Families can hire a foreign caregiver to provide care, in a private residence, to children, seniors or persons with certified medical needs, when Canadians and permanent residents are not available.

Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), families can hire foreign caregivers. However, the caregivers must:

provide care on a full-time basis (minimum 30 hours per week)work in the private household where the care is being providedmeet the requirements set Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)/Service Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

These families or private household employers will be able to hire foreign workers, on a live-in or live out basis, for 2 categories of in-home workers, which include:

1. Caregivers for children under 18 years of age

This category could include positions such as:

child care provider, live-in caregiver, nanny (NOC 4411)2. Caregivers for people with high medical needs

Elderly persons, 65 years of age or overPeople with disabilities, a chronic or terminal illness

This category could include positions such as:

registered nurse or registered psychiatric nurse (NOC 3012)licensed practical nurse (NOC 3233)attendant for persons with disabilities, home support worker, live-in caregiver, personal care attendant (NOC 4412)

Note: Foreign caregivers working in Canada may be eligible for permanent residency, provided they meet IRCC requirements. For more information on the pathways to permanent residence for caregivers, and the specific occupations that are eligible, visit IRCC.

Employers must meet the program requirements for the Streams for high-wage or Low-wage positions including paying the prevailing wage for the occupation in the location where the work will be performed, and conducting the necessary recruitment and advertisement requirements for the stream.

As of April 4, 2022, employers submitting an LMIA application for a high-wage position may request an employment duration of up to 3 years. The employment duration must align with the employer’s reasonable employment needs. (High-wage positions include the Global Talent Stream, High-wage Stream including caregiver positions, Agricultural Stream and Express Entry).

Employers awaiting a decision who wish to modify the duration in their LMIA applications may contact the Employer Contact Centre or the applicable Service Canada processing centre. The option to increase the duration does not apply to already issued positive LMIA decisions.

The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers (TFW) when Canadians and permanent residents are not available.

These employers can hire TFWs from participating countries for a maximum period of 8 months, between January 1 and December 15, provided they are able to offer the workers a minimum of 240 hours of work within a period of 6 weeks or less.

To qualify for the SAWP, employers must meet 3 criteria:

the TFWs hired must be citizens from Mexico or participating Caribbean countriesproduction must be in specific commodity sectorsthe activity must be related to on farm primary agriculture

  The Global Talent Stream offers timely, responsive and predictable client-focused service to help you access highly-skilled global talent to expand your workforce here in Canada and to be competitive on a global scale.

This Stream, which is a part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, is designed for innovative firms in Canada that are referred to Employment and Social Development Canada by a designated referral partner and that need unique and specialized foreign nationals in order to scale-up and grow. It is also intended for firms in Canada that need to fill an in-demand highly-skilled position on the Global Talent Occupations List.