Hire an LMIA-exempt temporary foreign worker through IRCC's Employer Portal: confirming the exemption, enrolling with a GCKey or Sign-in Partner credential, completing the four offer forms, paying the $230 employer compliance fee, and meeting the employer responsibilities that follow.
Applies in: CA
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, known as IRCC, runs two different employer routes for hiring a temporary foreign worker, and this guide covers only one of them. The other route, the Labour Market Impact Assessment through Employment and Social Development Canada and Service Canada, is covered in the companion guide on hiring a foreign worker in Canada, and none of its steps appear here: no recruiting in Canada first, no wage-threshold stream, no low-wage cap, and no LMIA Online application. This guide covers the International Mobility Program route, for hires that do not need a Labour Market Impact Assessment. Employer Portal enrolment guide states the portal's purpose in one sentence: the Employer Portal lets employers submit offers of employment to IRCC as required under the International Mobility Program, and an offer of employment must be submitted for any temporary foreign worker coming to Canada to work for a specific employer who does not need a labour market impact assessment.
State plainly what this guide does not do. It describes the published portal process only. It gives no advice on whether any particular hire is LMIA-exempt, no advice on which exemption code fits a particular job, and no immigration or legal advice about a particular worker. Whether an exemption applies turns on the facts of the job and the worker against IRCC's exemption categories, and that judgment belongs to the employer, with professional advice where the category is not clear. IRCC's own processing instructions warn that offer of employment information submitted by employers is not vetted or verified by any IRCC section before work permit applications are processed, according to Employer-specific work permits – General processing – International Mobility Program, so an accepted portal submission is not a finding that the exemption applies. Work through the steps in order: exemption first, agreement and fee-exemption checks second, enrolment third, and the offer only once those are settled, because the offer, the fee, and the worker's application all depend on the exemption claimed.
Do not open the portal until the exemption question is answered. How to use IRCC's Employer Portal for the International Mobility Program states the starting rule directly: you can use the Employer Portal only if you do not need an LMIA, and to find out whether the position is exempt, check the LMIA exemption codes on IRCC's website or contact the International Mobility Workers Unit for help. Workers can be exempt where there are broader economic, cultural, or other competitive advantages, or reciprocal benefits enjoyed by Canadians and permanent residents, on the same page. If no exemption applies, stop here and use the LMIA route instead; a portal offer filed for a hire that needs an LMIA does not replace the assessment.
Where more than one company is involved, the enrolment guide decides who submits, and the answer is not always the company paying the wages. Read its three situations before enrolling:
Foreign companies have a narrow portal route. Employer Portal enrolment guide states that foreign employers should only use the Employer Portal when there is no contract with a Canadian company and no Canadian entity involved in the employment scenario, giving as examples a self-employed entrepreneur coming in to sell at a trade show and crew on ships coming to the Arctic on a significant benefit to Canada exemption. A foreign company enrolling answers No to the question asking whether this is a Canadian organization, then answers the questions about the foreign company and enters its federal registration number in the business number field. One hard limit applies to a new business: if you are coming to Canada to incorporate a new business, you will need a 9-digit Canada Revenue Agency business number, and if you do not yet have one, you will not be able to use the Employer Portal to submit your offer. The guide directs such a person to email IRCC with their full name, date of birth, and place of birth as listed on their passport, country of citizenship, business name if known, and business contact address if known, to find out what to do. This guide does not state an email address for that message, because the enrolment guide gives the instruction to email without showing the address.
Two exemption checks come before any offer, and confusing them is the easiest mistake in this process. The first check is whether the employer must use the portal at all. Employer compliance exemptions lists the employers that do not need to use the Employer Portal: international missions or consular posts, an international organization recognized under the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act, a foreign government, and an owner or operator of an international bridge or tunnel. How do I hire a temporary foreign worker? states the consequence: if you are exempt from the employer compliance process, send the worker your job offer, and they can use it to apply.
The second check is whether the employer must pay the compliance fee, even though an offer must still be submitted. The exemptions page states that if you are part of any of the programs, agreements, or LMIA exemption categories listed on it, the temporary worker is fee exempt and you do not need to pay the employer compliance fee when you hire them. The listed categories are non-trade international agreements under LMIA exemption category R204(a), including the Fulbright Program (Canada-U.S.) and Roosevelt Campobello International Park; reciprocal employment under R205(b), including cultural agreements and the Canada-China cultural exchange; work related to a research program under R205(c)(i), including scientists or post-doctoral fellows and scholars sponsored by the bodies named on the page and Canada Research Chair and similar research chair positions; and unremunerated charitable or religious work under R205(d), where the worker receives no remuneration, may receive a living expense stipend below the prevailing minimum wage, and otherwise receives only non-monetary benefits. For charitable or religious work, the proof document must detail how the worker is or is not remunerated; simply indicating that the employer is a charitable or religious organization is not sufficient, on the same page.
