After finishing his Bachelor Degree in his country and working for a few months, Noah decided to travel the world and came to Canada. He liked Toronto so much that he started looking into ways of potentially staying here longer and obtaining a work permit. Noah wanted to gain some international work experience before returning to his home country in Europe.
Noah was connected by his community to an “immigration consultant” who proposed the following scheme: the consultant would find a Canadian employer who would agree to hire Noah, then the consultant would apply for an LMIA and then, if it’s approved, Noah would apply for a work permit. This was not a groundbreaking proposal, it is being pushed on international workers quite often by various professionals. Financially, this proposal was too burdensome: Noah would have been responsible for the “hiring” process by the consultant, then for the LMIA application and the work permit. Before agreeing to pay a significant amount of money , Noah decided to seek a second opinion.
Noah booked a paid consultation with us at Legally Canadian. One hour was more than enough to find a better and an easier (also cheaper) way for Noah to apply for a work permit. Because he was a citizen of one of the European countries and was under 35 years old, Noah was able to qualify under International Experience Class program. This program allows citizens of the certain (mainly European) countries to come to Canada and work under various programs: Working Holidays, Young Professionals and International Co-op. Noah was able to apply for a work permit under the Working Holidays option. For this program he was not required to have an employer right away, there was no need for an LMIA, and his expenses for this process were x10 lower than offered by his previous consultant.
So what happened?
We helped Noah to apply for the work permit under the International Experience Class stream. He received it within a few months. Because this work permit was an open one he was free to work for any employer. After a year of working in Canada, Noah improved his English significantly and has applied for immigration to Canada. He should soon be a permanent resident.