The employer-side Labour Market Impact Assessment process in Canada: choosing the high-wage or low-wage stream, recruiting before applying, the $1,000 processing fee, Service Canada processing times, and what a positive LMIA does and does not do.
Applies in: CA
A Labour Market Impact Assessment, or LMIA, is an assessment by Employment and Social Development Canada, delivered through Service Canada, of whether hiring a temporary foreign worker is likely to have a positive or neutral effect on the Canadian labour market. The employer applies. If the assessment is positive, the worker uses the decision letter to apply to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, known as IRCC, for an employer-specific work permit. A positive LMIA is not itself a work permit, and it does not guarantee that IRCC will issue one. The employer process and the worker process are separate, and the employer steps in this guide must be finished before the worker applies.
This guide covers the employer side only. It states the process as Employment and Social Development Canada states it on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program pages. It gives no immigration advice about a particular worker, and it does not assess whether a particular hire is likely to succeed.
The employer is the entity that hires the temporary foreign worker, sets the working conditions, and directly pays the worker. Service Canada looks at who is obliged to meet program requirements, who benefits from the work, who decides where, when, and how the work is done, who pays wages and statutory deductions, who hires and can dismiss, and who signs the employment agreement.
Two limits matter at this stage. A staffing or employment agency that recruits workers for other businesses is not considered the employer under the program, because no employer-employee relationship exists between the agency and the worker, and it cannot be approved to hire a temporary foreign worker for another business. And an employer cannot classify a temporary foreign worker as an independent contractor, either at hiring or afterwards, or structure the relationship to avoid payroll and program requirements. Misclassification is treated as non-compliance and can bring monetary penalties and a ban from the program.
Every employer must also provide documents with the LMIA application showing that the business and the job offer are legitimate. Employers that have not employed a temporary foreign worker in the past 6 years face a review of whether they have made reasonable efforts to provide a workplace free of abuse and whether they are affiliated with an ineligible employer. Gather the business documents before recruiting, because a weak legitimacy file cannot be repaired by a long advertising run.
The wage offered on the LMIA application decides the stream for most positions. Compare it with the hourly wage threshold for the province or territory of the work location. At or above the threshold, the high-wage stream applies. Below it, the low-wage stream applies, with its cap, refusal-to-process rules, and recruitment requirements.
The threshold is the applicable median hourly wage plus 20 percent, drawn from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey. Read the threshold table on the Employment and Social Development Canada page on the day the application is prepared. The table is dated by receipt period, and the figures in this guide are the ones in force for applications received as of July 17, 2026.
Beyond the high-wage and low-wage streams, the program pages list primary agriculture positions, applications to support permanent residence, the Global Talent Stream, caregiver positions, foreign academic positions, hiring in Quebec, and the Recognized Employer Pilot. The Global Talent Stream is described separately below. Do not file under a specialized stream on the strength of a job title. Each stream page states its own eligibility, and filing under the wrong stream costs the advertising period and the fee.
Recruitment means making reasonable efforts to hire or train Canadians and permanent residents before offering the job to a temporary foreign worker. The record of that effort is part of the application, and Service Canada reviews recruitment activity up until a decision is made, including any Job Bank posting that stays active after submission.
For low-wage positions, the minimum recruitment requirements are Job Bank advertising, demonstrated youth targeting, and at least 2 additional methods. Youth targeting means efforts to reach and encourage youth aged 15 to 30 to apply, which can include the Job Bank youth section and youth job boards, work with schools or colleges, participation in youth employment programs, or other platforms popular with youth. Each of the 2 additional methods must be consistent with the occupation and must target a different underrepresented group, such as vulnerable youth, Indigenous peoples, newcomers to Canada, persons with disabilities, or asylum claimants with valid work permits. A provincial or territorial counterpart to Job Bank can count as a recruitment method, but it does not meet the underrepresented-groups requirement. If the 2 additional methods are both online, they must each have unique value and reach different audiences. Two advertisements on the same type of website count as one method.
The Job Bank posting carries its own mechanics. Use the Job Match service, select the default or basic matching option, invite job seekers matched within the first 30 days who are rated 2 stars or more to apply, and use Direct Apply so registered job seekers authorized to work in Canada can apply directly. Consider every Direct Apply application. Disabling Direct Apply, or not considering its applicants, can be treated as failing the recruitment requirements.
The advertisement itself must carry the company operating name, business address, position title, job duties, terms of employment, language of work, wage including any raises or bonuses, benefits if applicable, work location, and contact information. A wage range may be used, but the minimum of the range must meet the prevailing wage. Keep all recruitment records for at least 6 years, and be ready to provide the results of the recruitment effort, including who applied and why Canadians or permanent residents were not hired.
