An employer that wishes to employ in Canada a person who is neither a permanent resident of Canada nor a Canadian citizen must, in most cases, assist that person in obtaining an employment authorization.
Anyone other than a citizen of Canada who wishes to work lawfully in Canada has two options: temporary entry or permanent residence. Every applicant for admission to Canada must meet Canadian federal government requirements. However, an applicant who will be employed in or reside permanently in Québec must satisfy Québec immigration criteria as well. In recent years, other provinces of Canada have negotiated so-called Provincial Nominee Programs with the federal government. These programs enable provinces to streamline the federal government’s processing of the applications of workers and permanent residents if provincial authorities are persuaded that a local employer’s need for an applicant or an applicant’s professional qualifications will yield economic benefit. The following discussion is intended primarily to outline in general terms the rules facilitating the admission of business persons to Canada, as well as cross-border movement in North America under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), and among World Trade Organization (WTO) member nations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). All applicants for admission to Canada (and any dependants accompanying them) are subject to general security and health restrictions, which are not discussed in this summary.
Temporary Entry
GENERAL An employer that wishes to employ in Canada a person who is neither a permanent resident of Canada nor a Canadian citizen must, in most cases, assist that person in obtaining an employment authorization. This is typically done by the employer obtaining a job offer validation from an Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) office; in some cases, however, that will not be necessary. For example, senior management can be admitted to Canada under the intra-corporate transfer policy, which does not require that the company obtain a job offer validation in respect of such personnel. To obtain a validation of an employment offer, the employer will generally be required to satisfy Canadian authorities that employment opportunities for Canadians will not be adversely affected if it employs the non-resident. This will entail convincing Canadian authorities that the employer has attempted to hire Canadians for that position and either no Canadian fulfilled the job requirements or no Canadian responded.
142
Doing Business in Canada
Powered by FlippingBook