Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) • LMIA to support Permanent Residency
Employers who wish to hire skilled foreign workers and support their permanent resident visa application can get an LMIA and make a job offer under Express Entry system if job offer meets the criteria under one of the following economic programs:
Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)
- The employer must be offering a job for:
- positions in TEER 0/1/2/3 (Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities) of the NOC, such as management, professional, scientific, technical or trade occupations
- full-time hours (a minimum of 30 hours of work per week)
- at least 1 year, and
- a non-seasonal position
Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)
- The employer must be offering a job for:
- an eligible skilled trade or technical occupation (NOC TEER 2/3)
- full-time hours (a minimum of 30 hours of work per week), and
- at least 1 year
Note: Under the FSTP, the employment offer can be made by up to 2 employers.
Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
- The employer must be offering a job for:
- a NOC TEER 0/1/2/3 position such as: management, professional, scientific, technical or trade occupations
- full-time hours (a minimum of 30 hours of work per week)
- at least 1 year, and
- a non-seasonal position
LMIA to support permanent residency application
This LMIA is used to support permanent residency application of foreign national. Here employer hires the skilled foreign national only after their immigration application is processed and permanent residency is approved. This option does not have a processing fee.
LMIA to support both permanent residency & work permit application
If employers wish to hire skilled foreign national temporarily while their application for permanent residence is being processed by IRCC. Then employer can apply for a dual intent LMIA. This option requires paying the processing fee. These dual intent LMIAs can be used to support the foreign nationals’ application to IRCC for a:
- Permanent resident application; and
- Temporary work permit
Employers submitting an LMIA application for a high-wage position may request an employment duration of up to 3 years. The employment duration must align with the employer’s reasonable employment needs. (High-wage positions include the Global Talent Stream, high-wage stream including caregiver positions, agricultural stream and Express Entry).
As of September 26, 2024, employers submitting an LMIA application for a low-wage position may request a maximum employment duration of 1 year, down from 2 years.
Important Points:
- LMIA can be applied under both (high -wage & low-wage) streams.
- Employers submitting a dual intent LMIA application where the wage offered is at or above the provincial or territorial wage threshold plus 20% must meet the high-wage stream program requirement for a transition plan.
Transition plan exemptions
- The transition plan requirement doesn’t apply if you’re requesting:
- in-home caregiver or health care provider positions:
- private household employers (under North American Industry Classification System [NAICS] code 8141) for in-home caregiver positions under National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes 31301, 32101, 44100 and 44101
- healthcare institutions (under 2-digit NAICS 62) for health care provider positions under NOC 31301, 32101 and 33102
- a position under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), the agricultural stream and other primary agriculture occupation.
- The transition plan requirement doesn’t apply in certain other situations, for more details please visit High wage LMIA section of this website.
How can IMC Immigration help?
- The LMIA rules, regulations and requirements are subject to frequent changes. These changes deal with different categories of jobs, duration, exemptions etc. Continuous research, attention to detail and painstaking hard work is required to obtain a positive LMIA. We help in assessment of our client’s profile and advice them on their eligibility to get an LMIA.
- We also assist our clients/employers with the advertisement posting.
- We help Canadian employers for applying Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) application and legally representing them before ESDC during the procedure.