Business Immigration Series: What is going on with LMIAs in 2025?

LMIA

Jul 17

Are LMIAs even still possible in 2025?

Many people have been asking me if LMIAs are still possible after all the changes to the TFWP announced in September 2024. Employer ask whether the company ought to go through the pain of trying to apply for an LMIA to support their foreign national employee’s work permit if, as of March 25, 2025, that employee can no longer claim Express Entry points for a Job Offer but there are still benefits for employees who can properly claim in their EE profile that they have a job offer.

The answer to the first question is that LMIAs, especially under high-wage streams, are still possible. The answer to the second question of whether it is worth it to go through the LMIA process depends on whether the company really wants to retain the employee and whether the employee has any other way to obtain a work permit or if the employee might be able to transition to Permanent Residency before their current work permit expires.

If the employer determines they will try to apply for an LMIA, here are some key takeaways…

LMIAs are the employer’s responsibility

Remember that an LMIA application is an application by the corporation to ESDC/ Service Canada to show that the company has properly tested the Canadian Labour Market and cannot legitimately find a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident to fill a particular job under a particular NOC at a particular wage and benefits in a particular location of work. The corporation must pay the LMIA application fee of $1,000 per position requested. The corporation must never try to recoup the government application fee, or any other fee for an LMIA, from the employee who is hoping for that LMIA to support their work permit application. It is illegal for foreign workers to pay for an LMIA. If the corporation is using a recruiter, the corporation must ensure the recruiter never charges the candidates a penny either. Recruiters must be properly licensed by the Province in which they operate and must normally also have posted a bond.

Low-wage LMIAs and how to determine what is a low-wage LMIA

Keep in mind that ESDC just updated the wage thresholds by Province as of June 27, 2025 so a company ought to consult this table and compare it with the median wages for the NOC they want to recruit in the location the job will be performed. For example, the determinative wage for Alberta and Ontario is now $36.00/hour. Anyone who is paid less than $36.00 would have to be supported with a low-wage LMIA. Low-wage LMIAs are subject to a cap and the refusal to process rules for Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher. The CMA unemployment rates get updated every three months.

Illustrative example:

If company A wanted to hire a health care aide (NOC 33102) in Calgary as of July 16, 2025, the median Job Bank posted wages are $23.00/hour. If the company is paying wages at $23.00 or anything less than $36.00/hour for their health care aides, they are considered to be in the low-wage world and would need to apply for a low-wage LMIA and follow those program rules. Calgary is in a CMA with unemployment at 7.3%. Therefore, the refusal to process applies UNLESS the company has an NAICS code of 622 for positions in hospitals or NAICS code of 623 for positions in nursing and residential care facilities. Note also that even if the employer is a hospital or residential care facility, the cap still applies. The company must therefore calculate their total workforce and temporary foreign workers cannot comprise more than 20% of their total workforce (the cap is 10% for most other industries).
In addition, all the program requirements around business legitimacy, and advertising and recruiting apply and employers of low-wage workers must provide transportation, ensure suitable and affordable housing is available, provide emergency medical care for any period when the TFW is not covered by provincial health insurance, ensure workplace safety, and have a signed employment agreement.

In sum, employers who try for a low-wage LMIA face an uphill battle and should check whether they are eligible to apply for an LMIA carefully and obtain experienced legal assistance throughout.

Can employers still obtain a high-wage LMIA?

If an employer is hiring for a high-wage position, they must be paying wages at a rate that is at or higher than the Provincial wage threshold and must comply with the high-wage program requirements.

Illustrative example:

If company B wanted to hire a Registered Nurse (RN) (NOC 31301) in Calgary as of July 16, 2025, the median Job Bank posted wages are $48.00/hour. If the company is paying wages at or higher than $48.00/hour, this is above the $36.00 Provincial wage threshold and they are considered to be in the high-wage world and would need to apply for a high-wage LMIA and follow those program rules.
In addition, all the program requirements around business legitimacy, and advertising and recruiting apply and employers of high-wage workers must provide a transition plan with distinct activities to show they will move away from relying on TFWs, and they should provide emergency medical care for any period when the TFW is not covered by provincial health insurance, must ensure workplace safety, and must have a signed employment agreement.

