Global Alerts

CANADA – Foreign Employers, the Job Bank, & LMIAs

Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) are applications that employers use to gain permission from the government to hire foreign workers for a particular job position. Before submitting an LMIA application, employers must recruit for that specific position in three sources, one of which is required to be the federal Job Bank, to prove that Canadian citizens or permanent residents could not be found to fill the position.

Recently, the Canadian Government implemented new procedures for Job Bank registration. These new procedures stated that only Canadian citizens and companies could register as employers which technically implies foreign employers cannot register. Non-Canadian employers are permitted to submit LMIA applications, but if they cannot advertise the job position on the federal Job Bank, then their likelihood of securing an LMIA approval is slim.

The Canadian government is now recognizing this concern will hopefully make some adjustments to solve this situation soon. The ESDC/Service Canada has advised that foreign employers still advertise on three recruitment sources just not through the Job Bank for the time being. If foreign employers choose to risk not using the Job bank to advertise and still abide by all of the other LMIA requirements to submit an LMIA application, then they should explain why they have done this. The ESDC website now indicates:

  • “Employers recruiting higher-skilled workers, in areas where the use of the Job Bank or its provincial/territorial counterparts is not considered an effective method of recruitment, must provide a written explanation of the alternative method used with their LMIA application.”

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