A fee-exempt employer still files the offer, and must prove the exemption in the portal. In the Employer Portal, when asked whether fees are being paid, select "No, I am exempt from paying fees for this Offer of Employment," and upload a letter explaining how you are part of the program, agreement, or LMIA exemption category in the Proof of fee exemption field, according to the exemptions page. Decide the fee question before answering the fee question in the offer: the portal video states that employers should find out on IRCC's website whether they are exempt from the compliance fee before answering the fee payment question, and that a fee-exempt employer is given the chance to upload proof of the exemption while an employer who must pay will not need to upload any documents.
One current fee-exemption example shows how specific these rules are. For a Quebec employer extending a worker's permit under the public policy described on Extend a worker's permit: Workers in Quebec, the employer submits an offer of employment in the Employer Portal, does not pay the $230 employer compliance fee, selects "No, I am exempt from paying fees for this Offer of Employment," uploads a letter explaining the fee exemption, and uses LMIA exemption code R01 on the online form. The worker must meet the eligibility conditions on that page, including having applied for permanent selection under Quebec's skilled worker selection program, already working for the employer, and holding an employer-specific work permit in one of the situations listed there, and the extension is for up to 12 months with the worker's application due on or before December 31, 2026. Do not borrow the R01 code or the fee exemption for a hire outside that public policy; the code and the exemption belong to the situation the page describes.
Three preconditions must be in place before an offer is created in the portal, and IRCC states them as employer checks, not as portal fields. How do I hire a temporary foreign worker? requires the employer to make sure that no recruitment fees have been charged to the foreign worker, that no one acting on the employer's behalf charges recruitment fees to the worker, that the worker has been given a copy of an employment agreement in their chosen official language, English or French, signed by both the employer and the worker, including the occupation, wages, and working conditions that will then be entered into the Employer Portal under the offer of employment, and that the worker has been given information on their rights as a worker in Canada. Settle the agreement first, because the offer must match it: the attestation text in step 6 requires the agreement to provide for employment in the same occupation and the same wages and working conditions as those set out in the offer.
The offer cannot be submitted without the employer's attestations and certifications, and they cannot be declined. Employer-specific work permits – General processing – International Mobility Program states that officers should be aware that the employer must click on the attestations in order to submit an offer, and that employers are unable to refuse the attestations and certification when they submit through the Employer Portal. The declaration, as stated on that page as of May 2024, attests that the employer has entered into the employment agreement described above, drafted in the worker's chosen official language of Canada, signed by the employer and the worker, with a copy provided to the worker; that the employer has not, directly or indirectly, charged or recovered the compliance fee or any recruitment fees from the worker, with the stated exceptions for temporary resident visa, temporary resident permit, and work permit fees, and has ensured that anyone who recruited on the employer's behalf did not do so either; and certifies that the employer is actively engaged in the business and will remain so during the employment period, is compliant and will comply with the federal, provincial, and territorial laws regulating employment and recruitment in the province or territory of work and with any applicable collective agreement, will provide employment in the same occupation with wages and working conditions substantially the same as, but not less favourable than, those in the offer, and will make reasonable efforts to provide a workplace free of abuse, including physical, sexual, psychological, or financial abuse and reprisals against foreign nationals. Read the declaration as it appears in the portal at submission, because the portal text governs, and do not submit an offer whose terms the business cannot meet.
Enrolment is a separate process from submitting an offer, and the credential comes first. Employer Portal enrolment guide states plainly what credential the portal requires: to enrol, you must first register for a GCKey or Sign-in Partner credential. A GCKey credential is a username and password that allows secure access to Government of Canada online services. Sign-in Partner, the Interac sign-in service, allows sign-in using banking information, a card number or username and password. Each Employer Portal account, including the primary user, the secondary user, and branches, must have a different GCKey or Sign-in Partner login, so do not share one credential across accounts. The guide names no other credential for this portal, and no CRA credential is named for Employer Portal sign-in. An older IRCC video uses the name SecureKey Concierge for the banking sign-in method; treat that as superseded wording and follow the current enrolment guide, GCKey or Sign-in Partner, when enrolling now.
