Hello, My client, a Canadian, has his marketing agency/company registered in Canada and has some offices abroad as well. He plans to shut down his business in one of the countries and bring the office back to Canada. He has a highly experienced and a well-knit team of talented marketers, programmers and advertisers ( they are not Canadians ) that he wants to bring with him back to Canada and help his office in Canada. What is the right approach to do this ?
He needs to obtain an approved LMIA for each of these employees so that they can apply for a work permit to be able to work in Canada. LMIA process end to end is typically 4-6 months.
Thanks for your reply scylla! so 4-6 months for each candidate or they can be done simultaneously? Any idea what is the approximate cost of this? What if some of the employees only want to work and return back to their country when their contract ends? Will that be a problem? And what if some of the employees want to apply for PR, will they be able to do so?
If you are a business you should really be paying for professional advice from your lawyer. To answer all these questions you need to know how this business is structured.
Yes - they can be done simultaneously. Fee is $1,000 each however the advertising requirements (mandatory to get the LMIA approved) will add to that cost. Note that submitting an application does not guarantee approval. One of the requirements is to advertise the role to prove no Canadian could be hired. Those that want to return home can return home. Those that want to apply for PR will have to see if they qualify - impossible to say if they will be selected or not. Very strongly recommend the employer dedicate time to reading through the LMIA requirements in detail. There's quite a bit they need to do in order to meet the application requirements.
It will depend on how his business is structured. If he has a dummy office in Canada where very little business has been done and very little employees and he wants to transfer his whole office from abroad he may run into problems. If he wants to transfer a few higher level people to an existing office with many other employees that would seem more likely. The goal is always to employ the people who are already able to work in Canada. You should be really talking to an immigration lawyer.
