LMIA requirements for employers in Canada
You may already know who you want to hire, or you may have tried to fill the role locally. This guide explains what your company needs to establish before you spend weeks recruiting or submit an LMIA.
Updated August 2026
Mehdi Nafisi, RCIC-IRB · Immigreen Consulting, Vancouver, BC
Maybe you already know who you want to hire.
Maybe you have been advertising locally and still cannot fill the position.
Maybe a prospective employee has told you that your company needs an LMIA before they can start working.
Or maybe you have already begun recruiting and are now wondering whether you did it correctly.
Before you spend more time, more money, or the $1,000 LMIA processing fee, there is a more useful question than “How do I get an LMIA?”
Can your company prove what this LMIA requires, for this job, at this wage, in this location, right now?
An LMIA is not simply permission to hire the person you have chosen. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Service Canada are assessing the employer, the job, the wage, the recruitment effort and the impact of hiring a temporary foreign worker on the Canadian labour market.
And there is an important difference between trying to recruit Canadians and permanent residents and being able to show, with a clear record, that the required recruitment actually happened.
The file has to make that recruitment verifiable.
Not sure an LMIA is even the right route?
Before you spend weeks advertising, first determine whether an LMIA is actually required, whether Service Canada can currently process the application, and which stream applies.
Start with your situation
Before you apply, which situation describes you?
First decision
Do you actually need an LMIA?
Not every foreign worker requires one.
Some workers can be hired through an LMIA-exempt category under the International Mobility Program, including certain intra-company transfers, international-agreement categories and other exemptions.
The first question should not automatically be “How do we get an LMIA?”
What lawful route allows this company to hire this worker for this job?
An LMIA may be the answer. It should not be the assumption you begin with.
Tell us about your hiring need
Related: Intra-Company Transfers · Work Permits in Canada · Employer Immigration Services
High-wage or low-wage
The job title does not decide the stream
For standard high-wage and low-wage LMIAs, compare the wage offered with the applicable provincial or territorial hourly wage threshold.
If the wage is at or above the threshold, the application generally falls under the high-wage stream. If it is below the threshold, the low-wage rules generally apply. See current ESDC wage thresholds →
A senior job title does not make a position high-wage. For the wage-rate calculation, ESDC considers guaranteed wages. Overtime, tips, benefits, profit sharing, bonuses, commissions and other forms of compensation are excluded from that calculation.
Do not confuse the stream threshold with the prevailing wage
The threshold answers: Which LMIA stream applies?
The prevailing wage answers: What must the employer actually pay?
For the standard high- and low-wage streams, ESDC generally defines prevailing wage as the higher of the Job Bank median wage for the occupation and area or the applicable wage range paid to comparable existing employees doing the same job at the same location with similar skills and experience.
Those are two different tests.
Primary requirements
LMIA requirements for employers: the real map
Strip away the forms and the application is trying to establish several connected things.
Is the job genuine?
Does the position arise naturally from the business and its operations? Are the duties and requirements a real description of the job rather than a description designed around one preferred candidate?
Is the wage compliant?
Does the wage satisfy the applicable stream threshold and the prevailing-wage requirement?
Was the recruitment compliant?
Did the employer complete the required recruitment, consider candidates properly and keep a record capable of showing what happened?
Is the business legitimate?
Can the employer show that the business and job offer are real and that the company can fulfil the employment terms being offered?
Can Service Canada process the application?
A well-prepared application can still encounter a refusal-to-process rule if one applies to the occupation, wage, location or employer.
An LMIA is not one requirement. It is a chain of requirements that have to agree with each other.
Recruitment evidence
LMIA advertising requirements: what your recruitment record needs to show
This is one of the areas that changed materially in 2026.
Low-wage LMIA recruitment
- Advertise the position on Job Bank, unless an accepted alternative applies.
- Demonstrate recruitment efforts specifically aimed at youth aged 15 to 30.
- Use at least two additional recruitment methods appropriate to the occupation.
- Have each of those additional methods target a different underrepresented group.
- Advertise for at least 8 consecutive weeks within the 3 months before applying.
- Keep at least one of the three required recruitment activities active until a positive or negative LMIA decision is issued.
- Retain recruitment records for at least 6 years.
The additional underrepresented groups can include vulnerable youth, Indigenous peoples, newcomers to Canada, persons with disabilities and asylum claimants who hold valid work permits.
Do not reduce this to “four ads.”
