[a-priori]

I’m only one week of work in. It’s fine so far: I got paid on time, benefits are okay.

The biggest problem for me were in the on-boarding around ID. I provided a driver’s licence plus SIN, which is sufficient proof of identity and eligibility to work in Canada. A regular employer would only need the SIN, and I understand a company like Deel would also need to verify identity since they hadn’t actually met me.

But, no, apparently they require proof of citizenship (for citizens anyway), which no regular employer needs. For that you need to provide a “passport or national ID”… but Canada has no national ID system, only passports, and my passport is expired (because COVID). They had to make an exception for me to accept an expired passport.

It worked out okay in the end but it was frustrating and confusing for about two weeks, during which I had paused my job search and I was worried I’d have to walk away from a good offer if they couldn’t sort it out.

So in the end I think it’ll be okay, but I’d talk to your own employees, especially new ones, and make sure they don’t get caught up in some bureaucratic snag.