Employer compliance

When a work permit based on your job offer is issued, conditions are imposed on you automatically: IRPR 209.2 for LMIA-exempt offers made in the Employer Portal (International Mobility Program), IRPR 209.3 for LMIA-based permits (Temporary Foreign Worker Program), and the inspection conditions in IRPR 209.4 for both. The core conditions are: stay actively engaged in the business the offer was made for; follow federal and provincial employment and recruitment laws; give the worker the same occupation and wages and working conditions that are substantially the same as, but not less favourable than, the offer; make reasonable efforts to keep the workplace free of abuse and to give access to health care if the worker is hurt or falls ill at work; never charge or recover recruitment fees, and make sure recruiters do not; give and make available the Government of Canada's information on the worker's rights; and, for six years from the first day of the employment period, keep records and be able to show that the information you gave was accurate. LMIA employers must also pay for private emergency health insurance during any gap in provincial coverage and keep any LMIA commitments. The employment period includes any time the worker keeps working without a permit after its expiry while an extension application is pending (IRPR 186(u), maintained status).

For the whole permit period you must employ the worker in the same occupation as the offer of employment or LMIA, with wages and working conditions that are substantially the same as, but not less favourable than, those offered. This is a Type B condition, and occupation, wages and working conditions each count as a separate violation for each worker affected (IRPR 209.96). Working conditions include what the offer states about work location, hours and overtime, statutory holidays, sick leave and vacation, transportation, accommodation and benefits such as extended health insurance.

The worker must apply to extend or change their work permit if you want to employ them past the permit's expiry date, substantially change their occupation, wages or conditions (such as work location), or if they are changing employers. They should apply at least 30 days before their current permit expires, and they may not start the new work until the new permit is issued. If you need an LMIA, apply for a new one as soon as possible; if you do not, submit a new offer of employment in the Employer Portal and pay the employer compliance fee unless exempt. A worker already in Canada on an employer-specific permit may be able to start working for a new employer before the decision if that employer has a valid LMIA or can hire through the Employer Portal and IRCC authorizes it.

After a positive LMIA you must keep to the terms of the LMIA letter and its annexes; ESDC will not re-approve changes and can only decide whether a change was justified through an inspection. Minor changes that need no report: duty changes that keep the same NOC code, and wage increases equal to or less than the highest of 2%, the prevailing wage, or Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Index annual average inflation rate of the previous year (2.1% for 2026), or increases required by law. Minor changes you must report to the Employer Contact Centre: administrative errors, contact information changes, an employment relationship breakdown (for example layoff, leave of absence, or job offer cancellation or refusal) and a work location change within the same economic region. Material changes, which need a new LMIA (or a voluntary disclosure if already made): a change of occupation or job duties that changes the NOC code (including promotions or demotions), a change of employer (including assigning the worker to a site run by a different or affiliated employer), any decrease in wages, a wage increase above those limits, changes to benefits, stipulated hours, educational requirements or the LMIA stream, and failing to meet transition plan commitments.

During the permit period you must stay actively engaged in the business for which the offer of employment was made (live-in caregiver offers excepted). This is a Type C condition. IRCC can ask for documents such as a Canada Revenue Agency business number, a business licence or permit, income documents, and proof of business activity such as an attestation from a lawyer, notary or chartered accountant, an up-to-date commercial lease, or a letter from another business confirming a contract; attestations from the employer's own employees are not accepted.

You must comply with the federal or provincial laws that regulate employment and the recruitment of employees, including foreign nationals, in the province where the worker works (Type B condition). IRCC says this covers areas such as health and safety, unfair dismissal, the right to file complaints, leave and workplace privacy, and recruitment laws that regulate employment agencies and recruiters. Inspectors may check provincial employer or recruiter registration where required, a workers' compensation clearance letter and other provincial records, focusing on your record from the date the permit was issued.

IRCC's inspection instructions list the jurisdictions that require registration or licensing for employers of foreign workers (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Yukon) and for recruiters (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Yukon). Inspectors may ask for your provincial employer and recruiter registration certificate or licence as proof that you follow provincial employment and recruitment laws.

On or before the worker's first day of work under each work permit, give them a copy, in their chosen official language, of the most recent Government of Canada information on their rights in Canada; and throughout the employment make that information available to them in both English and French (two Type B conditions). IRCC says this applies to every period of employment for which a permit is issued, including extensions with the same employer, and that the information should be readily available at the workplace, on paper or electronically (for example in a break room or on a company site), at no cost and without going through the employer. Use the most recent version that the Government of Canada makes available for that purpose.

For an LMIA-exempt hire, before the worker applies for the work permit you must attest in the Employer Portal that you have entered into an employment agreement with the worker that provides for the same occupation, wages and working conditions as the offer, is drafted in the worker's chosen official language (English or French) and is signed by both of you, and that you gave the worker a copy (IRPR 209.11(1)(e)). For an LMIA-based hire, you commit to conclude such an agreement and give the worker a copy on or before their first day of work (IRPR 203(1)(g)).

