Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)

Before hiring a foreign temporary worker, an employer must complete a process called Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). The LMIA protects the Canadian job market and temporarily employed foreign workers by protecting the domestic job market. There are special cases where LMIA-exempt work permits are obtained.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) only issues a positive LMIA if it gets satisfied that a region and industry can sustain foreign workers.

LMIA benefits the employers, for the positions offered and for regions in which they are located. When you get a positive LMIA, it doesn’t allow you to change your job or organization if you are on a work permit or want to relocate to another province of Canada. If you want to do any of that, you have to apply for a separate LMIA.

In the LMIA process, employees are classified as ‘Low Wage’ or ‘High Wage’ workers. This classification depends on the provincial/territorial median wages. 

• High Wage Workers:

  The submission of a transition plan is compulsory for all Canadian employers who want to hire a foreign worker temporarily with pay equal to or higher than the provincial/territorial median hourly wage. For the interest of Canadians, employers must have to plan to reduce their dependence on temporary foreign workers.

• Low Wage Workers:

  When compared to High Wage Workers, Low wage workers are the foreign workers who get lower pay than the provincial/territorial median hourly wage. There remains a cap of 10% on the low-wage temporary foreign workers for Canadian Employers with more than 10 employees.

The processing time can vary from a few weeks to a few months. The LMIA application is processed by ESDC within 10 business days for the following job categories –

• Applications for high-demand jobs (trades)
• High-paying organizations.
• Working periods with short durations (120 days or less)