After reading the article in the Financial Post this weekend, I felt compelled to respond. The article states that the government is denying almost all applications for caregivers. The truth is that the government is denying all applications that are not prepared accurately. The article led readers to believe that caregivers from overseas are no longer an option for employers but this is simply not true. First let’s examine why the government made changes to the Caregiver program. 1. There was tremendous abuse of the program by both employers and caregivers. Many job offers were not legitimate. Hundreds, maybe thousands of caregivers came to...

Does this sound familiar? Your new nanny is showing a special interest in one of your children.  Your other child(ren), feeling left out, acts out in order to garner some of the extra attention that your other child is so happily receiving. First, let’s try to understand why this happens. Let’s look at the landscape.  It’s usually the youngest of the bunch that receives the most attention, and there are 3 reasons for this;

1. The older child is at home less and has had less time to bond with the nanny
2. The older child may have been very connected to your last nanny and...

If you are looking to employ a foreign caregiver, you have a lengthy and frustrating process ahead of you. The key to ensuring success is to understand the process, and to have the right information and support. So first, we need to tackle what does LMIA stand for. An LMIA is a Labour Market Impact Assessment application, a process that the Canadian government requires in order to hire a foreign caregiver. The LMIA replaced the previous application known as the Labour Market Opinion or LMO in 2014. This application is an extremely challenging process for families.  The LMIA was created to prove...

Ever wondered what perks or benefits you can extend to your caregiver? In order to understand our recommendations, it's important to know what your full-time nanny is entitled to: her salary 52 weeks of the year, 2 weeks' paid vacation, the appropriate number of breaks as set out by Labor Standards and overtime pay above 40-44 hours of work/week (varies from province to province). If she is a live-in caregiver under the government sponsorship program, she's also entitled to 5 working days/week (flexibility and additional overtime are acceptable), a fully furnished bedroom with a lock on the door, access to a bathroom and...

When it comes to sponsoring a live-in caregiver from abroad, agencies and families are at the mercy of the government. There are various departments that applications have to go through before a visa is approved: the Canadian Revenue Agency, Job Bank, Service Canada, the Canadian embassy overseas and more (depending on what province your family resides in).  Please remember that any timelines quoted are estimates; we have no conceivable way to influence processing by the government.  The sooner you begin the process to sponsor, the better! Recently, the Canadian embassy has updated their processing times abroad-- specifically Hong Kong, where we source our overseas applicants...