You must not, directly or indirectly, charge or recover from the worker any fees related to their recruitment, and you must make sure that anyone who recruited the worker for you does not either (two Type C conditions). This includes the IMP employer compliance fee and, for LMIA workers, the LMIA processing fee and the cost of the required private health insurance. The only exceptions are the worker's own temporary resident visa, temporary resident permit and work permit fees (IRPR 296(1), 298(1) and 299(1)) and fees authorized under seasonal agricultural worker agreements. A failure is justified only if you made all reasonable efforts to comply and then fully compensated the worker for the fees.

You must make reasonable efforts to provide a workplace that is free of abuse (Type C condition). Abuse means physical abuse (including assault and forcible confinement), sexual abuse (including sexual contact without consent), psychological abuse (including threats and intimidation), financial abuse (including fraud and extortion) and reprisals: any measure, such as discipline, demotion, dismissal or a threat of these, taken against a worker because they reported that the conditions were not met or cooperated in good faith with an inspection. Each type of abuse is a separate violation (IRPR 209.96(4)). IRCC considers 3 elements: general efforts to prevent abuse; that no one in a supervisory role or acting for you took part in, or failed to stop, abuse they knew of; and that any allegation was addressed with steps to prevent it happening again.

You must make reasonable efforts to provide access to health care services when a worker is injured or becomes ill at the workplace (Type C condition). IRCC's examples: calling emergency services, arranging a doctor or walk-in clinic visit, giving first aid until help arrives, or having the on-site health and safety officer assess the worker. You are not expected to pay for transportation but must make it accessible (for example by calling a taxi), should have a way for staff to report injuries right away and a phone nearby, and are expected to respond the same day the injury or illness is observed, including for workers working from home in Canada.

If you employ a worker under an LMIA, you must obtain and pay for private health insurance that covers emergency medical care for any period during which the worker is not covered by the provincial health insurance system (Type C condition). This does not apply to employers under a seasonal agricultural worker agreement that already includes health insurance. You must not recover the cost from the worker (IRPR 209.3(1)(a)(xv)).

IRCC tells International Mobility Program employers to set up medical insurance and workers' compensation benefits for when the worker arrives in Canada, as required by the province or territory and as listed in the offer of employment. For LMIA positions, ESDC requires employers to make sure workers are covered by the provincial or territorial workplace safety insurance provider where the law requires it, from the first day of work, without recovering the cost from the worker.

For 6 years starting on the first day the worker works for you under the permit, you must keep any document that relates to compliance with the employer conditions (Type A condition). For each worker keep: the offer of employment or LMIA decision letter and annexes, the signed employment agreement, job description, time sheets, payroll records and T4s, proof the rights guide was given, insurance and workers' compensation proof, recruiter agreements and no-fee confirmations, records of every change and its justification and, for LMIA employers, recruitment and advertising records and changes in housing.

For 6 years starting on the first day the worker works for you, you must be able to show that the information you gave in the offer of employment (including the Employer Portal attestations) or in the LMIA application was accurate (Type A condition). IRCC's instructions say inaccurate information means false, incorrect or misleading information, or omitted information you were required to give, in any field, judged as at the time you submitted it; intent does not matter, but honest errors are recognized.

IRCC inspects employers of LMIA-exempt workers and ESDC (Service Canada) inspects LMIA employers. An inspection can be triggered by a reason to suspect non-compliance, past non-compliance, random selection, a worker subject to a Quarantine Act or Emergencies Act order, or a communicable disease at the work site. ESDC can inspect the treatment of workers up to 6 years after the worker started, and inspections may be on-site or virtual, announced or unannounced, and without a warrant (except in private dwellings). Inspectors can interview you and your employees, require and copy documents (including on computers), take photos or recordings and examine anything on site. You must report when and where asked to answer questions, provide the documents requested, attend any inspection you were notified of and give all reasonable assistance (IRPR 209.4, Type C conditions).

After an inspection, a notice of preliminary finding sets out the alleged violations and proposed consequences. You may make written submissions, or ask for an extension, within 30 days after the day you receive it; the notice is deemed received 10 days after it is sent (5 days, with only 5 days to respond, when the notice is only about the COVID-19 and quarantine conditions). IRCC or ESDC may extend the period for a reasonable explanation and cannot make a final determination before it ends. A penalty in a notice of final determination must be paid within 30 days after the day the notice is received (also deemed 10 days after it is sent), unless a payment agreement is reached within that period. Penalties in final determinations within any 12 months cannot exceed $1 million in total.

If you are found non-compliant, the consequences depend mainly on severity and are set by a points system that looks at the number of violations, how you failed to comply, your compliance history, how serious the violations are, how many workers were affected, the size of your business (for monetary penalties only) and whether you disclosed voluntarily before being told of an inspection. Possible consequences: a warning letter; monetary penalties from $500 to $100,000 per violation, up to a maximum of $1 million over 1 year; a ban from hiring through the TFWP or IMP for 1, 2, 5 or 10 years, or permanently for serious violations; refusal of pending work permit applications tied to your business; and revocation of active work permits tied to your business. A monetary penalty of any amount or a ban of any length adds your business to the public list of non-compliant employers.

