Both the employer and the employee must follow several steps to meet the requirements of the Live-In Caregiver Program.

To hire a live-in caregiver, you must:

• have sufficient income to pay a live-in caregiver
• provide acceptable accommodation in your home, and
• make a job offer that has primary caregiving duties for a child or an elderly or disabled person. (A job offer for a housecleaner, for example, is not acceptable under the Program.)

Caregivers will be carefully screened by a Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) visa officer before they enter Canada. They must meet the eligibility requirements of the Live-in Caregiver Program. These include:

• education
• training or experience
• the ability to understand English or French so that they can function on their own in an unsupervised setting
• passing medical, security and criminal clearances, and
• a formal signed contract with an employer.

CIC will determine if the employment contract is valid and if the caregiver receives a work permit.

You may be asked to show that you can provide the wages, benefits and working conditions required by provincial or territorial labour laws.