For many employers in Canada, an LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment) is very important before hiring a temporary foreign worker through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The TFWP permits them to fill positions with foreign workers if no Canadian worker is available to fill the said position.
Are you an employee curious about how to get LMIA in Canada? Well, you’re in luck because this article will give you a brief introduction on how to get LMIA in Canada aside from outlining to you the guide and procedure on the same.
The Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)
Previously known as the Labour Market Opinion (LMO), the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is now the screening mechanism for any employer in need of hiring temporary foreign workers. These changes were made in June 2014 when the Canada Immigration changed their Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
Moreover, these changes were made to highlight strict priorities to any Canadian citizen for available jobs and other important amendments. Therefore, employers have to offer sufficient information about the ongoing job application and any data required on the LMIA. Additionally, employers with more than ten employees who apply for new LMIA are subject to a 10% cap on their workforce’s proportion consisting of low-wage temporary foreign workers.
With the wages being more accurate reflections of the occupational skill levels and the conditions of the labour market, the NOC will be replaced by the wage levels.
‘Low-wage’ jobs are those jobs that rank below the provincial or the territorial median wage while ‘high-wage’ jobs are those above the median wage. The current application fee is $1000 for every job position as opposed to the previous $275 before the reforms.
What Is LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment)?
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the LMIA is an ‘a must have’ document for any employer in Canada willing to hire foreign workers. The document is fundamentally used to show the need to hire a foreign worker for any job position that a Canadian worker cannot perform.
It is a labour market verification process where the Employment and Social Development Canada or simply (ESDC) assesses employment offers to ensure that employing a foreign worker will have no negative impact on the labor market in Canada.
For this reason, the employer will have to offer a variety of information on the vacant position they wish to hire a foreign worker, including the total number of Canadians who applied for the position and those interviewed as well as a detailed explanation why no Canadian worker was considered for the position.
