Caregiver

Caregiver or Nanny

Caregivers provide care for individuals who need additional help, while a nanny is an in-home childcare provider, employed by parents to provide personalized care for their children. If an employer wants to hire a foreign in-home caregiver, he/she may go for one of the following programs:

• Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP)

• Home Child Care Provider & Home Support Worker Pilots

Live-in Caregiver Program

The live-in Caregiver Program was a transparent program for a foreign worker to immigrate to Canada as a caregiver/nanny, but it is closed to new applicants from November 2014. An employer can only hire a Caregiver through this program if he has:

• found a Caregiver who already has a Work Permit in the Live-in Caregiver Program and who is looking for a new employer and
• been approved for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) that shows the Caregiver has agreed to live in his home.

Home Child Care Provider Pilot and Home Support Worker Pilot

These programs provide a pathway to eligible Caregivers to apply for permanent residence once they have acquired two years of work experience in Canada.

What do these Pilots offer?

• Previous programs were designed to bind the Caregiver to single families which sometimes used to create a harsh workplace environment. The new pilots would encourage Caregivers to switch employers more easily.
• In prior programs, the immediate family could not necessarily accompany the Caregiver to Canada. But these new pilots allow family members to accompany Caregivers and to apply for Open Work Permits and/or Study Permits.

Eligibility

• Candidates should have a job offer in Canada at the time of application for a Work Permit.
• Eligible candidates should meet minimum language levels in English or French (CLB-5).
• Candidates must have complete course of one-year post-secondary education with ECA to be eligible.

Work Experience

• With a Work Permit, Caregivers will be able to gain the two years of mandatory work experience in order to apply for permanent residence in Canada within the preceding 3 years.
• Qualifying work experience means you’ve worked full-time in Canada in the National Occupational Classification (NOC) job with NOC 44100 for Home Child Care Provider and NOC 44101 for Home Support Worker.

If the applicant is applying with less than 24 months of qualifying work experience, they
must provide:

• a valid full-time job offers, using the Offer of Employment Home Child-Care
  Provider form.
• evidence that the principal applicant is able to perform the eligible work.

One of the following:

• a signed and completed application for Work Permit made outside of Canada

OR

• an application to Change Conditions, extend my Stay or Remain in Canada as a Worker

• a properly completed program-specific schedule form (Schedule 19B, work experience) for the principal applicant.
• evidence that the principal applicant has accumulated qualifying work experience in Canada.