BRING CURRENT EMPLOYEES TO CANADA

Malkus Immigration can help you bring your company's employees to Canada for a variety of purposes.

Business Visitors Coming to Canada

Canadian companies that want to bring employees from their foreign operations on a temporary basis may be able to bring these individuals as "business visitors" without a work permit. This is possible if the foreign worker will not enter directly in to the local Canadian labour market.

Some examples of what these "business visitors" may do include:

• attend a conference, convention, or meeting
• train employees of a Canadian subsidiary of a foreign company
• get training from a Canadian parent company or subsidiary of the company that employs them outside Canada
• represent foreign companies to sell goods for those companies, if the business visitor is not selling to the general public
• buy Canadian goods or services for a foreign business or learn about how to use these goods or services

Special rules apply to business visitors from the United States or Mexico.

The amount of time business visitors may stay in Canada is limited. The amount of time business visitors stay in Canada is usually a few days or weeks but must be less than 6 months. Foreign employees must also meet basic entry requirements such as having the correct travel documents, having enough money for their stay, and planning to leave Canada at the end of their allowed visit.

Intra-Company Transferees – Executives, Senior Managers and Specialized Knowledge Workers

If a Canadian company wants to bring its employees to Canada, the employees may get work permits as intra-company transferees. The key elements that must be present for qualify under this category are as follows:

• the requirement that the transfer of the employee be temporary in nature;
• the existence of the required “qualifying relationship” between the foreign entity sending the employee to Canada and the Canadian entity. [i.e. the entry must be to work in a parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate of a multi-national company and the entry should be to undertake employment at a legitimate and continuing establishment of that company; and both the foreign entity and the Canadian entity must be doing business or be able to establish that the entity will be doing business];
• the transferee must be taking a position in an executive, senior managerial or “specialized knowledge” capacity;
• an employer-employee relationship must exist between the Canadian entity and the employee being transferred and evidence of this must be provided;
• the transferee must have been employed by the foreign entity in a similar full-time position for the requisite amount of time (subject to some exceptions, generally, one year in the three-year period immediately preceding the date of application); and
• the transferee must be able to transfer back to the foreign company at the end of the Canadian assignment.

There are special guidelines that apply in the case of “Start Up Companies” and companies that have been subject to a recent merger or acquisition who wish to temporarily bring into Canada an employee from a foreign entity. Also, the assessment of whether the foreign or Canadian entity are “doing business” or whether the intended transferee actually meets the criteria of being an executive, senior manager or specialized knowledge worker, involves the examination of a number of factors and documents which must be submitted as evidence of active involvement in business both in the foreign jurisdiction and in Canada.

Also, much like business visitors, the foreign employees must also meet Canada’s basic entry requirements in terms of carrying the necessary travel documents, having sufficient funds for their stay, plans to leave Canada following the end of their visit and the lack of criminal, security or health risks to Canadians.

The Importance of Getting Advice

Malkus Immigration can help you:

• manage the application process with Canadian government agencies
• draft agreements between the Canadian company and the employee/transferee
• if the transfer of an employee is to British Columbia and the employment is based in British Columbia, advise on the employment law obligations of the B.C. employer
• understand the employment law obligations of the Canadian employer
• determine whether an employee’s existing position in the foreign company and the intended position in the Canadian company meets the criteria for the position the transferee will occupy in Canada
• determine if a key employee’s intended entry in Canada would qualify as a business visit