Your employer says they will "do the LMIA". Here is what that actually involves
Eight weeks of advertising before it is even submitted, then nine to ten weeks at ESDC, then your own work permit application. It costs your employer $1,000 and they may not lawfully charge you a cent of it.
The first thing to understand is that it is not your application
If your permit is running out and somebody at work has said they will "do the LMIA", it is worth being precise about what has actually been promised.
A Labour Market Impact Assessment is an application your employer makes to Employment and Social Development Canada — a different department from the one that issues your permit. You are not a party to it. You cannot check its progress, you cannot correct it, you cannot chase it, and if your employer quietly stops working on it, the way you find out is that nothing happens.
That is not a criticism of your employer. It is the structure of the thing, and it means the single most important decision in your immigration timeline sits with somebody whose deadline is not the same as yours.
The timeline is much longer than the processing time
Almost everybody underestimates this, because they look up the processing time and stop there. The processing time is the second half.
Before the application is submitted
The employer must advertise the job and prove genuine recruitment effort. Since 1 April 2026 those requirements got substantially heavier for low-wage positions:
- Eight consecutive weeks of advertising, doubled from four
- The advertising must fall inside the three-month window before submission
- Job Bank plus at least two other recruitment methods, each targeting a different under-represented group
- Plus a new requirement to show efforts to recruit youth, which in practice means at least four advertising methods in total
- At least one recruitment activity must stay active until ESDC makes its decision
None of that has begun until the employer starts it.
Then the processing
ESDC published its June 2026 figures on 9 July 2026:
| Stream | Processing time |
|---|---|
| High-wage | about 64 days |
| Low-wage | over 10 weeks |
| Global Talent Stream | 10 business days |
Then your part
An approved LMIA is not a permit. You then apply for the work permit, which is a separate application to IRCC with its own processing time and its own possibility of refusal.
Add it up
For a low-wage position: eight weeks of advertising, then ten or more weeks of processing, then your work permit application. That is comfortably four to six months from the day the employer starts, and the start date is the part you cannot control.
If you have three months left on your permit and the advertising has not begun, the arithmetic does not work, and it is better to know that now than in November.
It might not be processable at all
This is the part that surprises people most, because it happens before anybody assesses whether you are a good candidate.
ESDC does not process low-wage LMIAs for work locations in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher. Not "assesses them more strictly" — does not process them.
For the period from 10 July to 9 October 2026, twenty-six census metropolitan areas were on that list. The list is revised quarterly. Areas have been added and removed repeatedly through 2026, which means a location can move on to the list while your employer is still in the middle of an eight-week advertising run.
There is also a cap on the proportion of a workforce at a given location that can be temporary foreign workers in low-wage positions — 10% at most work locations, with relief to 15% for some employers outside census metropolitan areas.
And the line between "low-wage" and "high-wage" is a wage threshold that itself moved during 2026, so which set of rules applies to your job is not fixed either.
Who pays, and the answer is not you
The LMIA processing fee is $1,000 per position, and the employer pays it.
ESDC prohibits employers and third-party representatives from recovering that fee from the worker. It is also non-refundable — if the LMIA is refused, the employer does not get the $1,000 back.
The consequences for an employer who charges the worker are not theoretical. The LMIA can be revoked, the employer can be barred from the programme, face monetary penalties of up to $100,000, and be named on the public non-compliance list.
If somebody asks you for money, that is the whole answer
This is the most useful paragraph on this page.
Workers in Canada have paid $30,000 and more in illegal fees to obtain a job. IRCC's own investigations found LMIA letters being sold for between $20,000 and $75,000 — and that fraud is the stated reason the arranged employment CRS points were removed on 25 March 2025.
So consider what is actually on offer when somebody asks you to pay for an LMIA:
- They are asking you to fund something the law requires them to pay for.
- The document they are selling is worth zero CRS points, and has been since March 2025.
- If the arrangement is discovered, the LMIA is revoked and you are the one left without status, having paid for it.
