Employers must declare their third party representative to the Labour Market Development Officer (LMDO) if they have used a service or hired an individual to recruit an international worker, with or without compensation.

Individuals representing or assisting employers in exchange for compensation (e.g. money, goods or services) must be authorized under section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), which means they have to be a member in good standing with:

• a Canadian provincial/territorial law society, or a student-at-law under its supervision;
• the Chambre des notaires du Québec;
• the Province of Ontario’s law society as a paralegal; or
• the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC).

If you hire a representative, make sure you fill out the applicable third party representative form which will be found in your online JVA application.

If you decide to hire a representative but do not declare this during your application, this is considered to be false and misleading information and will result in your JVA application being declined.

Employers should visit the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website to verify that a specific representative is authorized to represent them or provide immigration advice.