Canada Drops Time Limit for LMIA Work Permit Waiters

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has officially scrapped the hard time limit that used to force automatic work permit refusals when an employer’s Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) took too long. As of October 28, 2026, immigration officers must hold off on making decisions for concurrent work permit applications until Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) finalizes the underlying LMIA.

This update overhauls how the government handles files delayed by internal backlogs. Previously, officers were instructed to hold these pending applications for a maximum of 90 days, a cap that IRCC had only just bumped up from 60 days on August 21, 2026.

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The shift directly impacts in-Canada workers applying for a Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) permit while their employer’s LMIA remains stuck in the queue. To qualify for concurrent processing in the first place, your current permit has to expire in two weeks or less. Your employer also needs to have submitted the LMIA with enough lead time to reasonably expect ESDC would process it before your expiration date.

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Because you’re submitting your new application before your current authorization runs out, you benefit from maintained status. That legal buffer lets you keep working under your existing permit’s rules until the government reaches a final verdict.

These adjustments arrive alongside broader regional restrictions that employers need to track closely. Cities facing 6% or higher unemployment are currently subjected to a federal moratorium running from October 9, 2026, to January 7, 2027, blocking LMIA applications for non-exempt jobs paying under 120% of the median provincial or territorial wage.

Policy Event	Effective Date / Window	Details
IRCC Time Limit Removal	October 28, 2026	Officers won’t refuse concurrent work permits due to pending LMIA delays.
Concurrent Processing Extension	August 21, 2026	IRCC previously raised the holding limit from 60 to 90 days before scrapping it entirely.
Urban LMIA Ban	October 9, 2026, January 7, 2027	Low-wage LMIA bans active in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and other high-unemployment areas.

Those municipal restrictions hit major hubs like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Halifax, Fredericton, and Regina. Meanwhile, Montreal and Laval remain under a separate, ongoing moratorium requested by the Quebec government.