Canada scraps time limit for work permit applicants awaiting LMIA decisions
Work permit applicants will no longer be refused when the government takes longer than expected to process their employer’s Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).
On October 28, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) updated its documentation, which now directs officers not to make a decision on an application for a work permit through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) until a decision has been made on the LMIA.
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The updated web page, "Labour Market Impact Assessment Review – Temporary Foreign Worker Program," is a public-facing version of instructions provided to immigration officers.
The previous version of the instructions told officers to hold the work permit application for a maximum of 90 days while awaiting a decision on the pending LMIA.
The change affects work permit applications submitted under IRCC’s rules for concurrent processing, which allows an in-Canada worker to submit an application for a TFWP work permit while their employer’s application for an LMIA remains pending.
To qualify for concurrent processing, a worker’s existing permit must expire in two weeks or less, and their employer must have submitted the LMIA application with sufficient lead time to have had the reasonable expectation that Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) would have been able to have processed the LMIA prior to the expiry of the worker’s existing permit.
When a worker in Canada applies for a work permit prior to the expiry of their existing permit, they benefit from maintained status, which gives them authorization to work in Canada under the conditions of their existing permit until a decision has been made on their application for an extension.
On August 21, 2026, IRCC raised the time limit for concurrent processing from 60 days to 90 days.
An employer must have a positive or neutral LMIA for a foreign worker to be issued a new work permit or to extend an existing work permit through the TFWP.
ESDC issues a positive or neutral LMIA to validate that no qualified Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available to fill the employer’s position.
As of the time of writing, employers in thirty urban areas are subject to a ban on LMIA applications for non-exempt jobs paying less than 120% of the median provincial/territorial wage.
Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Halifax, Fredericton, and Regina are among the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) subject to the ban from Oct. 9, 2026 to Jan 7, 2027.
The ban applies to areas with 6% or higher unemployment under a moratorium that the federal government established in Sept 2024. ESDC maintains a list of affected regions on its web page "Refusal to process a Labour Market Impact Assessment application," and updates the list on a quarterly basis.
The regions of Montreal and Laval also remain subject to a separate moratorium established by ESDC at the request of the Quebec government in Sept 2024, and subsequently extended in Nov 2025.
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