I work for an IT Consulting Company and part of what we do is respond to government and private industry RFP's. Sometimes this is individual resource based and somtimes this is project based. When the RFP is resource based, it will usually have a 2 week deadline from its posted date. Right now, we have great opportunities but not enough resources to propose for the contracts.

What the company is researching is to bring in foreign IT workers from either India, China, Pakistan, etc. through a "temporary foreign worker program". The main problem we have here is time since the foreign workers need to go through an application process to enter into the foreign worker program.

How the foreign worker program works:

1. The company needs to get a labor market opinion from the government which will state that we have exercised due diligence in trying to recruit domestically and are now requesting permission to hire abroad.

2. Once LMO is retrieved we can then send in an application for a work permit on a named resource and depending on which country they are from they may also need a visa. To do this we need to submit an employment offer(proof of employment).

The positive about being in IT is that we can bypass the Labor Market Opinion for certain resources like "Software Developers" since the government has already stated a need and an existing shortage for this type of skilled worker.

However, we have a 2 week deadline. On top of this the start date is usually 2 weeks to one month from the closing date of this RFP. In this 2 weeks, we need to find the resource, apply for permits, and submit a proposal. As well, the resource would have to be available for work with work permit and moved to Canada as soon as a month from RFP closing date.

Some possible solutions are to:

1. Partner with foreign agencies that will handle the logistics.
2. Create conditional letter of employment offers (so if proposal goes through we will hire you) so that we can have the resource apply for the work permit and visa's beforehand.

Is there something that I am not seeing that could be done?? I feel a little blocked in this regard.

Thanks for any help or advice,

Aasia