When a Worker’s Permit Is About to Expire: What the Employer Needs to Do

When a worker’s permit is about to expire, most of the advice out there is written for the worker. Very little is written for the employer who has that person on the payroll and needs to know, on Monday morning, whether they can keep working.

The answer depends on one date: whether the worker applied before the permit expired.

Can the worker keep working while the renewal is processed?

Yes, if they applied before the permit expired, and only under the same conditions.

A worker who applies to renew or change the conditions of their permit before it expires can stay in Canada until IRCC decides, and keep working. If the permit is tied to your company, that means the same employer, the same job and the same location as the current permit.

What if the worker applied to work somewhere else?

They keep working for you until the new permit is approved.

If the application is to change employer or job, the worker has to stay with the employer named on the current permit until IRCC approves the change or authorizes them to work for the new one. They cannot start the new job early.

What if the permit already expired and nobody applied?

Then the worker has 90 days to apply to restore their status, and normally cannot work in the meantime.

• The application has to reach IRCC no more than 90 days after the status expired.
• The worker can stay in Canada while IRCC decides, but normally is not allowed to work until the status is restored and a new permit is issued.
• It only works if the worker met the conditions of the expired permit and did not work illegally. There is no guarantee it is approved.

This is the scenario that costs employers the most: weeks of an empty position, and a new application to pay for.

Can you keep paying a worker whose permit expired?

IRCC’s and ESDC’s pages do not answer that question directly.

The official guidance covers the worker’s side and the employer’s general obligations, but it does not say, in so many words, what an employer should do with payroll for someone whose permit lapsed without an application. We are not going to fill that gap with a guess. If it happens, stop and get advice before the next pay period.

What are the employer’s obligations?

Keep the records, and take compliance seriously.

• Keep all relevant records for 6 years from the first day of the employment period covered by the permit.
• Penalties can reach $100,000 per violation, up to $1 million a year, and the most serious cases bring a permanent ban from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program.
• Non-compliant employers have their business name and address published by IRCC.

How to stay ahead of it

1. Track every work permit expiry date in one place, with an alert four to six months before.
2. Make sure the renewal is filed before the expiry date, not on it. That date is what keeps the worker working.
3. If a new LMIA is needed for the renewal, start it first: the worker’s application depends on it.
4. Keep a copy of the application confirmation in the worker’s file.

How we can help

Workvantage has spent more than 18 years on the employer’s side of this. We help you:

• Map every expiry date across your foreign workforce
• File the LMIA and coordinate the renewal so nobody falls out of status
• Act fast if a permit has already lapsed

If you want our LMIA team to review your calendar of expiries, start with a free assessment. And if the goal is to keep the worker for good, our post on moving workers from temporary to permanent covers that next step.