Completed 2 years of IEC, now waiting for LMO from employer

[andrew-brit]

Bit of a long story but here goes.

I am British. In June 2011 I moved to Canada on the IEC (http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/united_kingdom-royaume_uni/experience_canada_experience/) program. I began working for my employer that month. It was not pre-arranged, I went for several interviews and chose this employer.

Now, my open work permit was running out so I asked my employer if they could help me get a regular work permit/LMO and they said they did not do this. This was January 2012. So I applied for the second year of IEC and got it, continued working as per usual. It gave me worker status in Canada up until June 1st 2013.

Now in December 2012 I again asked my employer for help, I was told the same thing; they do not do that. My fiance was a student at the time and planned an exchange to Australia. I am in IT for a large company so I easily arranged a transfer to our Melbourne office. The exchange was from July 2013-January 2014.

At this time we sought legal advice and were told that we should ask my employer for an LMO, we were told it is simple, takes 3 months etc. I again asked my employer, this time asking other managers and they agreed to help me. The plan was to do the LMO while I was in Australia, and to have the work permit for my return, in January 2014.

At the start of June we visited Scotland (where I am from) and got married there. We left for Australia at the end of June

Now, here is where things go downhill. While we were in Australia my employer had some troubles with the application. For example they had a spelling mistake on the first application so they had to redo everything (advertise,interview etc).

The second application - well it turns out I was being underpaid. I will not go into details but the government refused the application based on that.

The third application was submitted some time in March 2014 but at the start of April Service Canada started auditing companies.

Fast forward 5 months and I am still waiting, I have not been able to work in Canada at all this year.

I keep being told it will be soon, I keep having to extend my visitor visa. My wife and I are about to submit our PR sponsorship application but based on current processing times it could take 11 months.

Has anyone else struggled to get an LMO this year? Are other companies being audited? Can you shed any light on this? I am going out of my mind waiting to get back to work.


Thanks for reading,
Andrew

 

[scylla]

The short answer is yes. This year there has been a crack down on the foreign worker process in Canada due to abuses by certain employers. This is why the new LMIAs have replaced the old LMOs. The onus is on the employer who is submitting the LMIA application to understand the process in detail and make sure they meet the requirements before applying - including paying a wage that's sufficiently high. (Low wage is one of the primary reasons why LMIAs are refused.) Long story short, there's a lot more scrutiny this year than there was last year when it comes to LMIAs. Unfortunately there's really not much you can do other than wait.