LMIA

Immigration service for Canadian employers looking to hire workers abroad

Canadian Employers need workers to fulfill labour shortages. The temporary foreign worker program has a high wage and a low wage stream with different requirements in both that are designed to help Canadian employers to find international qualified employees in order to fulfill their labour shortages. We are an immigration service firm specializing in LMIA applications with extensive experience and expert consultant or lawyer on staff. 

Canada is a huge country with a small population. It is not surprising that companies sometime find themselves in a hiring bind. This means that there is a shortage of qualified people who apply for the job. It also means that there may be an expert in something abroad that is a new industry in Canada or a new business venture in Canada. All of these instances may result in the Canadian employer looking for workers from abroad. 

The process of hiring a foreign worker from another country involves 3 continuous months of recruitment inside Canada. Part of our immigration service package constitutes handling compliant advertising on self of the employer. The goal for an employer is to offer competitive wages and attractive employment conditions so that skilled workers from across Canada will be attracted and interested in their job offer. During these 3 months of advertising, it is necessary to utilize a variety of different relevant and appropriate mediums including both local and national ads so that the job is accessible and attractive to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. It is a challenge to follow all the requirements and therefor an immigration consultant practitioner can help.

A job offer in the high wages stream means the wage offered for the position is either at or above the median wage for the province where the job is offered. From time to time, the median wage changes and the statistics must be monitored in order to ensure that the job advertisements reflect the correct wage for the category. Job bank has a useful tool that divulges labour market information by occupation. This tool publishes statistics relevant to stakeholders regarding unemployment rates, wages, and employment requirements by location. In occupations where there is a high unemployment rate in the region where the job will be located or where the wages offered are below the average, be weary of immigration services practitioners making LMIA applications in light of such factors.

A job offer in the low wage stream means the wage offered for the position is below the median wage for the province where the job is offered. This is sometimes the case for positions in the retail and/or restaurant sector where the employment requirements may not be exhaustive but hiring can be difficult nevertheless for Canadian employers. The jobs might also have a high turnover where people often change jobs due to the ease of mobility within the industry. Some small cities on the outskirts of large metropolitan areas also experience hiring difficulties due to the limited labour market within their locality. This stream is ideal for small businesses especially those in remote locations and/or for industries with high employee turnover. Labour market information such as that published on job bank is still very relevant to ensuring that the wages offered are competitive and are not a reason for the hiring difficulties experienced by the employer. Talk to an immigration consultant lawyer to find out about the ideal wage and job conditions to get an LMIA approved.

Once adequate recruitment of Canadian citizens and permanent residents has occurred as per the program requirements, an application may be filed with Service Canada requesting permission for a temporary foreign worker to fulfill the labour shortage. This immigration service is called the labour market impact assessment or LMIA. An approved LMIA means that the officer has found that offering the job to a foreign worker will result in a neutral or positive effect on the Canadian labour market. It is the burden of the employer and their lawyer or consultant counsel (if hired) to establish these facts and to exemplify through concrete evidence that a negative effect will not occur on the Canadian labour market by hiring the foreign worker. Part of the evidence base then, becomes the job advertisements and the reasons for which they did not result in a qualified individual being hired. 

Offering a job to support an Express Entry applicant is also a viable LMIA option for some candidates with support from our immigration service department. People who have already opened and qualify under one of the skilled worker federal immigration programs, can qualify for more CRS points with an LMIA backed job offer. This is a third option to the high and low wage LMIA application streams and is a very useful one in certain instances.

It is pertinent to the process to complete genuine recruitment, to do it for the required duration, to offer competitive wages and employment conditions and also to be prepared to discuss the particulars of the business and its hiring needs. Not every business may be qualified or eligible. Talk to one of our immigration consultants to understand your options better. Some occupations are not eligible for the LMIA program in certain provinces as well. The key is to do research and be prepared well before initiating the process.  

​

Referrals: Alberta Exteriors Ltd, Congra Construction Ltd & many more 

​