Effective February 21, 2015, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) mandated that employers hiring foreign research personnel who are Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exempt will be required to pay an Employer Compliance Fee of $230 and submit an Offer of Employment to a Foreign National Exempt from Labour Market Impact Assessment (Offer of Employment) using the CIC Employer Portal.
This directive impacts foreign academic and research personnel including, but not limited to, Post-Doctoral Fellows, Visiting Professors and Instructors, Visiting Scholars, Visiting Research Students, and Guest Lecturers. Although this directive references “employers” and “employees”, it also applies to any foreign research personnel who are unpaid and/or have no employment status at the University and to reappointment of current foreign research personnel.
As a supervisor hiring a Research Assistant, Research Associate, or Postdoctoral Fellow or hosting a Visiting Scholar who is a foreign national, you are responsible for the cost of the $230 Employer Compliance Fee and for supplying and attesting to the accuracy of the information required to submit an Offer of Employment.
Before an Offer of Employment can be submitted through the CIC Employer Portal, you must provide the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation with the following:
- A grant account number to which the $230 Employer Compliance Fee can be charged
- A completed and signed copy of Form IMM 5802 - Offer of Employment to a Foreign National Exempt from Labour Market Impact Assessment
Employer Compliance Fee
In order for the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation to submit an Offer of Employment for your appointee, you must provide a grant account number to which the $230 Employer Compliance Fee required by CIC can be charged.
On April 8, 2015, the Tri-Council issued a communique with respect to the eligibility status of the $230 Employer Compliance Fee indicating the following:
"If the foreign national is recruited to work exclusively on research for which Tri-Agency grant funds are provided, the full cost of the employer fee of $230 will be eligible for reimbursement from the grant holder's grant funds as an eligible recruitment cost per the Tri-Agency Financial Administration Guide.
If the foreign national is recruited for a variety of purposes, one of which includes working on research for which Tri-Agency grant funds are provided, the administering institution may apportion the cost of the employer fee to the grant holder's grant funds based on the anticipated percentage of time the foreign national will spend working on the funded research of the grant holder.
If the foreign national is recruited for purposes unrelated to Tri_Agency funded research, the employer fee is not eligible for reimbursement from the grant holder's grant funds."
If your appointee will not be working on research connected to a Tri-Agency grant, you may be able to charge the $230 Employer Compliance Fee to an internal or other grant account. If you are unsure if the $230 Employer Compliance Fee is an eligible expense under the non-Tri-Agency grant that you wish to charge it to, contact Eric Gee at extension 2129; Paul Scobie at extension 2121; or Dami Adeleke at extention 2123 in Research Finance who will be able to provide direction.
Completing Form IMM 5802
In order to expedite the process, we have prepopulated Sections 1-14 and 21-25 of the UWindsor Form IMM 5802 Template provided below.
NOTE: please download and open the file(s) in a PDF reader.
- UWindsor Form IMM 5802 Template - Visiting Scholar
- UWindsor Form IMM 5802 Template - Post-Doctoral Fellow
- UWindsor Form IMM 5802 Template - Research Assistant
- UWindsor Form IMM 5802 Template - Research Associate
- UWindsor Form IMM 5802 Template - Awards Recipient
Please complete Sections 15-20, and 26-44 of the form, leaving prepopulated Sections 1-14 and 21-25 as is.
Please note that Section 3 - Fee receipt number will be completed by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation once an Offer of Employment has been submitted through the CIC Employer Portal. Please leave this section blank.
In this section, you are asked to provide contact information for yourself as the Employer of note. Enter your Family name (surname), Given names(s), Job Title, Telephone number and Extension, Fax number, and your email address.
If your appointee will be working on campus or at a satellite location owned and/or operated by the University of Windsor, leave this section blank.
Enter the date that the appointee is expected to begin his or her appointment. This should be the same date listed in the letter of appointment issued by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation.
In this section, enter the total number of months covered by the appointment as listed in the letter of appointment issued by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. If the appointment is for less than one month, list the total number of days covered by the appointment.
This section should be completed using the Position Overview outlining the duties and responsibilities of the appointment as specified in the UWindsor Research or Post-Doc Appointment Position Summary.
Select the education level that best applies to the appointment. Under additional information, specify the field of expertise required for the appointment. For example: “Post-doctoral fellow must specialize in the fields of Computer Science and Control Science and Engineering.”
In this section, specify that the appointee must possess advanced expertise, experience, and skill in the field that he or she will be working in. For example: “Post-doctoral fellow must possess advanced expertise, experience, and skills in the fields of machine learning and control engineering.”
If the appointment does not require any certification, licensing, or registrations, select "No". If the appointment does require any certification, licensing, or registrations, you will be required to cite each of these requirements.
In Section 33, you will need to enter the amount that you will pay the appointee per hour and per year and the total number of hours he or she will work each day, week and year. This information should be drawn from the letter of appointment issued by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. If the letter of appointment only states the annual salary that the appointee will receive, you will need to determine the hourly rate that he or she will be paid. To do this, take the total number of hours that the appointee will work in a week and multiply it by 52. This will give you the total number of hours that he or she will work in a year. Next, take the total annual compensation and divide it by the total number of hours that will be worked in a year. This will give you the appointee’s hourly compensation rate. Please note that, unless the appointee’s salary will be supplemented by another source, the hourly compensation rate must meet or exceed minimum wage requirements of $15.50 ($16.12 per hour including vacation pay). Next to “Overtime rate per hour of”, enter $0, and next to “starts after”, enter N/A.
If the appointee’s income will not be supplemented by an alternate source, external to the University of Windsor, leave Section 34 blank. If the appointee’s income will be supplemented by an alternate source, indicate the amount and source of the funding. If your appointee will not be paid, you must indicate the alternate source from which he or she will be paid in this section.
Under Section 35, select "No".
In this section, select any applicable benefits as outlined in the letter of appointment issued by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. If you will cover the cost of UHIP on behalf of the appointee, select “Other benefits” and enter UHIP and the duration of the coverage.
Next to “Vacation”, enter either the number of vacation days or 4% next to “Remuneration” as outlined in the letter of appointment. Please note that 1 week vacation equates to 5 business days.
To complete these sections, you will need to collect the following personal information from your appointee:
- Family and given names;
- Gender;
- Date of birth;
- Country of birth;
- Country of residence;
- Citizenship; and
- Passport number
Please read the Declaration of Employer section carefully and confirm that you agree with the statements it contains and indicate that you understand the form and have provided true, complete, and accurate information by ticking each box.
Next, type your name above "Name of employer" and select today's date from the "Date" drop-down menu. Print a copy of the document, sign it, and forward it and the grant account number to which you would like the $230 Employer Compliance Fee charged to Sandy Mehenka in the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation at mehenkas@uwindsor.ca.
Offer of Employment Number
Once we have received your completed Form IMM5802 and the grant account number that will be charged for the $230 Employer Compliance fee, we will complete and submit an Offer of Employment through the CIC Employer Portal.
After the an Offer of Employment has been submitted through the CIC Employer Portal, CIC sends the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation an email notification containing a unique Offer of Employment Number. This email is typically received within one business day of submission and will be forwarded to you to provide to your appointee to include on their work permit application.
Please note that foreign nationals are not permitted to work at the University of Windsor until they have obtained and provided a valid work permit and Social Insurance Number to the University of Windsor Department of Human Resources.
For more information on work permits, visit Getting a Work Permit.
For more information on Social Insurance Numbers, visit Getting a SIN.