ESDC describes Job Bank plus at least two additional recruitment methods and separately requires the employer to demonstrate youth-targeted recruitment. What matters is who the recruitment genuinely reached and whether the employer can prove it.
Low-wage employers must also use Job Bank Job Match. During the first 30 days, employers are required to invite candidates rated 2 stars or more to apply. Direct Apply applications also have to be considered.
Official low-wage requirements →
High-wage LMIA recruitment
For high-wage positions, the recruitment structure is different.
- Job Bank plus at least two additional recruitment methods.
- At least one additional method must be national in scope and accessible across Canada.
- The minimum advertising period is generally 4 consecutive weeks within the 3 months before applying.
- At least one recruitment activity must continue until the LMIA decision.
High-wage employers also use Job Match and Direct Apply. The Job Match threshold differs: high-wage employers generally need to invite matches rated 4 stars or higher during the first 30 days, while the low-wage threshold is 2 stars or higher.
Official high-wage requirements →
If you have already advertised, bring me what you have.
At Immigreen, we do not start with “we advertised properly.” Bring the posting, the dates, where it appeared, the wage, the applicants, what happened to them, and the youth and underrepresented-group outreach where applicable. Then I can look at what the recruitment record actually establishes before the application is submitted.
High-wage planning
Do you need a transition plan?
For high-wage positions, a transition plan is mandatory unless an exemption applies.
The plan describes what the employer agrees to do during the foreign worker's employment to recruit, retain or train Canadians and permanent residents and reduce reliance on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
If the employer has previously submitted a transition plan for the same position and work location, Service Canada may also require reporting on whether those earlier commitments were carried out.
Exemptions exist for specified situations, including certain caregiver and health-care positions, primary agriculture, some limited-duration positions, certain unique-skill situations and some applications supporting permanent residence without a work permit. Check whether an exemption actually applies rather than assuming it does.
What about a dual-intent LMIA?
ESDC still recognizes a dual-intent LMIA, where the application may support both temporary employment and the worker's permanent-residence process. Where the dual-intent position is high-wage, the transition-plan requirement applies.
But employers and workers should understand an important change: an LMIA-supported job offer no longer automatically gives Express Entry CRS points. IRCC removed the former 50- and 200-point job-offer bonuses from the Comprehensive Ranking System on March 25, 2025.
A valid job offer can still matter for eligibility under certain immigration programs, but an employer should not assume LMIA = extra CRS points. The value of the job offer depends on the worker's actual immigration pathway.
ESDC permanent-residence LMIA requirements → · IRCC CRS criteria →
Second hook
Does your company need an LMIA lawyer, an RCIC, or can HR handle this internally?
An employer can choose to manage an LMIA internally or use a third-party representative. The better question is whether your team can identify the correct stream, document compliant recruitment, support the wage and business evidence, and respond consistently if Service Canada questions the file.
Handle it internally
Reasonable when your HR team knows the Temporary Foreign Worker Program requirements and can build a complete, auditable recruitment and evidence record.
Use an RCIC
A regulated immigration consultant can help assess the immigration approach and, where within scope, act as a third-party representative. This can be a proportionate option when the issue is immigration process, evidence, and application execution.
Use a lawyer
A lawyer may be the better fit where the matter turns on litigation, employment-law advice, contractual issues, or another legal question outside the immigration application itself.
See how to choose between a lawyer, RCIC, and self-managed approach →
Forget the stream for a second. What did your recruitment actually look like?
Knowing the rules is one thing. The more useful question is what your company actually did.
If you cannot answer every one of these questions yet, that is useful information. It tells you what needs attention before the file reaches Service Canada.
Business legitimacy
What does your company have to show?
A strong recruitment campaign does not solve a weak business-legitimacy record.
All employers applying through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program must provide documents showing that the business and job offer are legitimate.
In practical terms, the record should make it possible to understand:
- Does this business actually operate?
- Why does this particular position make sense for it?
- Can the employer fulfil the wage and employment terms it is offering?
- Does the employer comply with the laws that apply to the workplace and recruitment process?
A small business is not automatically a weak employer. A large business is not automatically a strong one. The question is whether the need for the position and the employer's capacity to support it are clear and supportable from the record.
Service Canada perspective
What does the reviewer need to establish?
A reviewer is not reading your application because they want to understand your company generally. They are trying to determine whether the specific program requirements have been established.
Credibility
Does this look like a genuine position arising from the company's real operations, or a job constructed around one preferred person?
Consistency
Do the Job Bank posting, other advertising, LMIA application, employment offer, wage, duties and work location describe the same job?
