Offer of Employment?

[fitter_happier]

Hello. I am applying for PR right now. I have been in Canada for over a year on a IEC work permit. I have less than a year left. I wanted to start getting the ball rolling and try and get permanent residency. I currently work full time for an IT company in downtown Toronto.

The first thing I'm asked for is providing an "Offer of Employment".

My question is, if I already have a job how do I go about providing this? Would I just upload a document from HR stating I am currently in full time employment?
The description for the document requirements says;

"You must provide a job offer letter from the employer who wants to hire you. It must be printed on company letterhead, and state that you will be employed permanently in Canada by that company. The letter must specify whether the job is:

for continuous, paid, full-time work (at least 30 hours a week),
for work that is permanent and not seasonal,
skill type 0, or skill levels A or B of the 2011 National Occupational Classification"

I meet the requirements for the Canadian Experience Class and I have 494 points overall. I just want to make sure I fill in all the information correctly. Also, is it worth getting an immigration consultant to help me get all the documents prepared or is it fine to do it by myself?

Thanks.

 

[scylla]

You should answer "no" to the offer of employment question. It only counts as an offer of employment if you have an approved LMIA along with a permanent job offer.

 

[s23srinivas]

Hi,
I have a similar situation except that I am on a TRV with work permit (foreign worker) which my employer gained with a positive LMIA. I joined them last august and the LMIA now stands expired (Oct 2015) and the work permit expires in July 2017. The initial offer letter on which I joined my employer states it as a permanent job and I am on their permanent payroll with all the benefits given to a permanent employee.
Should I still answer "no" to the offer of employment question if I am continuing with the same employer? Or getting a "new offer letter" from the employer will give me the benefit of an additional 600 points in the CRS? Will the "new offer letter" route require the employer to go back to the beginning of the recruitment cycle i.e. getting a new LMIA, advt. for the mandatory period locally etc?


Regards,

 

[jes_ON]

Hi,
I have a similar situation except that I am on a TRV with work permit (foreign worker) which my employer gained with a positive LMIA. I joined them last august and the LMIA now stands expired (Oct 2015) and the work permit expires in July 2017. The initial offer letter on which I joined my employer states it as a permanent job and I am on their permanent payroll with all the benefits given to a permanent employee.
Should I still answer "no" to the offer of employment question if I am continuing with the same employer? Or getting a "new offer letter" from the employer will give me the benefit of an additional 600 points in the CRS? Will the "new offer letter" route require the employer to go back to the beginning of the recruitment cycle i.e. getting a new LMIA, advt. for the mandatory period locally etc?

If you are currently working on an LMIA-approved work permit, and your employer will give you a written offer of (future) permanent, full-time, non-seasonal employment contingent upon your obtaining permanent resident status, then yes, you can benefit from the xtra 600 pts. Yes, you will need a new (recent) job offer letter; no, you do not need a new LMIA (as long as the job offer is from the same employer).

Regardless of the fact that you were already hired as "permanent," the fact is you are on a temporary work permit, so the work is temporary : )

 

[s23srinivas]

Thanks Jes_ON!!

 

[fitter_happier]

You should answer "no" to the offer of employment question. It only counts as an offer of employment if you have an approved LMIA along with a permanent job offer.

Hey. Thanks for the information. It says it is a required field though and I need to upload a document. I don't have the option to say no. I asked on a Reddit Canadian immigration forum and everyone is telling me I need a LMIA (which to be honest I don't think is feasible given how much time I have left and the field I work in)

I'm getting contradictory information from my friend though who applied for CEC (before the Express Entry system) and he said I must have filled in something incorrectly earlier on in the application as I shouldn't be asked to provide this "Offer of Employment" if I already work full time and have been doing so for more than a year. Any ideas?

 

[jes_ON]

Hey. Thanks for the information. It says it is a required field though and I need to upload a document. I don't have the option to say no. I asked on a Reddit Canadian immigration forum and everyone is telling me I need a LMIA (which to be honest I don't think is feasible given how much time I have left and the field I work in)

I'm getting contradictory information from my friend though who applied for CEC (before the Express Entry system) and he said I must have filled in something incorrectly earlier on in the application as I shouldn't be asked to provide this "Offer of Employment" if I already work full time and have been doing so for more than a year. Any ideas?

To summarize - you received an ITA and are at the application stage. When you submitted your profile, you said "yes" to the job offer, and "no" to the LMIA. Your score was 494, so you did not receive the 600 pts for the "valid job offer." But because you said "yes" to the job offer, the system is now requesting the letter. Is this about right?

Interesting - I'm sure a lot of people do what you did, I would've expected to have heard about this "glitch" a long time ago.

Well, you have a great CRS score and received the ITA without the LMIA, so you don't need to worry about getting one.

I believe you cannot change your profile at this time, correct me if i'm wrong. So since you MUST upload something, you have two choices - get the letter (even though it won't give you points), or upload a letter of explanation saying you did not realize that a "valid job offer" required an LMIA at the time. Or you could upload your Letter of Employment (use the same letter in 2 places).

As for your friend, the pre-EE system for CEC applications was a pass/fail system, there were no "points" for an LMIA (a valid job offer ensured eligibility for FSW applicants, though). The LMIA is still not required, but many people cannot get enough CRS points to earn an ITA without the extra 600 points, so many think of it as a de facto requirement.

FYI- here is the definition of a valid job offer -
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/offer.asp

 

[fitter_happier]

To summarize - you received an ITA and are at the application stage. When you submitted your profile, you said "yes" to the job offer, and "no" to the LMIA. Your score was 494, so you did not receive the 600 pts for the "valid job offer." But because you said "yes" to the job offer, the system is now requesting the letter. Is this about right?