There is no version of that transaction where you come out ahead. A genuine employer with a genuine shortage pays the $1,000 because the shortage is their problem.
And the worst outcome is worse than losing the money. Under section 40 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, letting a representative misrepresent on your behalf carries a five-year bar on entering Canada or being granted status — intent is not required, so "somebody else handled the paperwork" is not a defence. That consequence lands on you rather than on them, and it is covered in when leaving Canada is the better move.
What an LMIA is still genuinely good for
Having said all that, an LMIA is not worthless, and it would be dishonest to leave you thinking it is.
- It supports a work permit. That is status, and the ability to keep working, which for somebody watching a permit expire is the thing that actually matters.
- Some provincial streams require a job offer. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so an LMIA that unlocks a stream can be worth an enormous amount — indirectly, through the province, not through your federal score.
- It is real employment. Canadian work experience in an occupation that counts is the foundation of most routes.
What it no longer is: a shortcut, a points booster, or something you should pay for. We set out what the points levers actually are, with the numbers, in second diploma, or another year of work?.
What you can actually ask for
You cannot see the application. You can see the things that must exist anyway, and asking for them is reasonable rather than rude.
- Ask to see the job advertisement. It has to be live, it has to run for a set period, and at least one recruitment activity has to stay active until the decision. If your employer is genuinely doing this, an advertisement exists and they can show you. If nothing exists, the eight weeks have not started.
- Ask which stream and which work location. That determines whether the refusal-to-process list applies at all.
- Ask when the advertising started, not when they intend to apply. The advertising start date is the real beginning of your timeline.
- Ask nothing about paying, and treat any request for money as the end of the conversation rather than a negotiation.
- Work backwards from your own expiry date, and know what you will do if the LMIA is not decided in time — because filing something before your permit expires is what preserves your ability to keep working. That distinction is set out in out of status in Canada: the 90 days.
Where we stop
The fee, the prohibition on recovering it, the advertising requirements from 1 April 2026, the ESDC processing times published on 9 July 2026, and the refusal-to-process list are all published by the government and checkable. Reporting them is fine.
Telling you whether your employer's LMIA is likely to succeed, whether to wait for it, or what to do about a permit that will expire before it is decided is not. Under Canadian law that is regulated advice, and it may only be given by a Canadian lawyer, a Quebec notary, or a member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.
If you have been asked to pay for an LMIA, that is also worth raising with someone licensed, because the person on the wrong side of that transaction in law is not you.
And the part that is ours
If waiting on an employer is not a plan you can rely on, and studying is one of the options you are weighing, that is the piece we can help with: which programmes you actually qualify for in Canada, what each genuinely costs, how long it runs, and whether it carries a post-graduation work permit. Free, no agent fee to us, and cashback on your college fees on every one.
If your permit is running out and your points are not reaching, the wider set of options is in PGWP expiring and CRS score not enough.
See what is open to you in Canada
The $1,000 per position processing fee, the prohibition on recovering it from the worker, the penalties of up to $100,000 and the public non-compliance list are Employment and Social Development Canada's published programme rules. The eight-week advertising requirement for low-wage positions, the additional recruitment methods and the youth recruitment requirement took effect on 1 April 2026. Processing times of about 64 days for the high-wage stream and over ten weeks for the low-wage stream are ESDC's June 2026 figures published on 9 July 2026. Twenty-six census metropolitan areas were subject to refusal-to-process for low-wage LMIAs for the period 10 July to 9 October 2026; that list is revised quarterly. Arranged employment CRS points were removed on 25 March 2025. Reports of workers paying $30,000 or more in illegal fees are from CBC News reporting; the $20,000 to $75,000 range for fraudulent LMIA letters is from IRCC's stated rationale for removing the points. Checked 8 August 2026. Programme rules, processing times and the refusal-to-process list change without notice — confirm against the government before acting. Nothing here is advice about your own situation, and nothing here predicts an outcome.