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Many foreign workers in Canada believe that if their immigration documents are complete and their application is flawless, their closed work permit will be approved.
However, if the employer is unaware of the proper procedure for obtaining an exemption from the Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) and selecting the appropriate occupation code, the application will be rejected by the officer.
If your employer selects the wrong code or makes a mistake regarding the technical category, not only will your application be denied, but your immigration history and future permanent residency will also be affected.
In this article, I'll explain in detail what this error is and how to avoid it.
The traditional route to obtaining a closed work permit in Canada requires the employer to file an LMIA, a complex and costly process that demonstrates that no Canadians are available for the position. However, there are exceptions to this rule (such as free trade agreements, intra-company transfers, or the Francophone Mobility Program) that allow employers to bypass or skip the LMIA process.
This is where the company's direct responsibility comes into play, since in order for this exemption to be valid, the employer must log in to the Employer Portal, register the job posting, and select the correct LMIA exemption code.
If a worker applies for a work permit that is exempt from an LMIA, simply having a signed employment contract is not enough.
There are two essential technical steps your employer must complete on the Employer Portal before you can submit your application:
Upon completion of this process, the system generates a job posting number with the assigned code, which is a mandatory requirement for submitting your application.
The main problem lies in the existence of codes with similar names but with entirely different legal bases.
In our immigration consultations, we have identified cases of qualified professionals who apply under a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), but whose employer mistakenly selects the Intra-Company Transfer code.
Upon receiving your application, the immigration officer will not evaluate your profile as a professional under the FTA, but will instead look for evidence that you previously worked at a branch of the same company in your home country. In the absence of such a corporate connection, the application is denied.
In these types of situations, the rejection is not due to an error in your personal documents, but rather to the technical category and the exception code that the employer selected or failed to verify on the portal.
Although registration on the portal is the company’s legal responsibility, employees should not leave the entire burden of ensuring their work permit is approved to their employer. Most employers in Canada do not have a thorough understanding of the regulations governing LMIA exemptions and appreciate technical guidance to avoid mistakes that could affect their ability to hire.
To ensure a successful process, we suggest that you:
At Immiland Law Professional Corporation, we provide professional representation and support at every stage of the process. Since the closed work permit is a binding agreement for both the company and the employee, during our consultations we guide the employer step by step through the process of filling out the information on the portal.
This way, we ensure that the selected LMIA exemption code is correct and that the validation is flawless from the very beginning.
Do you want to ensure that your code is validated correctly and increase the chances that your work permit will be approved?
Describe your situation on this form to find out if we can represent you, or schedule a consultation with our team at Consulta Migratoria.
I hope this information clears up any questions you may have and that your work permit is approved.
See you in our next blog post, where we’ll continue to help you build your Canadian dream with empathy, dedication, and professionalism.
With love,
Immiland Law
