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TLDR
The federal government announced on April 10, 2026 that it will stop processing low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment applications in 30 census metropolitan areas with unemployment rates of 6% or higher.
The freeze covers major cities including Vancouver, Winnipeg and Halifax, and remains in effect until the next quarterly update on July 10, 2026.
Employers in affected cities cannot use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire for low-wage positions during the freeze window.
The announcement comes days after a separate April 1 rule change that now requires employers to advertise low-wage positions for at least 8 consecutive weeks and target youth in recruitment efforts.
The federal government has stopped processing low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment applications in 30 Canadian census metropolitan areas, effective immediately. The freeze, announced April 10, applies to urban regions where the unemployment rate sits at 6% or higher and will remain in place until the next quarterly review on July 10, 2026.
The decision means employers in cities such as Vancouver, Winnipeg and Halifax cannot use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire foreign workers for low-wage positions until at least mid-July. It follows a separate set of recruitment rule changes that took effect on April 1, which further restrict the program's low-wage stream.
What the freeze covers and what it doesn’t
A Labour Market Impact Assessment, or LMIA, is an employer-side approval required before a business can hire a foreign worker for certain jobs. The "low-wage" stream applies to positions that pay below the provincial or territorial median hourly wage. A census metropolitan area is a Statistics Canada-defined urban region, typically a city and its surrounding commuter zone.
According to official program requirements on Canada.ca, the government refuses to process low-wage LMIA applications in any census metropolitan area where the unemployment rate reaches 6% or higher. The April 10 announcement applies that threshold to 30 cities across the country.
The freeze does not appear to affect high-wage LMIA applications, other streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, or employers located outside census metropolitan areas. Some employers in rural areas may still qualify for temporary measures on the proportion of temporary foreign workers they can hire for certain low-wage positions, according to the same Canada.ca page.
The new LMIA rules add more paperwork on top of a freeze
The freeze arrived on the heels of tighter recruitment requirements that took effect on April 1, 2026. Employers filing low-wage LMIA applications must now advertise the position for a minimum of 8 consecutive weeks within the three months before submitting the application and must target youth in their recruitment efforts, according to Canada.ca.
An employer guide published by Parsai Immigration Services on Settler.ca describes the 8-week advertising window as a meaningful shift from the shorter timelines many employers were accustomed to. The guide also notes the increasing importance of documentation, including proof of advertising dates, records of where ads ran, and materials showing that youth were targeted.
Employers must also pay a $1,000 processing fee per position requested and cannot recover that fee from the temporary foreign worker, according to Canada.ca.
What this means for workers
If your employer was planning to file a low-wage LMIA in one of the 30 affected cities, ask them directly whether they have already filed or are still planning to. Applications going in now are not moving before July 10.
If your job offer is still being negotiated, that date changes your timeline conversation. Mid-July is the earliest realistic restart. And that’s only if the freeze lifts at the quarterly review, which isn’t guaranteed.
If you are already working under an approved LMIA, nothing here affects you. The freeze only blocks new applications.