Interesting - I'm sure a lot of people do what you did, I would've expected to have heard about this "glitch" a long time ago.

Well, you have a great CRS score and received the ITA without the LMIA, so you don't need to worry about getting one.

I believe you cannot change your profile at this time, correct me if i'm wrong. So since you MUST upload something, you have two choices - get the letter (even though it won't give you points), or upload a letter of explanation saying you did not realize that a "valid job offer" required an LMIA at the time. Or you could upload your Letter of Employment (use the same letter in 2 places).

As for your friend, the pre-EE system for CEC applications was a pass/fail system, there were no "points" for an LMIA (a valid job offer ensured eligibility for FSW applicants, though). The LMIA is still not required, but many people cannot get enough CRS points to earn an ITA without the extra 600 points, so many think of it as a de facto requirement.

Thank you so much for the information Just want to double check something as it looks like I have a third option. Someone on a Reddit Canadian immigration forum said they attended a seminar about express entry and they advised me of the following;

On an LMIA for a permanent position (to support an express entry application), there's no fee for the employer and it's processed in about 10 days, which is different than an LMIA for a temporary work permit (under the temporary foreign work program), which costs $1000 to the employer and it takes 6 months or more to process.

So there's a LMIA I can get in just 10 days? Anyone know if this is true or should I just go ahead and upload a document such as my letter of employment instead.

Just a little worried that uploading the incorrect form will disqualify me.

 

[jes_ON]

Thank you so much for the information Just want to double check something as it looks like I have a third option. Someone on a Reddit Canadian immigration forum said they attended a seminar about express entry and they advised me of the following;

On an LMIA for a permanent position (to support an express entry application), there's no fee for the employer and it's processed in about 10 days, which is different than an LMIA for a temporary work permit (under the temporary foreign work program), which costs $1000 to the employer and it takes 6 months or more to process.

So there's a LMIA I can get in just 10 days? Anyone know if this is true or should I just go ahead and upload a document such as my letter of employment instead.

Just a little worried that uploading the incorrect form will disqualify me.

You would spend your time better by reading the CIC website, rather than Reddit.

You can get an LMIA to support the PR process, but your employer still has to prove they cannot hire a Canadian (advertise the job for month, interview, etc...).

Fortunately, you do not need an LMIA. You were not awarded points for an LMIA - if you had been, your CRS score would have been 1094, not 494. The only reason you are being asked for this is because you said yes to the question, and its an automated machine process - still relatively new- that has glitches in its logic. You will not be refused for this, but you do need to upload something. I suggest the Letter of Explanation (LOE).

 

[fitter_happier]

Thank you so much for the help. I appreciate it. I've started collecting all my documents now for uploading. Right now I am working on "Employment History". How strict is the application with the file formats? I am going to keep everything as a .doc word file or a PDF. Is this okay? I know when I applied for my 2 Year Holiday VISA this was good.

 

[Bs65]

Thank you so much for the help. I appreciate it. I've started collecting all my documents now for uploading. Right now I am working on "Employment History". How strict is the application with the file formats? I am going to keep everything as a .doc word file or a PDF. Is this okay? I know when I applied for my 2 Year Holiday VISA this was good.

Keep originals as .doc files in case you want to edit but convert / save as PDF when uploading to CIC, unless you have a PDF editor of course.

 

[fitter_happier]

Hey guys so I have an update on this. Unfortunately my invitation expired and I've had to re-submit my profile. This time I said "No I do not have an offer of employment" and the process seems very different. I was asked to join the Job Bank website. I registered a few days ago. My ITA status is "No invitation at this time". As I mentioned before I work full time in IT and if I could get PR I know my company would continue to let me work for them. As I had previously mentioned "Yes" to the Offer of Employment I am wondering what the process is now that I answered No. I don't really understand what the registration for the Job Bank website is for. Do I need to have an employer from the site want to offer me a job before I get PR?

 

[scylla]

Hey guys so I have an update on this. Unfortunately my invitation expired and I've had to re-submit my profile. This time I said "No I do not have an offer of employment" and the process seems very different. I was asked to join the Job Bank website. I registered a few days ago. My ITA status is "No invitation at this time". As I mentioned before I work full time in IT and if I could get PR I know my company would continue to let me work for them. As I had previously mentioned "Yes" to the Offer of Employment I am wondering what the process is now that I answered No. I don't really understand what the registration for the Job Bank website is for. Do I need to have an employer from the site want to offer me a job before I get PR?

No - you don't need to have a job offer from an employer on the site to get PR.

Registering with Job Bank is one of the mandatory steps in the process.

Unfortunately the fact your company would continue to employer has no impact on the PR process. It would only make a different if they could obtain an approved LMIA.

 

[jes_ON]

Hey guys so I have an update on this. Unfortunately my invitation expired and I've had to re-submit my profile. This time I said "No I do not have an offer of employment" and the process seems very different. I was asked to join the Job Bank website. I registered a few days ago. My ITA status is "No invitation at this time". As I mentioned before I work full time in IT and if I could get PR I know my company would continue to let me work for them. As I had previously mentioned "Yes" to the Offer of Employment I am wondering what the process is now that I answered No. I don't really understand what the registration for the Job Bank website is for. Do I need to have an employer from the site want to offer me a job before I get PR?

The "process" is almost identical.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/express/intake-complete.asp

The only differences, now that you indicate no job offer, are that you have to register for job bank (a nice idea but I've never heard of anyone finding a job through job bank), and that you do not have to provide a job offer letter.