The BC employment agency licence: cost, records, and renewal (2026 guide)

Who needs an employment agency licence in BC?

Section 12 of the Employment Standards Act requires an employment agency to be licensed. In practice that captures any business that finds workers for employers, or finds employers for workers, in British Columbia. If you place warehouse, distribution, or food processing crews with more than one client, you are an employment agency and you need the licence.

There is one narrow exception. The Branch says a licence is not required if the agency only recruits employees for one employer. An agency serving a roster of clients does not qualify. What the province expects of an agency once it is licensed is set out on our British Columbia page.

What does the BC employment agency licence cost, and what comes with it?

What records does a BC employment agency have to keep?

Three lists, kept in English, at the agency's principal place of business in British Columbia, for two years:

• Every employer the agency served.
• Every person the agency directed to an employer for hiring.
• Every person the agency gave employment information to.

The third list is the one agencies underestimate. It is not just the people you placed. It is everyone you told about a job. If your intake runs through text messages and a spreadsheet, reconstructing that list two years later means scrolling a phone. Payroll records run on a separate four-year clock, because the agency employs the people it assigns.

What can a BC agency charge a worker for?

Not for the job. Workers cannot be asked to pay a hiring fee, and the agency cannot pay a third party to find someone a job either, which is worth reading twice before you design a referral bonus. Advertising, immigration help, resume writing, and interview preparation may be charged for, but the province is explicit that none of them can be made a condition of getting a job.

How renewal works when nobody reminds you

The Branch states plainly that it does not issue reminders when a licence is set to expire, and asks for the renewal application at least 30 days out. BC also publishes a searchable directory of licensed employment agencies, so a lapse is not a private matter: a client checking the register sees the gap.

1. Write the expiry date somewhere that will interrupt you, not somewhere you have to remember to look.
2. Set your own alert 60 days out, which leaves room to gather documents before the 30-day submission window.
3. Submit the renewal application at least 30 days before expiry.
4. Check your entry on the province's licensed employment agency directory after renewal, because that is what your clients see.

Two BC licences the employment agency licence does not cover

Agencies get caught by assuming one licence covers everything they do.

• Recruiting foreign workers needs a separate foreign worker recruiter licence under the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act, each one backed by a $20,000 financial security. New applicants usually receive a one-year licence; later ones may run up to three years.
• Supplying labour for planting, cultivating, or harvesting needs a farm labour contractor licence, with its own exam and financial security. A producer that uses an unlicensed farm labour contractor can be fined $500 to $10,000 and can be held liable for the workers' unpaid wages, so producers check.