The legal side of your workforce project, taken care of.
Most employers work with a recruitment agency on one side and an immigration firm on the other. Here, both move forward together, while remaining distinct mandates. You do not have to play messenger between two offices.
Request an assessmentSix areas, depending on the scope of the mandate
Not everything applies to every file. What is included in yours is written into your mandate.
Status and work authorisation analysis
Review of the documents: type, number, expiry date, conditions and restrictions written on them. Analysis of pending applications and maintained status. A written conclusion, plus identification of critical deadlines and the risk of losing status.
Strategy and choice of route
Determining the applicable regime, selecting the appropriate exemption where one exists, and a comparative analysis: cost, timeline, permit duration, obligations on you, and potential for transition to permanent status. Including foreseeable grounds for refusal, stated up front.
Occupation analysis
Determining the occupation code from the real task description, not the job title. Checking whether the occupation appears in the closed lists of the agreements, and the requirements of professional orders for regulated occupations.
Preparing and filing applications
Job offer, contract, support letters, proof of qualifications and experience. Permit applications, extensions or changes of conditions. Temporary resident visa or eTA where required. Responses to requests for further documents and to procedural fairness letters.
Employer compliance
Registering and managing the employer portal account, drafting and filing the job offer, tracking fee payments and critical deadlines, setting up a document retention register, a preventive audit, and full support in the event of an inspection.
Transition to permanent residence
Auditing a company’s portfolio of temporary workers, analysing the profile, building a strategy to strengthen it, preparing the selection application under the applicable program, and managing temporary status throughout the transition.
Immigration representation is regulated
What the rule says
Paid immigration representation services must be provided by an authorised person. In Quebec, that includes lawyers who are members of the Barreau du Québec, notaries who are members of the Chambre des notaires, and consultants registered on the applicable register.
If someone offers to “handle the paperwork” without falling into one of those categories, that is a warning sign, for you as much as for the worker.
At Immigraffaires
The legal side of files is supervised by Me Idalmis Carreras Rios, member of the Barreau du Québec. The agency also holds CNESST licence AR-2202436 for its foreign worker recruitment activities.
Recruitment and legal representation remain two distinct services, governed by two distinct mandates, even when coordinated within the same project.
The sequence, in the order it has to happen
These obligations apply to permits tied to your company. An open permit creates none. Here is what has to be done, and when.
- Registration on the employer portal and creation of the company account
- Filing of the job offer with every required element: title, occupation code, task description, wage, benefits, schedule, work location and duration
- Payment of the 230 \$ compliance fee
- Passing the job offer number generated by the portal to the candidate
- Providing employment substantially consistent with the offer filed: same position, same wage, same conditions. Any significant gap is a breach
- Complying with labour standards, minimum wage, health and safety and CNESST requirements
- No reprisals, and a workplace free of violence and harassment
- Keeping for six years every document demonstrating compliance: contracts, timesheets, payroll records, correspondence, proof of payment
- Cooperating with inspections and providing requested documents within the deadlines
The most frequent point of failure is not serious misconduct, it is a missed deadline. If the offer is not filed and the fee not paid within the window, the candidate loses their invitation and everything starts over. That is exactly what we watch on your behalf.
The files that worry everyone
Those are often the ones that reach us. Not all of them can be solved, but none should be left without an answer.
What we handle
- Maintained status: an extension filed before expiry, and the right to keep working while it is reviewed
- Change of employer during a closed permit, and the question of when the person may start
- Restoration of status when the deadline has passed
- Inadmissibility and mitigation measures
- Refusals, requests for review and appeals
- Procedural fairness letters and requests for additional documents
What we do not promise
- An outcome. We prepare a complete, documented file; the decision belongs to the authorities
- A processing time. No representative can influence it
- Priority treatment. It does not exist through the use of a representative
- That every program is handled. What is included is written into your mandate
- That an analysis stays valid. The framework changes often: a file assessed six months ago must be revalidated before filing
A temporary worker eventually leaves. Unless you support them.
For the employer, it is the best retention strategy there is: someone on a path to permanent status stays. For the worker, it is a life plan that stops having an end date.
The Quebec frameworkTwo mandatory stages
Quebec selects first, issuing a selection certificate. Only with that certificate in hand does the person file their permanent residence application with the federal government.
Someone aiming for Quebec therefore does not go through the federal system that applies to the rest of Canada. It is a common and costly confusion.
What it turns onAnd why French keeps coming back
Selection works by points and rounds of invitations, under a grid specific to Quebec. French is the single most decisive factor there, especially spoken French.
A worker who does not progress in French is a worker who, in time, will be able neither to renew their status nor to reach permanent residence. They leave, and the position is vacant again.
A window is currently open. A program for temporary foreign workers who have built up experience in Quebec has reopened temporarily, with a limited intake period. Eligibility is assessed as of a specific date and concerns a clearly identified group. If you employ temporary workers, it is worth having their eligibility checked now rather than discovering it after the window closes.
Related pages
We prepare and coordinate applications. Any decision concerning an immigration application, an LMIA, a CAQ, a work permit, a visa, a selection or permanent residence rests exclusively with the competent government authorities. No positive outcome, processing time or priority treatment can be guaranteed by using a representative.
The information published here is general and does not constitute legal advice. Visiting this site or sending a form does not create a lawyer-client relationship or a representation mandate. The mandate begins only once the applicable terms are accepted and, where relevant, a service contract is signed.
Two ways to reach us
Both lead to the same place: someone who knows your file.