Hello - we recently did something similar to hire a nanny, and this board helped me a lot. I thought I would chime in. But first I should say I am no expert. Our experience led me to conclude that one should think long and hard about hiring a TFW already in Canada, but who is NOT in the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Just to give you our experience:
1. We were told, when applying for an LMO, that HRSDC isn't really giving out LMO's anymore for the "nanny" category of employment, unless you are actually applying for a LCP nanny. Basically, I was given the impression that although they did this in the past, and might still do it now from time to time, you are much better off to just apply to for an LCP LMO. I think they want their to be really only one category of foreign nanny - the LCP foreign nanny. Anyway, that is what I was told, but who the heck knows with the government, since they change their minds all the time, and are never consistent in what they do.
2. There are unique challenges when trying to get someone already inside Canada into the program. Firstly, in order to get into the LCP one needs to apply OUTSIDE of Canada. This means, once you get an LMO and give it to your prospective nanny, she must use it to put together an application to a Canadian embassy somewhere else in the world. Most people use a Canadian embassy in the U.S. (e.g. Seattle, LA, Buffalo, etc.). This is all well and good except for a couple of things. Firstly, that embassy might want an in-person interview. This will cause problems if the person you want to hire needs a VISA in order to go the US for that interview. The issue is - can they get the VISA? How long will it take to get it? Will they be able to make it to the interview in time? Can they afford to go all the way to the US and back (it would be a bit of a long haul from Moncton to New York, for example). Second complication is this. Even if you get through all of that, and they approve her application, you have another problem. All she will get is a latter saying basically her application as been approved, she can now come to Canada, and she should present this letter at the border and apply there for a work permit, which they might or might not choose to give her at the border. Now, this makes little sense, I know, since everyone presumably is aware that this person is ALREADY in Canada. So what the worker has to do is "flagpole". This means going to the border with the U.S., saying to the U.S., "Gee here I am, I don't really want to come into the U.S., and in fact I don't even have a VISA to enter the U.S., but can you let me run around the border flagpole so I can go back to the Canadian side and PRETEND I'm just arriving there to get my work permit?" It is all very odd, and sometimes people have issues at the border, depending upon the mood of whatever random border agent they encounter.
Also, because there was a chance that our prospective nanny would have to travel to the U.S. for an interview, and because we knew she would need to flagpole with no guarantee of success, we did not want to risk her starting to work for us (illegally) or quit her other job or otherwise mess with her immigration status, until we were sure her application got approved and everything went smoothly. So we had to wait and wait and wait for her. We began the process of getting an LMO in the beginning of October 2011. She "flagpoled" and got her work permit at the end of May 2012. It took almost 8 months from beginning to end. We are glad we did it. She is an awesome nanny and we are happy to have her. But if I could do it again, I would not have considered any candidate who was not already in the LCP and here in Canada. It was just so much work, and so many complications.
Hope that helps you even a little bit. Good luck!