Enrol in the right role, because the first person enrolled controls the account. An employer is any organization that submits an offer of employment to IRCC, and the first person from any business to complete enrolment will be the primary user for that entire business account. The employer primary user is the only user with full access to the portal and is responsible for assigning PINs to branches and secondary users. A branch is a subsidiary owned and operated by an employer, must have the same 9-digit Canada Revenue Agency business number, and receives a personal identification number from the employer's primary user to create its account; the first person to enrol the branch becomes the branch primary user, who can assign secondary users for that branch only. A secondary user receives a PIN from the employer or branch primary user, can complete an offer of employment on behalf of the employer or branch, but cannot assign access to others. The primary user must first submit an offer before other users can submit offers, and the primary user can create secondary users or branches only after having submitted at least one job offer. Do not be the first person in a business to enrol if that responsibility is not yours: the video transcript states that the first person to enrol becomes the account's primary user and must then give all other users access.
The enrolment steps, following the enrolment guide, are:
Enrolment has a deadline. The enrolment guide states that there are 30 days from starting enrolment to complete the request, and if the request is not submitted within 30 days it will be deleted and a new one must be started. Inaccurate or false information carries a stated consequence on the same page: the workers' work permits could be revoked and the organization could be subject to inspection. If enrolment is refused, the business may already have an account in the Employer Portal and that existing account must be signed in to; if enrolment was meant as a secondary user or branch and a refusal email arrived, a new GCKey must be created and re-enrolment completed using the PIN provided by the primary account user. Changing the primary user requires the new primary user to already hold a secondary user account, followed by an email to IRCC with the current and new primary users' names, the new primary user's email address, and the business information, including the Canada Revenue Agency business number and the operating and legal business names. Resetting an account after a lost GCKey or forgotten recovery answers also requires a new GCKey or Sign-in Partner and a PIN obtained by email; the guide states the PIN and instructions arrive by email within 5 business days, and a response to a technical help email can be expected within 5 business days.
Once enrolled and approved, sign in and submit an offer of employment. How to use IRCC's Employer Portal for the International Mobility Program states two process rules that govern the whole submission. First, once the first offer is started, it must be completed and submitted before anyone else can create a new one, and the primary user should submit an offer before creating any secondary users or branch accounts; after the first offer has been submitted, other users can create multiple offers at the same time. Second, the four forms must be typed into directly: do not cut and paste information, as this will cause errors with the form, and documents cannot be uploaded to the forms, so all required information must be included in the form fields. The one upload the video describes comes at the document checklist stage, not in the forms: a fee-exempt employer is given the chance to upload proof of the fee exemption, while an employer who must pay the fee will not need to upload any documents.
Complete the four forms in this order:
Submission is a declaration first and a payment second. After the four forms are complete, select Next, read the employer declaration, and if in agreement select "I agree," type your name in the signature panel, answer the security question, and click Sign, following How to use IRCC's Employer Portal for the International Mobility Program. Then, where a fee must be paid, click "Transmit and Pay" and complete payment on the Receiver General's online payment website; once paid, print the receipt, because the video states this will be the only opportunity to do so and a receipt cannot be given at a later date. Where no fee is payable, click "Transmit" and exit the offer to return to the portal welcome page. The offer then appears in the queue.
The fee must be paid before the worker applies. Employer-specific work permits – General processing – International Mobility Program states that the employer is required under section 209.11 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations to use the Employer Portal to submit the offer directly to IRCC and pay the $230 compliance fee before the foreign national makes an application for a work permit. The amount is confirmed on the Citizenship and immigration application fees: Fee list at $230.00, with the $690.00 group fee for three or more performing artists and their staff where the offers are made at the same time. A work permit application must be refused under paragraph R200(3)(f.1) if the employer is not exempt and has not paid the fee or submitted the offer information, on the processing instructions page. Fee-exempt employers follow the proof-upload route in step 2 instead of paying, but the offer submission itself is still required.
On submission, an offer of employment number is system generated for the employer to see, in the form A followed by 7 digits, and the employer must provide this number to the foreign national for inclusion in the work permit application, according to the processing instructions page. Extend a worker's permit: Workers in Quebec states the same format in employer-facing terms: the number starts with the letter "A" followed by 7 digits and is given after the offer is submitted in the Employer Portal. Hire through the Rural and Francophone Community Immigration Pilots: Optional: Work permit for candidates states the same handover rule generally: after submitting an offer through the Employer Portal, the employer gets an offer of employment number and must give the 7-digit number to the temporary worker, who can then complete and submit the work permit application. Give the worker the number and a copy of the job offer, and tell the worker to include the number in the work permit application. The worker's own work permit application fee, $155.00 per person on the fee list, is separate from the employer's compliance fee and is not paid through the offer submission.
