Paulie, and to make matters worse, have you read POEA's new GUIDELINES ON THE RECRUITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF FILIPINO WORKERS TO CANADA or MC no. 6 Series of 2008? Here is the link: http://www.poea.gov.ph/MCs/MC%206-08.pdf
First, they want all Canadian Employers to be registered with the POEA, which means more documents and red tape. The employer's registration will only be valid for 4 years. And check out Section IV Costs of Recruitment; The good people over at POEA now want employers to pay for the worker's visa fee ($150) and for the POEA processing fee (P6,900), both of which used to be the responsibility of the worker. Why not throw in the the medical examination (P4,000), passport (P600), NBi clearance (P300), and others along? I'm sure the employers in Canada wouldn't mind.
I wonder what the POEA and POLO want to implement next. Someday they might want to require employers to appear personally in their offices, with gifts and offerings.
One more thing, about the airfare. A colleague of mine has a cook who recently received his visa. In the addendum that Julve wants to have them sign, it says that air fare is shouldered by the employer. However, Canada's Employment and Immigration only requires employers to pay for airfare for semi-skilled workers (front desk, food servers, etc.). For cooks and other high-skilled work that belong to NOC Category O, A, and B, workers may shoulder the airfare. My colleague informed Mr. Julve of this fact but then Julve answered him saying that the airfare should always be shouldered by the employer, regardless of NOC Category and Canadian rules. So in other words, what he's saying is he doesn't give a rat's behind what the Canadians think about the rule on airfare.
