How Long Is an LMIA Valid in Canada? Expiry Rules Every Employer Must Know in 2026

Obtaining a positive LMIA is a significant milestone. It represents weeks of advertising, document collection, application preparation, and waiting. For both the employer and the foreign worker, the positive LMIA letter represents hope and forward momentum. And then comes a detail that catches many people off guard: the LMIA comes with an expiry date, and that date matters enormously.

The LMIA validity period is not a courtesy reminder or a suggested timeline. It is a hard deadline. An LMIA that expires before the worker’s work permit application is submitted to IRCC, or in some cases before the work permit is actually issued, becomes void. The employer cannot use an expired LMIA to support a work permit, and the worker cannot use an expired LMIA to apply to IRCC. A new LMIA application, with a new $1,000 fee and new processing wait, would be required.

Understanding how the validity period works, when the clock starts, and how to manage the window between LMIA approval and work permit issuance is an essential part of LMIA file management that is often underestimated, particularly by employers navigating the process for the first time.

The Standard Validity Period: Six Months from Date of Issuance

The standard validity period for a positive LMIA under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is six months from the date stated on the LMIA letter. This date is the date ESDC issued the positive decision, not the date the application was submitted, not the date the employer received the letter in the mail or portal, and not any other date in the process.

The LMIA letter will clearly state the expiry date on its face. The first thing an employer should do upon receiving a positive LMIA is identify that expiry date and build the work permit timeline backward from it. If the expiry date is six months away and the work permit processing time through IRCC is currently running at twelve weeks, the window is tight but manageable. If the worker has not yet gathered their documents or if there are credential verification requirements, the timeline becomes critical immediately.

Why Six Months? The Policy Rationale

The six-month validity period reflects the underlying policy intent of the LMIA as a point-in-time assessment of labour market conditions. ESDC issues a positive LMIA based on evidence that, at the time of review, the Canadian labour market cannot provide a qualified worker for the position. As time passes, that assessment becomes stale. Labour market conditions change, qualified Canadians become available, and the employer’s business circumstances may shift. A permanent or indefinitely valid LMIA would be inconsistent with the policy goal of using foreign workers as a temporary solution to genuine labour shortages rather than a permanent replacement for Canadian workers.

When Does the Clock Start?

The validity clock starts on the date of issuance stated on the positive LMIA letter. This is a fixed date that does not adjust based on when the letter was received by the employer, when the employer forwarded it to the worker, or when the worker began preparing their work permit application.

In practice, there is often a gap between the ESDC decision date and the date the employer and worker become aware of the decision. Applications submitted through the Employer Portal generate notifications, but there can be brief processing lags between the decision being entered into the system and the notification reaching the employer. This gap is typically small (days rather than weeks), but employers should check their portal regularly when approaching the expected decision date rather than waiting passively.

The Critical Relationship Between LMIA Validity and Work Permit Processing

This is where the validity period becomes genuinely complicated, and where many employers and workers run into difficulties.

IRCC processes work permit applications on their own timeline, which in 2026 varies from a few weeks for applications submitted at the port of entry to several months for online applications from outside Canada. The critical question is: does the LMIA need to be valid at the time the work permit application is submitted, or at the time the work permit is actually issued?

The general rule is that the LMIA must be valid when the work permit application is submitted. Once a work permit application has been submitted to IRCC while the LMIA is still valid, the subsequent processing of that application and issuance of the work permit can extend beyond the LMIA expiry date without invalidating the process. This is an important nuance: the deadline is the submission date, not the approval date of the work permit.

However, this is an area where the written rules and IRCC’s operational practices have not always been perfectly consistent, and individual officers may approach files differently. The safest practice is to ensure that not only is the LMIA valid at the time of submission, but that there is a meaningful validity buffer remaining at that point rather than submitting on the last possible day.

Common Scenarios Where the Validity Period Creates Problems

Scenario 1: IRCC Processing Delays Overlap with LMIA Expiry

An employer obtains a positive LMIA in January with a July expiry. The worker submits their work permit application in February. IRCC’s processing, which is running at five months for overseas applications, extends the work permit decision to July or August. If the work permit is not issued before the LMIA expires, or if the submission itself was borderline on timing, uncertainty arises about the validity of the application.

The mitigation is to submit the work permit application as early as possible after receiving the positive LMIA, and to ensure the worker has all required documents prepared in advance so that the only delay is the government processing time, not administrative preparation.

Scenario 2: The Worker Delays Their Work Permit Application

Some workers who receive the positive LMIA letter from their employer do not prioritize the work permit application immediately. They may need additional time to gather documents, resolve credential recognition issues, address medical examination requirements, or attend to personal circumstances. Meanwhile, the six-month validity clock continues running. Workers who take three to four months to submit their work permit application after receiving the LMIA may find themselves racing against the expiry or losing the window entirely.

