How to hire a nanny from abroad in Canada

Hiring a nanny or caregiver from abroad is usually the best option available to Canadian families when local nannies are not available or are too expensive. There has been a shortage of caregivers in Canada for a long time. Hence, the Canadian government has launched the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to fulfill this necessity. In this blog, we have covered all the aspects related to hiring a foreign live-in nanny.

Major categories under the TFWP program

1. Caregiver for children: For children under the age of 18
2. Caregiver for individuals who require high medical attention:
   • For elderly people (with age of 65 years or above)
   • Individuals including children with a chronic disease or a disability

Employer’s main requirements

• The caregiver should be given a full-time contract (minimum 30 hours each week).
• The work should be performed in a private household by the live-in caregiver.
• The employer must prove that they attempted to hire a Canadian or a Permanent resident to fill the position. They are required to post the job on the Government of Canada’s Job Bank or on a provincial Job Bank (For Quebec) plus on two additional websites such as ca.indeed.com. The job must be posted for at least 30 days to meet the requirements.
• They need to prove why the child or the elderly needs the care of a nanny. And in the case of individuals who require high medical attention, additional documents need to be submitted with the application.

Finding a foreign nanny

After posting the job in the job banks, the employer can start searching for nannies or caregivers abroad. They can use online resources to accomplish this task themselves using websites such as Canadiannanny.ca or hire an agency to do the same. An agency is usually a better option in such jobs because they know what skills are required to be a professional child-caregiver and, can better assess the experience & qualifications of a candidate.

LMIA

Once a child or elderly caregiver is successfully chosen and, a formal work agreement is signed by both of the parties, the employer needs to apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). He/she has to pay a non-refundable fee of $1000 associated with the application.

Employer’s financial requirements

1. The employer needs to prove that the household income is enough to reimburse the foreign nanny. This depends on the number of household members living in the same household. In most cases, the employer needs to prove that the household income is over $100,000 in a fiscal year.
2. The employer must cover the transportation cost of the nanny (airplane fare), but sometimes, they can divide the cost with their new employee.
3. The employer must also cover the insurance cost for the nanny from the time she arrived in Canada, till she is covered by the provincial insurance plan. This is usually for 3 months and costs about $300.

Housing for the nanny

Generally, the foreign child-caregiver lives at the employer’s home or in the place where she works, but, it is not a requirement. He/she can live in a house different from her place of work.

However, if the full-time caregiver resides in the employers’ household, the employers need to provide him/her a private accommodation, such as a room with a window and a door lock, and keys for the same, so they can access the room freely.

Benefits of hiring a foreign nanny

The main benefits of hiring a foreign caregiver are:

• A nanny performs the household chores such as meal preparation, doing laundry and cleaning along with her childcare duties.
• A foreign caregiver is more affordable than a local one or a daycare (especially if you have 2 or more children). This is because a live-in nanny is paid a minimum salary of $14.25 (in Quebec) as compared to the market price of $20-$22 for a local caregiver.
• An in-home caregiver gives more stability to the employers as they are hired for a minimum period of 2 years.

If you want to read in detail about the benefits of a live-in nanny, please visit our “Live-In Nanny” page.

Requirements for the nanny/caregiver

The caregiver coming to Canada must also fulfill some requirements under the TFWP program. She should be able to prove that she has studied a minimum of 72 units in her post-secondary schooling. Along with that, she should demonstrate a minimum of 1 year of experience as a child or elderly caregiver, supported with a contract of employment. However, if the foreign nanny undertook a course in a medical field or education field, she may not need to prove her experience.

Length of the hiring process

The entire process can take about 9-12 months in Quebec, but over 16 months in other Canadian provinces. This length also depends upon which country the caregiving is coming from.

How could our agency help you?

We understand that this process can be overwhelming to employers. That is why, our nanny agency specializes in bringing live-in nannies and caregivers from abroad to place them with Canadian families. Our agency searches for nannies all year round. We spend every day looking at CVs and reading emails to scout the well-educated candidates, have relevant international experience and meet the requirements for the immigration program.

To put it simply: we research for you and pick the absolute best profiles from a vast pool of candidates.

If you would like to learn more about Live-In Nannies, please visit this page.

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