On January 15, 2026, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) updated the processing times for the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications under various streams.\

Based on statistics from all processing centres, the current average LMIA processing time has increased for the Agricultural, Permanent Residence, and High-wage streams while maintaining the same processing times for the remaining streams.

Global Talent Stream - 10 business days Agricultural stream – 15 business days (+1 day) Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program - 10 business days Permanent Residence Stream - 274 business days (+8 days) High-wage Stream - 50 business days (+4 days) Low-wage Stream - 44 business days #esdc, #service_canada, #lmia #tfwp, #work_permit, #agricultural_workers, #caregivers