Corroboration
What supports the employer's account beyond the employer simply saying it happened? Dated advertising, applicant records, business records and operational documents can matter.
Evidence quality
A large number of documents is not automatically a strong LMIA. What does each document actually establish?
Decision logic
Can the reviewer move from requirement → employer explanation → supporting evidence → conclusion without reconstructing the employer's argument?
The purpose is not to make a weak hiring need appear strong. It is to make a genuine hiring need clear enough to be properly assessed.
Related: Immigreen Evidentiary Clarity Framework →
Pre-filing diagnosis
What makes an LMIA file weak?
- A job description built around one preferred candidate rather than the genuine requirements of the role.
- A recruitment record showing that advertising occurred, but not clearly showing when, where, for how long or what happened to applicants.
- Rejection reasons that do not correspond to the qualifications stated in the job posting.
- A wage that sounds reasonable but does not satisfy the program's actual wage requirements.
- Confusing the high-wage/low-wage threshold with the prevailing wage.
- Different duties, wages or employment terms appearing in different parts of the file.
- A business-legitimacy record that does not clearly explain why the position exists or how the company can support it.
- Low-wage recruitment that does not satisfy the current youth and underrepresented-group requirements.
And sometimes the problem begins even earlier: the employer never checked whether Service Canada would process the application at all.
Tell us about your hiring need
Before you spend the fee
Will Service Canada even process this LMIA?
This should be checked before an employer invests weeks in recruitment.
For certain low-wage positions, Service Canada will not process an LMIA when the work location is in a census metropolitan area with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher, subject to specified exemptions.
That means this refusal-to-process measure currently affects many standard low-wage applications in the Vancouver CMA unless an exemption applies.
This specific 6% rule applies to specified low-wage positions. It is not the only refusal-to-process rule. Other restrictions include low-wage workforce caps and other employer, occupation or program-specific measures.
Before we build the LMIA, is Service Canada currently willing to process this particular application?
Check current refusal-to-process measures →
British Columbia employers
If you are a B.C. employer, there is another step
British Columbia requires employers hiring temporary foreign workers through most applicable federal programs to register provincially.
For employers who require registration, the province states that a valid certificate of registration is needed before the employer can get an LMIA.
The B.C. government currently reports an approximate 6-week processing time for employer registration. Build that into the hiring timeline from the beginning rather than discovering it after the federal file is otherwise ready.
Cost
What does an LMIA cost the employer?
Specified fee exemptions apply, including some caregiver and primary-agriculture situations.
Employers are also responsible for ensuring that prohibited recruitment fees are not charged to or recovered from the worker by people recruiting on their behalf.
The cost of an avoidable recruitment mistake can therefore be considerably more than the filing fee. If recruitment has to be repeated, the employer may lose weeks before a new application can even be submitted.
Evidence preparation
What documents should an employer have ready?
Do not collect documents simply because they appear on a checklist. Know what each document is supposed to establish.
About the company
Documents that help establish that the business is real, operating and able to support the employment being offered. The exact evidence depends on the business and application.
About the job
Occupation and NOC, actual duties, wage, work location, hours, employment terms and any genuine education, experience, licensing or skill requirements.
About recruitment
Job Bank records, other advertisements, dates, proof of where and how long the position appeared, evidence of required outreach, applicants received and what happened to them.
For B.C. employers
Provincial employer registration or certificate where required.
For every important document, be able to answer: what does this prove?
Filing
Where do you actually submit an LMIA?
Most standard applications are submitted through the Government of Canada's LMIA Online portal.
Before using LMIA Online, a Canadian employer generally needs a payroll account number associated with a CRA business number, a Job Bank for Employers user account, and the business must be registered on Job Bank. The employer then signs into LMIA Online using the same Job Bank credentials.
LMIA applications can generally be submitted up to 6 months before the expected job start date.
LMIA Online portal and official instructions →
If you are already halfway through the process and simply looking for the correct government portal, that is the place to start. If you are not yet sure the recruitment, wage or stream is correct, solve those questions before treating the portal as the beginning of the process.
Timeline
How long does an LMIA take?
ESDC publishes LMIA processing averages monthly.
For June 2026, ESDC also reported averages of 9 business days for the Global Talent Stream, 22 for the Agricultural Stream and 9 for the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.
But Service Canada's processing time is only one part of an employer's real hiring timeline. Before filing, the employer may first need to complete recruitment, provincial employer registration, wage and stream analysis, and the supporting LMIA record. Some of those steps may overlap.
