Hire a home child care provider or home support worker

There are 2 pilots to let you hire a foreign in-home caregiver:

• Home Child Care Provider pilot
  • National Occupational Classification 44100, excluding foster parents
• Home Support Worker pilot
  • National Occupational Classification 44101

The Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots provide in-home caregivers with the opportunity to become a permanent resident once they have 12 months of eligible work experience in Canada. It also lets their family members come to Canada to work or study while they get work experience.

Hiring a caregiver from overseas

All employers (outside Quebec) who want to hire an in-home caregiver from overseas must hire them through these 2 pilots.

If you submitted a Labour Market Impact Assessment application through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire a caregiver who is outside Canada on or after June 18, 2019, their work permit application won’t be processed.

Hiring a caregiver who’s in Canada

If you want to hire a foreign in-home caregiver who is already in Canada, you may continue to do so either through the:

• Temporary Foreign Worker Program
• Live-In Caregiver Program
• Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots

Not sure how to hire?

If you’re unsure of which program to hire through, compare the pilots and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

How to hire through the pilots

Hiring a caregiver in Quebec

The Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots don’t apply to caregivers who will work in Quebec. To hire a foreign in-home caregiver in Quebec, you must apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment and hire them through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Find a caregiver

As an employer, you can hire an in-home caregiver by finding an eligible candidate, either overseas or in Canada, and providing them with an offer of employment. The in-home caregiver will then submit their application to one of the pilots.

You can decide with the caregiver whether they live in or out of your home.

The pilots don’t match candidates with jobs. You may find a candidate on your own, or a candidate may approach you.

Make sure the candidate is eligible

To get a work permit, the foreign national (caregiver) must show that they meet the eligibility and admissibility requirements of the pilots. This includes:

• language test results that show they can communicate in English or French
• a Canadian post-secondary diploma or certificate of at least 1 year, or an Educational Credential Assessment report, which shows how their education compares to a Canadian post-secondary education credential of at least 1 year

Make an offer of employment

After you find a candidate that you want to hire as an in-home caregiver, give them a genuine and valid job offer using the offer of employment form (PDF, 2.23 MB).

Fill out the form and give a copy to your candidate. They must sign it. The candidate will need a copy of the form to submit with their application to us.

We may contact you at a later date for supporting documentation or information on the offer of employment.

Live-in arrangements

You can’t require a caregiver to live in your home.

You and the caregiver may decide that a live-in arrangement is appropriate to meet the needs of the person(s) getting care or at the caregiver’s request. Living conditions must meet or surpass provincial or territorial employment standards. This may include that:

• the bedroom
  • is in the home of the person receiving care
  • is private and furnished
  • has finished floors, ceilings and walls
  • includes a bed with a mattress and bedding (sheets, pillows and blankets)
  • includes lighting and heating
  • includes a closet
  • has a door that can be locked from the outside (and the caregiver has a key)
  • has a door that can be locked with a safety bolt from the inside
  • includes a secure exterior window that closes and locks from the inside
  • meets both the municipal building requirements and provincial or territorial health standards
• there is an agreement about whether the caregiver will be charged for room or board

The caregiver’s working hours must meet the requirements under provincial and territorial employment law, whether the caregiver lives in

• their own home, or
• their employer’s private home.

After you hire a caregiver

Once they have the offer of employment, the candidate will submit their permanent residence application through the Gaining experience category for either the Home Child Care Provider or Home Support Worker pilot. They’ll also have to submit a work permit application with their permanent residence application. If they meet the permanent residence criteria, they’ll get a work permit.

The work permit will

• be valid for 3 years and
• let the candidate work for any employer outside Quebec, in 1 of the eligible occupations
  • National Occupational Classification (NOC) 44100, excluding foster parents, or
  • NOC 44101

Check our current processing times to find out how long it might take for the worker to get their work permit. You should plan ahead if you’re hiring a caregiver through these pilots.