The Labour Market Impact Assessment process has become more restrictive and more location-sensitive. Employers can spend weeks recruiting and preparing documents only to discover that Service Canada will not process the application because of the wage level, metropolitan-area unemployment rate or proportion of low-wage workers at the worksite.
Main requirements for hiring low-wage foreign workers
- Confirm the application can be processed. The job must be legitimate and full-time—at least 30 hours per week. A low-wage LMIA may be refused processing if the job is in a census metropolitan area with unemployment of 6% or more. Low-wage foreign workers are generally capped at 10% of the workforce at a work location, or 20% in designated sectors and occupations. Exemptions and rural measures may apply.
- Recruit Canadians and permanent residents first. Advertise on Job Bank, target youth, and use at least two additional occupation-appropriate methods, each aimed at a different underrepresented group. Advertising must run for at least eight consecutive weeks within the three months before applying, with at least one method continuing until the LMIA decision. Use Job Match, invite qualifying matches, consider Direct Apply applicants, document results, and keep recruitment records for six years.
- Offer the required wage. Pay at least the prevailing wage—the higher of the Job Bank median or the wage paid to comparable employees at the same location. Only guaranteed wages count. Reassess the prevailing wage when employment begins and annually thereafter; pay can never fall below the wage approved in the LMIA.
- Pay the employer’s costs. The LMIA fee is generally $1,000 per position. The employer must not charge or recover LMIA, recruitment, representative, transportation, health-insurance, or workplace-safety costs from the worker. Paid representatives must be authorized, and employers remain responsible for recruiters acting for them.
- Provide required support. Pay round-trip transportation; provide or ensure suitable housing costing less than 30% of the worker’s before-tax income; and pay for private emergency medical insurance until provincial or territorial coverage begins, where applicable.
- Protect the worker. Provide required workplace-safety coverage, lawful pay including overtime, the same benefits, and a workplace free of abuse. Do not retain the worker’s identification. The worker may perform only the duties of the approved occupation.
- Put the terms in writing. Give the worker a signed English- or French-language employment agreement by the first day of work, matching the occupation, wage, and conditions in the job offer. Maintain complete employment records. Special language, union, Quebec, sector, and new-employer rules may also apply.
Check processability, the workforce cap, wage and recruitment plan before advertising or paying the LMIA fee.
Important: This is a general summary, not legal advice. Requirements, thresholds, unemployment rates, exemptions and temporary measures can change. Confirm the rules in effect when you apply.