It is a $230 fee paid by the employer when hiring a foreign worker under an LMIA-exempt work permit. It is not the same thing as an LMIA fee, and the difference is substantial.
When it applies
If you are hiring under the International Mobility Program — which includes Francophone Mobility, intra-company transfers, and other exemptions — you submit an offer of employment through the IRCC Employer Portal and pay the compliance fee at that point.
If you are hiring through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program with an LMIA, you pay the $1,000 LMIA processing fee instead. You do not pay both.
What it covers
The fee funds the compliance regime rather than any assessment of your job offer. IRCC does not evaluate whether the position should be filled by a Canadian; that is what an LMIA does. Instead the fee supports the system that verifies employers actually do what they promised.
What you agree to by paying it
That the job you described is the job you provide. Same wage, same duties, same location, same conditions.
That you keep records for six years.
That you cooperate with an inspection, which may arrive without a specific complaint.
Why the difference matters
$230 against $1,000 is the headline, but the process difference is larger. The compliance fee route has no advertising period and no labour market assessment, so the employer's part is typically finished within days.
What it does not do
It does not find you a worker, and it does not guarantee the permit. Your candidate still applies and must meet the requirements — including, under Francophone Mobility, genuine French ability.
FrancoBridge handles the part the fee does not: publishing your job to French-speaking candidates across six markets.
Fees change. Verify current amounts on canada.ca. This is not immigration advice.