LMIA Assistance

[MhamadK]

Hi everyone,

I have had my Express Entry profile up and ready for a couple of months now, but the scores are not getting below 450. I came to Canada 2 years ago as an Intra-Company Transferee, which is exempt from a LMIA. But when I created my EE profile, they totally ignored that I have a job, and that I have been paying taxes on my salary for the last 2 years.

They asked me to register in the job bank, which I did. But I dont want to leave my company and my job. I already have a job.

Anyway, I am trying to go through the requirements of the LMIA. I am sitting here with my boss, trying to read all the confusing jargon. And I would appreciate your help, anyone.

The first question that I need help with is: Is it true that I need a LMIA? because in the description of this page, they say that employers are exempt from LMIA if the employee is an ICT.

If you scroll down to the Transition Plan, there is another confusing thing, where they want us to list 4 distinct activities OR one activity which facilitates the permanent residency of a TFW.

Am I to understand that if my company only wants to hire me, they can only list ONE activity, and my boss does not have to go organize 4 activities?

I noticed on a couple of websites that some people are mixing those two, so I am hoping that someone with some experience can shed some light on this. Preferably someone who has applied for a LMIA, and got it.

One last request, can someone please list the steps they took to apply for a LMIA, and get a positive reply. So far her is what we're thinking of doing.

• Post a job ad in 3 online resources.
• After a month, if no "canadian" applied, we fill the LMIA forms, and send them to the ESDC.

Appreciate any help that I can get. Thanks.

 

[AM198]

Hi everyone,

I have had my Express Entry profile up and ready for a couple of months now, but the scores are not getting below 450. I came to Canada 2 years ago as an Intra-Company Transferee, which is exempt from a LMIA. But when I created my EE profile, they totally ignored that I have a job, and that I have been paying taxes on my salary for the last 2 years.

They asked me to register in the job bank, which I did. But I dont want to leave my company and my job. I already have a job.

Anyway, I am trying to go through the requirements of the LMIA. I am sitting here with my boss, trying to read all the confusing jargon. And I would appreciate your help, anyone.

The first question that I need help with is: Is it true that I need a LMIA? because in the description of this page, they say that employers are exempt from LMIA if the employee is an ICT.

If you scroll down to the Transition Plan, there is another confusing thing, where they want us to list 4 distinct activities OR one activity which facilitates the permanent residency of a TFW.

Am I to understand that if my company only wants to hire me, they can only list ONE activity, and my boss does not have to go organize 4 activities?

I noticed on a couple of websites that some people are mixing those two, so I am hoping that someone with some experience can shed some light on this. Preferably someone who has applied for a LMIA, and got it.

One last request, can someone please list the steps they took to apply for a LMIA, and get a positive reply. So far her is what we're thinking of doing.

• Post a job ad in 3 online resources.
• After a month, if no "canadian" applied, we fill the LMIA forms, and send them to the ESDC.

Appreciate any help that I can get. Thanks.

I can't answer your question of whether or not you need an LMIA, although I can tell you that to get the additional 600 points in express entry, you do need an LMIA.

I can give you some advice about the actual application process as my Company hired a lawyer to do this for us. It was a nightmare dealing with her because I had to chase her for every bit of progress but atleast that gave me a good understanding of what the application needs.

1. You firstly do need to post the job on three different places, one of which has to be the government job bank. You or your boss will need to make a profile on the company's behalf to post the job. Make sure that the posting meets the exact specifications listed by ESDC such as the minimum hourly wage, hours per week, detailed job description which should be similar to the correct NOC code, location of the job, address, email address, telephone number, any benefits such as health or dental etc. Check their list for the full requirements.

2. Once you post it, the ad will not appear right away. There is a certain tax document that you can send them or must have in handy (the PD7A). I believe they require some information from this. Someone from the job bank will actually phone up on the number you've listed to confirm that this is a real posting etc. Once this is verified, they will put the ad up in a day or two. You must keep proof such as print outs or screen shots of the jobs you post and the dates etc. I believe the requirement was 4 weeks of posting earlier on - it may have changed to 8 weeks. Just check that. Do this for two other job sites as well. They don't have to be paid sites. There are several free ones available in Canada. Once the required time is complete, you can remove the two external ones but you must leave the Job Bank one active until a final decision is made on your LMIA.

3. A tip that I can give you regarding the job posting: A site called indeed.ca automatically picks up the ad from the government job bank. As soon as this happens, a lot of people will start applying for the job. I confirmed with the ESDC that we do not have to consider those replies because we never posted on that site. I reached out to indeed.ca through email and asked them to remove the posting which they eventually did. Remember, there will be one in french and one in english.

4. As far as the transition plan is concerned, our lawyer kept it very simple. She just stated that the employee plans on applying for permanent residency once the LMIA is approved and so, that is how the Company will transition to hiring a Permanent Residence (i.e. me).

You can message me privately if you have any follow up questions. I will try my best to answer them.

PS: We applied for an LMIA for me in early August but have not heard anything about it since then. I'm currently on implied status.

 

[MhamadK]

Thank you AM198 for the great reply, it was really helpful.

I just sent you a PM.

Goodluck with your application, I hope you hear something positive soon.