Canada’s LMIA policy for 2021 – The new updates

LMIA is an essential component in recruiting foreign workers who are skilled and qualified to work in Canada. LMIA is an assessment of the need of Canada’s regional employers to recruit skilled foreign workers for genuine reasons.

LMIA serves the interests of regional employers, local employees, and foreign workers. For employers, it is the way to find eligible workers from overseas when there are no skilled workers locally available. For local employees, it’s a mechanism to ensure that job opportunities aren’t unfairly given to foreigners. For foreign workers, the opportunities to get employed in territories and provinces of Canada gets opened with employers procuring LMIA clearance.

The LMIA is valid for 6 months after issue to support the Canada work visa application of a TFW that’s made to IRCC.

The period of time determined by LMIA’s expiry date will be when:

• The employer notifies the TFW about the LMIA being approved
• The employer sends a letter to the TFW indicating positive LMIA
• The TFW applies for a Canada work permit visa
• The employers who don’t mention the names of TFWs when applying for an LMIA must keep the effort on and recruit Canadian citizens/Canada PR until they select a TFW

The following are among the latest updates to LMIA:

• Except for SAWP, approved LMIAs will be valid for 9 months.
• As regards SAWP, LMIAs approved for 2021 will be valid until December 15, 2021.
• An extension of the validity period for up to 9 months is allowed in case the validity of the original LMIA was 6 months.

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Note:

LMIA – Labor Market Impact Assessment

TFW – Temporary Foreign Worker

IRCC – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

SAWP – Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program