Nanny&Me

The 7th step in the sponsorship process is to send your future nanny the positive LMO and supporting documents so that they can proceed with their work permit application. If you followed my previous instructions ;-) then you should have sent two original copies of the employee contract (one for your future nanny, and one for their application) weeks ago, so that it would be there now, but if you didn't do this ahead of time, then you'll want to send it immediately. It takes between 4-7 business days for most overseas mail. I mailed the contract to Hongkong and it took 5 business days to arrive. I sent it via regular mail. I could have spent $70 for express post, but it would take the same amount of time, and the only difference was that it was guaranteed (vs. regular mail where I suppose they don't take responsibility should it take longer). I went with regular post and it paid off because for less than $5 it got there in the same amount of time as the advertised express post timelines.

The employee contract is the only document that is required in original copy, the other two documents that are required for the work permit application are 1) your financial statements. Your future nanny will need copies of your CRA Notice of Assessment, or other approved documents for the past two years (you can send these documents directly to the visa office if you're not comfortable with the nanny seeing them, but it seems more complicated to me because then you're trusting in the visa office to keep them on file until the rest of the application shows up or you're delaying the process if you wait until you get the request from the CIC to send them in...for us even a one day delay is undesirable, but if you have more time and are more comfortable, you can send them in directly), and 2) Positive LMO letter. You need to send the letter, as well as Annex A (this will become evident when the letter comes in the mail). PLEASE NOTE: The documents cited above are specific to the work permit application from Hongkong.

Don't have a scanner?...have you heard of the Tiny Scan app??...it's a fantastic free app for your phone that allows you to just take a photo, and then it converts it into a scanned document. I love it!


So to review, your future nanny needs original copies of the employee contract, and scanned copies of your financial statements and the positive LMO letter. Once your nanny has the documents, they can go to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) for clearance, then they obtain their medical, and finally submit their documents.

A note on the nanny's work permit submission requirements

We screened in our interviews for candidates who were familiar with the work permit process. Our future nanny also has family in Canada who have previously gone through the process, so she can seek advice from them if need be. The documents required for the work permit application are quite substantial. As such, your nanny should have started compiling the documents when they were offered the job, but if they didn't do this, then you can expect that it may take some time for them to get everything in order. Our nanny had everything prepared and ready to go, and just needed the documents from us in order to proceed.

If you're wondering what documents are needed for their application, they are listed below, or you can find them on the CIC website or click HERE for the list below. PLEASE NOTE: The documents listed below are specific to candidates who are applying from Hongkong. There are slight variations to the documents required based on the country where they are residing during their application.



Once your future nanny submits her work permit application, you are just waiting on the approval and then you can book their flight. The CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) office has a website where you can check current work permit processing times in various countries.