While high-wage LMIAs might seem to have less strictures than low-wage LMIAs, pitfalls abound.

How long does it take to obtain an LMIA?

ESDC posts processing times for LMIAs about monthly and the times vary. Figures for June 2025 say it takes ESDC 41 business days to decide on an LMIA application. This is not the timeframe employers should bake into their planning.

Instead, take stock of whether the employer has been in operation at least one year and has Canadian full-time employees, whether the company applied for an LMIA in the past, whether they have a valid CRA business number, whether their municipal business licence is up to date, whether they have proper incorporation records, whether they have filed their corporate tax returns, whether they have a robust enough balance sheet to show earnings to pay the salaries for the TFWs they are thinking of employing under an LMIA, and whether they have a bricks and mortar business location with a long-term lease.

Then add in 4 weeks of continuous advertising and recruiting within the last three months on three distinct advertising platforms, including on the Job Bank, and another that is national in scope, and time to draft the online LMIA application and gather supporting evidence of business legitimacy, results of recruitment efforts, and your transition plan.

Real timeframe before LMIA decision = 3 to 4 months best case if the employer is extremely organized. And then the worker still needs to apply for a closed, employer-specific work permit which might also tack on long processing times, depending on where the worker is and whether they can apply inside Canada, at the POE, or outside Canada for that work permit.

Job Bank woes

Read the fine print when looking at program requirements for LMIAs. Job Bank advertising is almost always mandatory. The Job Bank is a free government advertising platform. Employers must sign up for a Job Bank account. The sign-up process is not automatic and the employer account sometimes takes time before it is approved. Even once the employer account is approved, Job Bank consists of force-choice drop down fields. If your position does not fit what Job Bank thinks it should be, they might decline your ad. Employers must use default matching and Job Match. Employers must invite all candidates with 4 -star rankings or higher in Job Match within the first 30 days of the ad going live. Keep proof of your interactions with Job Match. We have seen cases where Job Bank unilaterally and without notice deleted an employer’s ad because Job Bank did not think the employer engaged sufficiently with Canadian candidate resumes.

Other fun twists involve the fact that Job Bank only allows an employer to post the ad for 30 days. Then the employer has to go in and extend the ad every 15 days. However, the ad has a maximum number of extensions and then the employer must draft a whole new ad with exactly the same information and submit it. But Job Bank will not approve a duplicate ad. So timing the withdrawal of one ad and the submission of the next is a pain. If there is a gap in time and your 3 advertising efforts are not all continuous, you might need to start over with your advertising and recruitment before you can show you have hit the 4 weeks continuous.

Not only that, advertising must remain active all the way up until the employer gets a decision on their LMIA. Ads expiring or encountering problems with Job Bank can therefore tank your LMIA application.

The rest of the gauntlet

Once the 4-week continuous advertising and recruitment period runs, the employer must submit an online LMIA application, upload supporting documents, and then pay the LMIA government processing fee. It may then take months before they get a decision. If the decision is negative, usually because of some small flaw in advertising, the employer must start all over again with new ads.

Let’s say an employer did everything correctly and manages to get a high-wage LMIA approved by ESDC. It is now only valid for 6 months. The employer must then name a worker in the Annex if they have not already done so and the employee must apply for a work permit before the LMIA validity period expires. Depending on the employee’s nationality and immigration status, the work permit might be able to be submitted at a Canadian Port of Entry but it might also need to be submitted online, either from inside or outside of Canada. More processing times for work permits can be found through IRCC’s website. Please also refer to our podcast episodes in our business immigration series starting at episode 100 to see how and where foreign workers apply for a work permit.

In sum

LMIAs are not for the faint of heart. Engage a knowledgeable immigration lawyer if your company wants to tread down this path. Obtaining a positive LMIA is only the beginning because there are also a number of compliance audit issues and consequences. Companies can get barred from hiring TFWs, can have existing LMIAs revoked or suspended, can face criminal liability and suffer blows to a company’s goodwill and public reputation if they get any of this wrong.