and unlimited hours during a scheduled break such as summer, winter or a reading week. The student facing page adds that a student whose permit still shows 20 hours may work up to 24, provided they continue to meet the eligibility requirements.
The employer facing page on hiring international students still describes the limit as 20 hours a week with more available under a temporary public policy, and still carries guidance about studying online during the COVID-19 outbreak. It is dated 17 March 2017. We follow the student facing page and the Regulations, which is the 24 hour figure, and we would keep the student's own evidence of eligibility on file rather than rely on either page in an inspection.
Exceeding the limit is the student's breach rather than yours, but it costs them their status and can cost you the employee, so it is worth agreeing the schedule rather than discovering it.
- The conditions have to be printed on the permit. One of two published wordings, referring to paragraph 186(v), or to paragraphs 186(f), (v) or (w). Without work conditions on the permit the student cannot get a social insurance number and cannot work, and the amendment that adds them carries no fee.
- Eligibility is narrower than the hours suggest. Full time study at a designated learning institution, the program started, a post-secondary academic, vocational or professional program, or a secondary level vocational program in Quebec, at least six months long and leading to a degree, diploma or certificate, and a social insurance number. Part time is allowed only in a final semester after full time study.
- Authorised leave stops the work. A student on an authorised leave, or between schools and not studying, cannot work off campus and can only return to work when studies resume.
- Hiring the graduate is a different and easier conversation. A post-graduation work permit is an open work permit, so no assessment, no offer of employment and no compliance fee. It runs up to three years depending on the length of the program, and it is not renewable in the ordinary way. See the post-graduation work permit and, for what comes after it, Canadian experience.
- Remote work for a foreign employer does not count. Work done remotely for an employer outside Canada does not count against the 24 hour limit, provided the student still meets their permit conditions.
What it costs you, and what you may not recover
| Situation | Your cost | Recoverable from the worker |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring an open work permit holder | Nothing payable to the government | Not applicable |
| Hiring an eligible student off campus | Nothing payable to the government | Not applicable |
| Offer of employment through the Employer Portal, where no assessment is needed | Employer compliance fee, $230, or $690 for a group of three or more performing artists and their staff offered at the same time. Payable before the worker applies | No. The Regulations prohibit an employer, and anyone recruiting for them, from charging or recovering this fee directly or indirectly |
| A new labour market impact assessment | $1,000 per position | No, and recovering a recruitment fee is stated to result in a negative decision |
| Recruitment costs, including a paid representative | The employer | No |
| The worker's new work permit application | $155, payable by the applicant | This is one of the three fees carved out of the prohibition, so it sits outside it |
| Biometrics, where required | $85 per person, payable by the applicant | Outside the prohibition. It is the applicant's own fee under section 315.1 and it is not a recruitment fee |
Two refunds exist and are worth knowing. The $230 compliance fee is remitted and repaid if the work permit is refused, or if you withdraw the offer of employment and request a remission before the permit is issued. The $1,000 assessment fee is not refunded on a withdrawal, a cancellation or a negative decision, and is simply not charged where the application is refused processing. The Regulations prohibit an employer, and anyone recruiting for them, from charging or recovering from the worker, directly or indirectly, any fees related to the recruitment of the worker, along with the particular fees your own stream names. Three fees are named as exceptions to that prohibition, being the $100 visitor visa fee, the $200 temporary resident permit fee and the $155 work permit fee, so leaving those with the worker is not a breach. The $85 biometrics fee is a different thing again. It is imposed by section 315.1 of the Regulations on the person whose biometrics are collected, it is not a recruitment fee, and it is not one of the fees the prohibition names, so it falls outside the prohibition rather than inside it.
Can this person work for you
A structured way to see where you stand against the published criteria. It returns an indication only, not an eligibility decision, not legal advice, and not a prediction that you will be invited.
Your situation
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