IRCC Doubts Your Job Offer: What the Fairness Letter Means

Every employer-specific work permit application, renewals included, has to pass a check that the job offer is genuine. Until September, IRCC's instructions said an officer with concerns may ask the employer for more information, and in places allowed a refusal without asking. The version published on September 17, 2026 sets out a process instead: an officer with concerns about the job offer should send a procedural fairness letter before deciding.

Two limits are worth knowing. These are IRCC's instructions to its officers, not a new law, and most of them say should, not must. The letter is required in two cases: when the officer relies on outside information you have not seen, such as an internet search on the employer, and when the officer doubts what the employer has said about its ability to meet the terms of the offer. Open work permits are not checked this way, because there is no job offer.

Subsection 200(5) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations sets them. The offer has to come from an employer that is actively engaged in its business (offers for live-in caregivers are the exception), fit the employer's reasonable employment needs, have terms the employer can reasonably meet for the length of the permit, and come from an employer, and any recruiter it used, that has complied with federal and provincial laws on employment and recruitment. Failing any one of them means a refusal.

It must name which of the 4 tests is the concern and why. It should also tell you that your employer is to send the evidence directly to IRCC within 15 days, or the deadline that office normally uses, and explain how to send it.

If the office has no procedure of its own, the employer uses IRCC's web form on your behalf. IRCC's instructions list what goes in it: the employer's details, your name and date of birth exactly as in your passport, your application number, a copy of the letter if possible, the documents requested, a comment saying the employer is providing information IRCC asked for and wants it added to the employee's application, and a signed letter from the employer acknowledging the request and agreeing to provide the documents.

The officer then sets a follow-up date 30 days after the letter's deadline, so the employer's answer has time to reach your file. Anything sent by fax or email has to be uploaded to the file before a decision.

Depending on the concern: confirmation of the Canada Revenue Agency business number, any business licences or permits, income and tax documents, contracts that show the business is trading, a T4 Summary of remuneration paid, a T2 Schedule 100 or 125 for a corporation or a T2125 for a sole proprietor or partnership, and a workers' compensation clearance letter (WorkSafeBC in British Columbia). If the concern is whether the job fits the business, the employer has to explain the worker's role and why the business needs it.

Running a business from home is not the concern in itself, IRCC says; it is weighed with the type of business and the rest of the evidence. A business less than a year old, negative public information or a past negative finding can trigger a closer look. A company with no employees that exists in name only to bring in foreign workers does not count as an operating business.

IRCC's own example of an offer that may fail: a home meal delivery business open five months, with no T4s yet, no lease and little evidence of regular payroll or purchases.

The officer decides on what is in the file and, if not satisfied the offer is genuine, refuses. IRCC's instructions say a work permit should not be issued when an employer refuses to provide enough information.

The process covers both. For LMIA-exempt offers made through the Employer Portal, a copy of the employment contract is not required, though an officer may compare one if you include it. LMIA-based applications must include the contract and the positive LMIA. A positive LMIA is taken to mean ESDC found the offer genuine, but an IRCC officer can still disagree, and that is one of the cases where the instructions most recommend a letter.

The exact concern in the letter against the 4 tests, which documents answer it, and whether the employer can send them before the deadline. For employers, the records an officer would ask for, ideally before the offer is made: see employer LMIA support. If a permit has already been refused, the GCMS notes show the officer's reasons.