Low-wage hiring is capped by work location. The general cap is 10 percent of the workforce at a specific work location. For construction, food manufacturing, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities, and for specific in-home caregiver positions, the cap is 20 percent. Some positions have no cap, including listed on-farm primary agriculture positions, caregiving positions for health care institutions in listed occupations, positions in support of permanent residence only, short-duration positions of generally 120 calendar days or less that meet the stated conditions, and low-wage positions in seasonal industries of no more than 270 calendar days used once per year per work location. Employers with fewer than 10 employees at a work location complete the cap section on a workforce size of 10, which allows a maximum of 1 low-wage temporary foreign worker under a 10 percent cap or 2 under a 20 percent cap. Complete the cap section on the application form and be ready to support it with payroll records.
Separately, certain low-wage LMIA applications for work locations in a census metropolitan area with an unemployment rate of 6 percent or higher will not be processed. The refusal-to-process pages state the exemptions that may apply. Check both the cap and the refusal rules before paying the fee, because an application above the cap or inside a refusal area may not be processed at all. Temporary measures for rural areas outside census metropolitan areas in participating provinces and territories can affect the proportion for some low-wage positions, and the rural measures page states which positions and regions they cover.
Low-wage employment must also be full-time, meaning at least 30 hours of work per week. The low-wage program requirements page states the further conditions for wages, job duties and working conditions, transportation, housing, health insurance, workplace safety, the employment agreement, the language of work, and unionized positions. Read that page in full for the position being filed. This guide does not reproduce its wage, transportation, or housing conditions, because they turn on the occupation and work location.
Submit the application through LMIA Online. Processing starts when a complete application is submitted: all required documents for the stream, all required documents signed by the employer, and the processing fee paid where one applies. An incomplete application will not be processed and the fee will not be charged. Apply as soon as possible and up to 6 months before the expected job start date, allowing for the advertising period that must already be complete.
The processing fee is $1,000 for each position requested. It can be paid by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, certified cheque, money order, or bank draft payable to the Receiver General for Canada. A pilot for online banking payment exists for applications of 6 positions or more, by emailed invitation. The fee is not refunded on withdrawal, cancellation, or a negative LMIA, and refunds are issued only if a fee was collected in error. As noted above, the fee cannot be paid by or recovered from the worker, and no recruitment fee may be charged to or recovered from the worker.
If a paid third-party representative acts for the employer, complete the third-party representative section of the application. A paid representative must be a member in good standing of a provincial or territorial law society, the Chambre des notaires du Québec, the Law Society of Ontario as a paralegal, or the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. The employer must not recover the representative's cost from the worker, and the representative cannot demand or recover the processing fee or other recruitment costs from the worker. The employer remains responsible for the actions of anyone who recruits on its behalf, and some provinces and territories have their own recruiter requirements.
For a position in Quebec with an employment period of more than 30 consecutive days, submit the application at the same time to Service Canada and to Quebec's Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration, in the format the province requires. Failure to submit to both at the same time can affect processing.
Service Canada issues a positive or negative LMIA in the form of a decision letter. On a positive LMIA, give the worker a copy of the decision letter and Annex A, which the worker needs to obtain a work permit. Keep Annex B for the employer's records only and do not share it with the worker. Ensure the employment agreement is signed by the worker and a mutually signed copy is provided in the worker's chosen official language, English or French, before or on the first day of work. Tell the worker to apply for a work permit or permanent residence before the LMIA expiry date, and tell the processing centre at once about any change or error on the positive LMIA or its annexes. Keep every document used to support the application for at least 6 years from the worker's first day of work.
To add, remove, or change a worker's name on a positive LMIA, send the completed request form to the processing centre that handled the application, at least 15 business days before the LMIA expiry date. Names cannot be added, removed, or changed for permanent residence or dual-intent applications, Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program applications, applications where the work permit application has been submitted or the permit issued in the case of removal or change, or an expired LMIA. For Quebec positions, the name-change request must also go to the Ministère at the same time.
On a negative LMIA, the processing fee is not reimbursed. Service Canada may also suspend LMIA processing where there is reason to suspect non-compliance that would put the health or safety of temporary foreign workers at serious risk, while the matter is investigated. Employer compliance obligations continue after hiring, including inspections, and the employer must inform the Employer Contact Centre at once of changes the compliance pages list. Voluntary disclosure of possible non-compliance before an inspection is launched is a separate published step.
The Global Talent Stream is the faster route for uniquely skilled talent and in-demand workers. Category A covers employers referred by a designated referral partner who are hiring a person with unique and specialized talent to help the business scale up and grow. Category B covers hiring in an occupation on the global talent occupations list, with no referral required. Employers hiring through the stream must develop a Labour Market Benefits Plan showing employer-specific commitments with lasting, positive effects on the Canadian labour market, and progress reviews of that plan are separate from compliance activities. The September 2026 average processing time for the stream was 9 business days. Read the stream requirements page before assuming a position qualifies, because the referral, occupation-list, wage, and benefits-plan conditions are all stated there.
