New Government Regulations and a Fee Now Applied to Labor Market Opinion Applications

Effective today, Labor Market Opinion (LMO) applications now have a new government fee and stricter regulations. The changes will raise the cost and required lead time for employers to obtain LMO-based work permits for foreign nationals under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The rules will apply to all new LMO applications under the program. Today, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) announced the following changes:

• A new $275 fee for each position requested in an LMO application. The fee is intended to cover the cost of an LMO.
• Stricter job advertising requirements including:

• • The mandatory advertising period is now extended from two weeks to four weeks before the employer can apply for an LMO.
  • The job must be advertised via two additional methods besides the National Job Bank or any regional equivalents.
  • Employers must continue to seek Canadian workers to fill the position until an LMO decision has been issued.

• No language other than English and French may be specified as a job requirement.
• A new LMO application, with questions designed to protect against the outsourcing of Canadian jobs.

These changes are among the program reforms that the Canadian government has been planning since early 2013. BAL anticipates that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada may release further supplements to these rules in the weeks to come. We will provide updates as needed.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group and our network provider located in Canada. For additional information, please contact GlobalVisaGroup@bal.com.

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