July 11, 2014 – Recent reforms to the Temporary Foreign
Worker Program mean that some outstanding Labour Market Opinion
(LMO) applications will need to be resubmitted according to the new
program rules. Under the new rules, occupations are categorized as
either "high-wage" or "low-wage" based on the
median wage in any given province or territory. If you have an
outstanding LMO application submitted prior to
June 20, 2014 for a job that qualifies as "low-wage"
under the new rules, your application will be returned and your fee
will be refunded. You will need to complete a new Labour Market
Impact Assessment (LMIA) and pay the new, increased fee of $1000 in
order to proceed. Per new program rules, no LMIA applications
for low-wage jobs will be processed for the Food Services, Retail
Trade or Accommodation sectors in regions with an unemployment rate
at-or-above 6%. In addition, there is a cap on the number of
low-wage temporary foreign workers that may be employed at