If the hire falls through before a work permit is issued, withdrawal and refund follow the rules stated in the processing instructions. An offer that has not yet been matched with a work permit application can be withdrawn directly from the Employer Portal account, changing its status from pending to withdrawn. An offer already matched to an application must be withdrawn by emailing the Employer Portal mailbox, and the mailbox team adds a case note to the application and contacts the processing office. A refund of the employer compliance fee must be initiated where the work permit application is refused, or where the employer withdraws the offer in writing before issuance and the application is therefore refused, and must also be refunded where the application is withdrawn before issuance, since IRCC could not inspect the employer. This guide states no refund timeline or refund request form, because no official page states one.
Submitting the offer creates duties that last for the whole employment period. Hire a worker without an LMIA: after you hire a temporary worker lists the employer's responsibilities after the work permit application is approved: see the work permit and know its expiry date; meet the conditions listed on the work permit, including the job location and the length of time the worker can work in Canada; meet the details of the offer submitted, including a job in the right occupation, duties that match the National Occupation Classification code, and pay and working conditions no less favourable, only equal or more favourable; set up medical insurance and workers' compensation benefits for when the worker arrives, as required by the province or territory and as listed in the offer; stay active in the business that submitted the offer for as long as the work permit is valid; meet all applicable federal, provincial, and territorial employment and recruiting laws; keep the workplace free of physical, sexual, psychological, and financial abuse and of workplace retaliation for whistle-blowers; show up, personally or through a designated employee, for any inspections to answer questions and hand over all requested documents or information; and be able to show that the information submitted on the offer was accurate and that the worker was provided with the same offer of employment, or contract. Two further duties on the same page are stated in terms that survive any change of plan: pay the worker for any period of mandatory isolation or quarantine on entering Canada, even if the worker cannot perform any work duties, and let employees follow any order made under the Quarantine Act and Emergencies Act or any provincial law or orders related to COVID-19.
Keep the file for 6 years. The after-hiring page states that any documents about the employment of the temporary worker must be kept for 6 years from the date the work permit was issued, and that IRCC may ask for the documents to show compliance with the offer, for example a log or record of the number of hours worked, which can protect the employer or the worker when the number of hours in the contract changes. Documentation may also be needed where the worker does not end up working for the employer or does not stay for the entire length of the work permit, and a voluntary disclosure form must be filled out if the conditions in the offer of employment change. Treat a change to occupation, duties, location, wages, or hours as a compliance event, not an administrative update: check the after-hiring and compliance pages before implementing it, and use the voluntary disclosure route the page names rather than letting the submitted offer and the actual job drift apart.
This guide states no work permit processing time, because no official page states a processing time for an employer-specific International Mobility Program work permit, and the companion guide's processing times belong to a different program. It states no enrolment approval time, because the current enrolment guide states no approval period; the usually-within-24-hours timing in IRCC's 2017 portal video was not relied on. It states no payment methods for the Employer Portal beyond the Receiver General's online payment website named in the video transcript, because no official page lists the cards or accounts accepted there. It states no alternate paper submission steps for form IMM 5802, because the processing instructions page names that alternate submission route without setting out its steps. It states no catalogue of LMIA exemption codes beyond the codes named on the official pages, because exemption eligibility turns on the category pages and the code must be selected from the portal drop-down for the specific hire. It states no inspection triggers, penalty amounts, or hiring-ban periods, because the after-hiring page states the employer's responsibilities and record-keeping without those figures, and this guide does not borrow them from the LMIA compliance pages. It states no refund processing time, because no official page states one. Where a figure was cut, this paragraph names the official page that owns it, and that page should be read before acting.
A GCKey or a Sign-in Partner credential, exactly as [Employer Portal enrolment guide](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/partners-service-providers/employer-portal/enrolment-guide.html) states it: to enrol in the Employer Portal, you must first register for a GCKey or Sign-in Partner credential. A GCKey is a username and password for Government of Canada online services, while Sign-in Partner (the Interac sign-in service) lets you sign in using your banking information. Each Employer Portal account, including the primary user, secondary users, and branches, must have a different GCKey or Sign-in Partner login. The enrolment guide names no other credential for this portal, and it warns that choosing any portal other than the Employer Portal in the drop-down menu means completing the entire enrolment process again. An older IRCC video on the same subject uses the name SecureKey Concierge for the banking sign-in method; follow the current enrolment guide wording, GCKey or Sign-in Partner, when enrolling now.