This guide states no advertising duration for high-wage positions, because the Employment and Social Development Canada pages state the low-wage 8-week rule and a 14-day to 8-week range across streams without fixing the high-wage period. It states no maximum employment duration for high-wage or low-wage positions, no transition-plan contents for high-wage positions, and no wage, transportation, or housing figures beyond the threshold table and the full-time rule, because those figures turn on the stream, occupation, and work location and must be read on the stream requirements page for the position. It states no LMIA-exempt occupation list, because exemptions are stated on the IRCC exemption pages and change without notice. Where a figure was cut, the guide names the official page that owns it.
No. An LMIA is required for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program route described in this guide. Some work permits are issued under the International Mobility Program and do not require an LMIA. Before starting the LMIA steps, check whether the hire falls under an LMIA-exempt category on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada exemption pages. If no exemption applies, the employer route in this guide is the route to follow. Do not assume an exemption from a job title alone, and do not start recruiting for an LMIA until the stream question is settled, because the recruiting record must match the stream that is eventually filed.
Compare the wage offered on the LMIA application with the hourly wage threshold for the province or territory where the work will be done. At or above the threshold, apply under the high-wage stream. Below the threshold, apply under the low-wage stream. The threshold is the provincial or territorial median hourly wage plus 20 percent, based on the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey. For LMIA applications received as of July 17, 2026, the table on the Employment and Social Development Canada page gives Ontario at $36.92 and British Columbia at $38.40, among others. Read the current table on the day the application is prepared, because thresholds move. Wages must also be similar to wages paid to Canadians and permanent residents in the same job, at the same location, with similar skills and experience. Raising the offered wage only to fit a stream can lead to a negative decision.
For a low-wage position, the job advertisement must have occurred in the 3 months before the LMIA application is submitted and must run for a minimum of 8 consecutive weeks within that period. At least one of the three recruitment activities must stay ongoing until the LMIA decision is issued. Recruitment must include advertising on the Government of Canada Job Bank, demonstrated efforts to reach youth aged 15 to 30, and at least 2 additional recruitment methods, each targeting a different underrepresented group. The Job Bank posting must use the Job Match service and Direct Apply, and the employer must invite job seekers matched within the first 30 days who are rated 2 stars or more to apply. Keep recruitment and advertising records for at least 6 years. For high-wage positions, the advertising period depends on the stream, so read the high-wage program requirements page before setting a posting schedule rather than borrowing the low-wage period.
The processing fee is $1,000 for each position requested, paid in Canadian dollars. It is not refunded if the application is withdrawn or cancelled, or if the LMIA is negative, and refunds are issued only if a fee was collected in error. The fee cannot be paid by, or recovered from, a temporary foreign worker. The same bar applies to recruitment fees and to the cost of a paid third-party representative: the employer must ensure that neither the employer nor anyone recruiting on its behalf charges or recovers any recruitment fee from the worker, directly or indirectly. Limited fee exemptions apply, including certain in-home caregiver applications supported by a medical certificate, certain childcare applications in households with a gross annual income of $150,000 or less for a child under 13, and listed on-farm primary agriculture positions. Check the exemptions on the program requirements page before assuming the fee does not apply.
Service Canada publishes average processing times monthly, measured in business days from receipt of a complete application to the decision letter. For applications processed in September 2026, the averages were 9 business days for the Global Talent Stream, 22 for the agricultural stream, 7 for the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, 98 for the high-wage stream, 82 for the low-wage stream, and 79 for the permanent resident stream. These figures vary significantly from month to month with application volume, and the advertising period that must be completed before applying is not included in them. Apply as soon as possible and up to 6 months before the expected job start date. A positive LMIA is valid for up to 6 months after it is issued, and the worker must apply for a work permit before it expires.
A positive LMIA arrives as a decision letter. The employer must give the worker a copy of the letter and Annex A, keep Annex B for its own records, ensure a mutually signed employment agreement is provided in the worker's chosen official language before or on the first day of work, tell the worker to apply for a work permit or permanent residence before the LMIA expiry date, and report any changes or errors to the processing centre. All documents supporting the application must be kept for at least 6 years from the worker's first day of work. A negative LMIA means no reimbursement of the processing fee. For positions in Quebec lasting more than 30 consecutive days, the LMIA application must be submitted at the same time to Service Canada and to Quebec's Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration, in the format the province requires. Quebec also has a facilitated process for selected specialized professions that can remove the proof-of-recruitment requirement, so check the Quebec pages before building a recruitment record for a Quebec position.
Figures that could not be verified on an official page were cut from this guide: the high-wage advertising duration, maximum employment durations by stream, transition-plan contents, and wage, transportation, and housing figures beyond the threshold table. Check the stream requirements page for the position being filed, and the IRCC exemption pages for LMIA-exempt routes, before applying or paying.