Employers who are managing this timeline should be proactive in communicating the urgency of the expiry date to the worker as soon as the LMIA is received. Providing the LMIA to the worker without clearly communicating the expiry date and the consequences of missing it is a setup for problems that then require an entirely new LMIA application.

Scenario 3: The Employer’s Business Circumstances Change

In some cases, an employer obtains a positive LMIA but then experiences business disruption, restructuring, or delay in the underlying project that the worker was being hired for. The employer may wish to defer the worker’s arrival while preserving the LMIA. This is not possible. The LMIA validity period does not pause or extend due to employer-side delays. If the six months expire, the LMIA is void and a new application is required.

Can an LMIA Be Extended?

No. There is no mechanism under the TFWP to extend a positive LMIA. Once an LMIA expires, it cannot be renewed, reinstated, or extended by any application or request to ESDC. The employer’s only option is to submit an entirely new LMIA application for the same position, which requires a new $1,000 fee, new advertising (or documentation that the recruitment evidence remains current), and a new processing wait.

This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the LMIA process for employers who come very close to meeting the timeline but fall short. There is no grace period and no discretionary extension. The expiry date on the letter is final.

Multiple Workers Under a Single LMIA: An Important Clarification

In most TFWP streams, the LMIA is issued for a specific named worker. This means a single LMIA supports one work permit for one person. The employer cannot use a single LMIA to support multiple workers unless the specific stream allows for this, which occurs in limited circumstances primarily in the Primary Agriculture stream.

Agricultural employers under SAWP or the Agricultural Stream can obtain LMIAs that cover a defined number of unnamed workers for a season or period, which is one reason the agricultural stream operates differently from the standard TFWP streams. For standard high-wage and low-wage positions, the LMIA is named and individual.

If an employer needs to hire three foreign workers for three positions, they need three separate LMIAs (each with its own $1,000 fee) or a single LMIA application covering multiple positions, which ESDC allows in certain circumstances but which is administratively more complex.

What Happens After the LMIA Expires: The Employer’s Next Steps

If an LMIA expires before being used to support a successful work permit application, the employer must decide whether to reapply. Reapplication requires starting the LMIA process from scratch, including confirming that the recruitment advertising evidence remains current (ESDC may ask about this in the new application), paying the application fee again, and waiting through processing.

A key question in any reapplication scenario is whether the underlying labour market conditions that supported the original positive LMIA still exist. If the employer can demonstrate continuity of the shortage and continuity of the genuine recruitment effort (which means active or recent advertising showing continued inability to hire qualified Canadians), the reapplication has a strong foundation. If significant time has passed and labour market conditions in the sector have changed, the new application will need to address those changes.

Practical Timeline Management: How to Never Let an LMIA Expire Unused

The most effective approach to LMIA validity management is to treat the expiry date as an absolute deadline from day one and work backward from it. The moment a positive LMIA letter is received, the employer should:

• Record the expiry date prominently in a shared tracking system accessible to all relevant HR and administrative staff.
• Calculate the work permit processing time that the worker will face based on their country of residence and application type (online vs. port of entry).
• Set a ‘must submit by’ date for the work permit application that leaves a buffer of at least four to six weeks before the LMIA expiry.
• Immediately provide the LMIA letter, the signed job offer, and any other required documents to the worker along with a clear explanation of the expiry date and the urgency of the work permit application timeline.
• Follow up with the worker at regular intervals to confirm the work permit application is being prepared and submitted on schedule.
• If using an RCIC or immigration consultant for the work permit application, ensure that professional is aware of the LMIA expiry date and has built the work permit application timeline around it.

Employers who manage this process proactively almost never encounter LMIA expiry problems. The problems arise overwhelmingly in cases where the LMIA letter was received, forwarded to the worker, and then forgotten by the employer while the worker took their time with the work permit application.

LMIA Validity in the Context of Express Entry

Foreign workers using an LMIA-backed job offer to claim arranged employment points in their Express Entry profile face an additional layer of timing complexity. The LMIA must be valid and the job offer must be submitted through the IRCC Employer Portal at the time the Express Entry profile is created or updated with the job offer. The job offer points are then reflected in the CRS score.

If the LMIA expires before the worker receives an Invitation to Apply (ITA) or before they submit their PR application, the validity of the arranged employment points may be affected. Workers and employers in this situation should work closely with an experienced RCIC to ensure that the timing of the LMIA, the Express Entry profile, any invitation draws, and the PR application timeline all align correctly.

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