The points for each violation combine your compliance history with severity. Violations found in earlier inspections under either program count, including those that ended in a warning, and there is no expiry for violations that took place on or after December 1, 2015. Each worker affected is a separate violation. A total under 2 points leads to a warning, which is not published but counts toward later violations. Business size for penalty amounts is set at the time your LMIA request was received or, for an LMIA-exempt hire with no LMIA request, at the time your offer of employment was submitted (IRPR 209.93).

A failure to meet a condition is justified if it results from: a change in federal or provincial law; a change to a collective agreement; measures responding to a dramatic change in economic conditions that directly affected your business, if not aimed disproportionately at foreign workers; a good-faith error in interpreting your obligations, or an accounting or administrative error, if you then compensated (or made sufficient efforts to compensate) every affected worker; similar circumstances; or superior force. A recruitment-fee failure is justified only if you made all reasonable efforts to comply and then fully compensated the worker. A record-keeping or accuracy failure is justified if you made all reasonable efforts to comply.

If you find you have not met a condition, you can disclose it voluntarily before any inspection. A disclosure is acceptable if it is complete and, when it is made, no inspection or enforcement action for an offence is under way against you; it may still be refused after considering the impact on the worker and on the Canadian economy or labour market, timeliness, how often you have disclosed before, and the nature of the condition. An acceptable disclosure subtracts four points from a violation's total, or reduces it to zero if the total is under four.

Know each worker's permit expiry date. To keep employing the worker past that date, they must apply to extend before the permit expires. If you need an LMIA, apply for a new one as soon as possible (the worker should not apply for the extension while waiting for the LMIA unless their permit expires in less than 2 weeks); if you do not, submit a new offer of employment and pay the employer compliance fee unless exempt. A worker who applies before expiry keeps their status and may keep working under the conditions of the original permit until a decision; on an employer-specific permit this means the same job, employer and work location. Proof can be the WP-EXT letter from the worker's online account, proof of a paper application, or IRCC's letter asking for more documents.

A worker can't extend their work permit beyond the expiry date of their passport, so the passport must not expire before the requested end date of the permit. Track passport expiry dates with permit dates and have workers renew their passports before they apply to extend.

Ask each new employee for their SIN within 3 days after their employment begins. SINs beginning with 9 are issued to temporary workers and are valid only until the expiry date on the immigration document that authorizes them to work, so make sure every employee with such a SIN is authorized to work and that their immigration document has not expired. When IRCC approves a new permit, verify the new document and its expiry date and advise the employee to have Service Canada enter the new expiry date in their SIN record.

If only your company's name or address changes and the CRA business number and structure stay the same, IRCC treats you as the same employer (update the Employer Portal). After an acquisition, merger or other restructuring, workers on employer-specific permits can keep working without new permits only if the new organization is a successor in interest (it substantially assumed the original employer's interests, obligations, assets and liabilities and runs the same type of business), it meets the basis of each LMIA-exempt permit (for example the qualifying relationship for intra-company transferees) or takes over the LMIA, and the workers' wages, duties and location are unchanged. Otherwise a new LMIA or offer of employment and new work permits are required, and workers should stop working for the new organization until they have them. For LMIA positions, the LMIA holder must tell ESDC or Service Canada about the change.

Whatever wage the LMIA application states, you must reassess and apply the prevailing wage at the start of each LMIA worker's employment and review it every year using the updated wages posted on Job Bank (where applicable). Job Bank wages are updated each fall, and you have until January 1 of the following year to do the review. The wage can never go below the wage in the positive LMIA, even if the prevailing wage falls. Employers who do not update wages may face penalties and bans. A raise that brings the wage to the prevailing wage does not need to be reported to Service Canada. In Quebec, use the MIFI wage table.

ESDC's stream pages, updated September 18, 2026, say employers can't classify temporary foreign workers as independent contractors, and that misclassification is non-compliant under the TFW Program. After receiving an approved LMIA you can't reclassify a worker as an independent contractor or structure the relationship to avoid payroll, compensation or program requirements. The worker's status must reflect the employer-employee relationship in the approved LMIA and employment agreement, with deductions such as income tax, CPP or QPP and EI. Consequences include penalties and bans, and possible listing on federal or provincial websites.

If they were factors in issuing the permit, you must, during the employment period or another period agreed with ESDC: create or retain jobs for Canadian citizens or permanent residents; develop or transfer skills and knowledge to them; hire or train them; or make reasonable efforts to hire or train them (Type B conditions).

On or before the worker's first day of work under each new work permit, including a renewal with you, give them a copy, in the official language they choose, of the most recent Government of Canada information on their rights in Canada, and keep that information available to them in both English and French for the whole job (IRPR 209.2(1)(a.1) and (a)(ii.1) for LMIA-exempt workers; 209.3(1)(a.1) and (a)(ii.1) for LMIA workers). Use the most recent version that the Government of Canada makes available for that purpose.

It is an offence to employ a foreign national in a capacity in which they are not authorized to be employed. An employer who fails to exercise due diligence to determine whether the employment is authorized is deemed to know that it is not. Penalties: on conviction on indictment, a fine of up to $50,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both; on summary conviction, a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.