When I was working in Human Resources, I have come across many emails from foreigners asking about the status of their work permit applications.  As the one in charge of immigration matters in the company, I was very aware that we have not made any offer to these people and certainly, there were no attempts to hire overseas for unskilled employees.

When I pursued the matter further, I discovered that many of these poor folks had been scammed by big immigration companies in their own country.  I did a little research myself with regards to these ‘companies’ and noticed some distinctive features:

1. Very often, these companies claimed they are licensed immigration consultants.  Some even claim they are international immigration lawyers who can process immigration to any countries in the world. 
2. They have many offices, spread all over the country. 
3. Their offices are usually centrally located, in posh areas with state-of-the-art interior décor.
4. There are many employees working in the organization – now whether they are paid employees or not, this we never know.
5. They spent big money in advertising, marketing and web design.
6. They often have a long list of all kinds of jobs that are available in Canada – in fact, some of them claim that they are the ONE for all foreign recruitment in Canada.
7. They often produced Letters of Offer with letter heads of the company to show they have been authorized to hire on behalf of the companies.
8. They are ‘authorized’ to hire anyone they feel, is suitable.  There is no need to conduct any interviews or background checks. Their word is final.

As an HR professional, let me highlight how we, as HR professionals, hire foreigners in Canada:

1. We will never hire people without interviewing them.  We are never so busy that we choose our employees just by looking at resumes.
2. And we certainly do not issue letters of Offer without first discussing the salary and benefits with the identified candidate.
3. We do not hire people that have little chance of obtaining a Labour Market Impact Analysis (LMIA) because we have to pay for the government fee of $1,000 per person plus lawyer or consultant’s fee.  We are careful with how we spend company’s money.
4. We do hire unskilled labor, like retail assistants, warehouse clerks, etc. because we know we will not get the LMIA approval for these job categories.
5. And lastly, just because we are a big company in Canada, it does not mean that we have an ‘inside’ person in Immigration Canada who will give us ‘special’ approval for any work permits so we can hire any Tom, Dick or Harry! Not unless we are SNC -Lavalin – now that may be a different story!