No. Two different exemptions exist, and they must not be confused. [Employer compliance exemptions](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/hire-temporary-foreign/find-need-labour-market-impact-assessment/employer-compliance-exemptions.html) lists employers that do not need to use the Employer Portal at all: international missions or consular posts, an international organization recognized under the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act, a foreign government, and an owner or operator of an international bridge or tunnel. Separately, some employers must still submit an offer but are exempt from the employer compliance fee, for the programs and agreements listed on the same page. [How do I hire a temporary foreign worker?](https://ircc.canada.ca/English/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=210) adds that if you are exempt from the employer compliance process, you send the worker your job offer and they can use it to apply, without a portal submission. Check both lists before starting an offer, because starting one you do not need wastes the enrolment and fee steps.
The employer compliance fee is $230.00 in Canadian dollars on the [Citizenship and immigration application fees: Fee list](https://www.ircc.canada.ca/english/information/fees/fees.asp), which also lists a $690.00 group fee for a group of three or more foreign nationals consisting of performing artists and their staff, where the offers are made at the same time. The fee is paid by the employer when the offer of employment is submitted, before the foreign national applies for a work permit, according to [Employer-specific work permits – General processing – International Mobility Program](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/eligibility/employer-specific-labout-market-impact-assessment-exemptions.html). The employer must not charge or recover the fee from the worker: the employer attestation quoted on that page states that the employer has not, directly or indirectly, charged or recovered the compliance fee or any recruitment fees from the foreign national, and has ensured that anyone who recruited on the employer's behalf did not do so either. The separate $155.00 work permit fee on the fee list is the worker's application fee, not the employer's compliance fee.
Four forms, according to [How to use IRCC's Employer Portal for the International Mobility Program](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/video/use-ircc-employer-portal-international-mobility-program.html): Business Information, Foreign Worker Information, Job Details, and Wage and Benefits. Business information is entered once and reused for each new offer. Foreign Worker Information must match the information in the worker's passport exactly, including spelling, hyphens, accents, spaces, and capitalization, or the system will not be able to link the worker's application to the offer. On the Job Details form, choose the LMIA exemption code that applies and explain clearly and completely how the job meets the exemption requirements, including all locations where the employee could work, because the work permit will be location specific. The Wage and Benefits form must show compliance with federal and provincial labour laws. [Employer-specific work permits – General processing – International Mobility Program](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/eligibility/employer-specific-labout-market-impact-assessment-exemptions.html) adds the regulatory minimum the offer must contain: the employer's name, address, and telephone number, fax number and email address if any, the business number assigned by the Minister of National Revenue if applicable, and information demonstrating the work described in the exemption relied on.
A refund must be initiated in two situations stated on [Employer-specific work permits – General processing – International Mobility Program](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/eligibility/employer-specific-labout-market-impact-assessment-exemptions.html): the work permit application is refused, or the employer withdraws the offer of employment in writing before the work permit is issued and the application is therefore refused. If a work permit application is withdrawn before issuance, the fee must also be refunded, because IRCC could not inspect the employer. On withdrawal mechanics, the same page states that employers can withdraw only offers that have not yet been matched with a work permit application directly from their Employer Portal account, which changes the offer status from pending to withdrawn, while an offer already matched to an application must be withdrawn by emailing the Employer Portal mailbox. This guide states no refund processing time, because no official page states one.
Meet the offer as submitted. [Hire a worker without an LMIA: after you hire a temporary worker](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/hire-temporary-foreign/international-mobility-program/after-hiring.html) requires the employer to see the work permit and know its expiry date, meet the conditions on the work permit and the details of the offer submitted, including the right occupation, duties matching the National Occupation Classification code, and pay and working conditions no less favourable than those offered, set up medical insurance and workers' compensation benefits as required by the province or territory and as listed in the offer, stay active in the business that submitted the offer for as long as the work permit is valid, meet all applicable employment and recruiting laws, keep the workplace free of abuse and retaliation against whistle-blowers, and show up, personally or through a designated employee, for inspections with all requested documents. Documents about the worker's employment must be kept for 6 years from the date the work permit was issued, and a [voluntary disclosure form](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/application-forms-guides/imm5964.html) is needed if the conditions in the offer change.