Information on work permit/residency

[lockedown]

Hey guys,

Let's say a company in the Toronto area is about to give me a formal offer for a Public Relations position. I took the self-assessment and eligibility tests and I passed them (over 80 points). I've also worked almost three years in Europe in an identical position. I'm a Hungarian citizen btw.

The company says their labor department can handle all the details in regards to relocation and work permit. I read on the CIC site however that the applicant must submit a bunch of documents as well, with extreme evaluation times. Can someone please shed some light on if the employer can handle the heavy lifting in terms of paper work, get the work permit and how the process would look like? Are they able to help with residency as well? I'm pretty sure they're going to inform me about this at some point, just thought I ask here as well, maybe you guys have experience with such situations...

Thanks in advance!

 

[lockedown]

*bump

If anyone has any suggestions how to rename this topic so that a subject matter expert sees it and replies, it's very much welcome!

 

[Leon]

The employer gets you the LMO. I am sure they can help you take care of applying for the work permit.

If you want to apply for PR under the skilled worker program, if you are not in one of the chosen occupations, you will need a permanent job offer letter from the employer. Apart from that, most employers will not help you with your skilled worker application. You are however allowed to use a representative to help you with your forms, usually it is a lawyer or a consultant you hire yourself but if your employer wants to do it, there are no rules against that.

If you apply for PR under a provincial nominee program, the employer takes a more active role in your application as they would then be sponsoring you.

 

[lockedown]

That's great feedback - thanks. Do you know what the requirements are for participating in the PNP or point me in the right direction please? Do you know if that usually takes less time than the FSP?

 

[Leon]

That's great feedback - thanks. Do you know what the requirements are for participating in the PNP or point me in the right direction please? Do you know if that usually takes less time than the FSP?

It usually takes longer because the province has to approve you before you get to apply for PR. You can see more about the PNP in Ontario here: http://www.ontarioimmigration.ca/en/pnp/index.htm

 

[lockedown]

Thanks again - so this means the FSW program in my case would be the more straight forward and quicker route to take correct? And the process would definitely have to be initiated from my side?

 

[Leon]

You can hire someone to act as your representative for FSW if you don't want to do it yourself but I have never heard of an employer acting as somebody's representative. Having a representative is not always better. They can mess up your application if they do things wrong or delay too much.

 

[lockedown]

Understood - thanks, one last question, though I know there's no general answer: if everything's in place, usually how long does it take for an approval to come through? I'm just looking for a range here in terms of weeks vs months...

 

[lockedown]

Actually let me ask something else as well: would it make sense to first apply for a WP and then for PR? Does the WP come through faster usually? Is it a simpler process?

 

[Leon]

WP should be much simpler and faster than PR. WP could take 3 months and PR a year, something along those lines.

 

[lockedown]

Wow, so an employer has to be extremely committed to employ the foreign worker if they can't employ him/her until the approval comes through after 3/12 months. I'm just having a hard time understanding the business reason behind waiting at least 3 months to fill a position just because of paperwork. Does it often happen that an employer retracts the offer because of long waiting times on permits?

Sorry for these questions, it's just difficult to fathom how and why companies go along this route, being forced to wait so long until the employee can come aboard...or am I missing something?

 

[lockedown]

*and bump

 

[Leon]

The employer is ready to get you a work permit and wait a couple of months because they either can not find anyone in Canada who has your specialty knowledge or the job is so awful that they can not find anyone in Canada who wants it.

It is also a criteria to get the labour market opinion to show that they have advertised the job in Canada and found no qualified or willing applicants.