“Service Canada takes X days” is not the same thing as “we can hire this worker in X days.”
Check current LMIA processing averages →
After approval
What happens after a positive LMIA?
A positive LMIA normally becomes part of the foreign worker's work-permit process where a work permit is required.
For the employer, approval also begins an ongoing compliance record. Employers must comply with the LMIA requirements and decision terms and keep relevant records for 6 years beginning on the first day of the period of employment for which the work permit was issued. Service Canada may inspect employers to verify the job, wage, working conditions and compliance with employment and recruitment laws.
Employer compliance is actively enforced
- 1,488 TFW Program compliance inspections finalized from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
- Approximately 12% of inspected employers were found non-compliant.
- More than $10.2 million in monetary penalties were issued.
- 30 employers were banned from the program.
The inspections were risk-focused, so the 12% figure should not be read as the non-compliance rate of all employers using the program.
The point is not to frighten an employer away from the program. It is to understand the real commitment:
Can the company truthfully make these representations now and continue honouring them after the worker starts?
That is a better question than “How do we get the LMIA approved?”
Employer compliance information →
Frequently asked questions
LMIA questions employers ask
Do I always need an LMIA to hire a foreign worker?
No. Some workers may qualify through an LMIA-exempt category. Check the available legal route before assuming an LMIA is necessary.
What are the main LMIA requirements for employers?
The exact requirements depend on the stream and position, but the employer generally needs to establish a legitimate business and job offer, a compliant wage, compliant recruitment, ability to fulfil the employment offer and compliance with applicable program requirements.
How long do I have to advertise before applying?
For standard low-wage positions, current rules generally require at least 8 consecutive weeks within the 3 months before applying. For standard high-wage positions, the minimum is generally 4 consecutive weeks. Other recruitment requirements apply in addition to the advertising period.
What is the difference between high-wage and low-wage LMIA?
Compare the wage offered with the applicable provincial or territorial threshold. In B.C., the current threshold for LMIAs received on or after July 17, 2026 is $38.40 per hour. The stream threshold is separate from the prevailing wage requirement.
Does a high-wage LMIA need a transition plan?
Generally yes. A transition plan is mandatory for high-wage positions unless an exemption applies.
Does an LMIA still give Express Entry CRS points?
No. IRCC removed CRS job-offer points on March 25, 2025. A job offer can still matter under some immigration programs, but it should not be assumed to provide the former 50 or 200 CRS points.
How much does an LMIA cost the employer?
The standard federal processing fee is $1,000 for each position requested, subject to specified exemptions. The processing fee cannot be recovered from the temporary foreign worker.
How long does LMIA processing take?
For June 2026, ESDC reported average processing times of 79 business days for high-wage and 71 business days for low-wage applications. The figures are updated monthly and are not guarantees.
Where do employers submit an LMIA?
Most applications are submitted through the Government of Canada's LMIA Online portal using the employer's Job Bank account credentials.
Can Service Canada refuse to process an LMIA?
Yes. One current measure applies to certain low-wage positions in census metropolitan areas with unemployment of 6% or higher, subject to exemptions. Other refusal-to-process rules can also apply.
Does a B.C. employer need provincial registration?
Many B.C. employers using LMIA-based hiring routes need to register with the province and obtain a certificate of registration before obtaining an LMIA.
Why can an LMIA fail even when the employer genuinely needs the worker?
A genuine hiring need does not itself establish every program requirement. Wage, recruitment, business legitimacy, job requirements and the supporting record still need to satisfy the applicable LMIA rules.
Bring me the company, the job and the recruitment record.
If you already know who you want to hire, you do not need to arrive knowing every LMIA rule. Bring the company, the position, the wage, the work location, what you have advertised so far, and the worker you are considering. From there, we can work through whether an LMIA is required, whether Service Canada can process it, which stream applies, whether the wage and recruitment are compliant, whether a transition plan is required, and where the file needs attention before you invest further.
Your next step
Answer five questions before you file
If those five questions are clear, the rest of the application becomes much easier to organize. If they are not clear, resolve them before spending more time and money on a file built around assumptions.
You may also want to read
Official resources
Last reviewed: August 2026. This page provides general educational information for Canadian employers. It is not legal advice and does not guarantee that an LMIA will be processed or approved. Temporary Foreign Worker Program requirements, wage thresholds, processing times and refusal-to-process measures can change. Confirm the rules that apply to the occupation, wage, work location and filing date before acting.