LMIA Processing Times, Stream by Stream — and the Clock Nobody Counts

LMIA processing times are published every month by Service Canada, stream by stream, and they are the number most employers plan around. They are also only half of the wait.

Here are the current figures, and the part of the timeline that does not appear in them.

What are the current processing times?

These are the figures for August 2026 — which reflect applications processed in July.

Two things to notice before you use these.

They are business days, not calendar days. Eighty-two business days is roughly four calendar months, not three.

And the spread is enormous. The same government, the same application, and the difference between the fastest and slowest stream is twenty-six times.

When is that figure from, and how often does it change?

It is updated monthly, and it describes the month before the one in the title.

The table headed “August 2026” reports applications that were actually processed in July. So the number you are reading is already describing a period that has closed.

Service Canada is clear about why it moves: these figures can vary significantly from month to month based on the volume of applications received. It is not a service standard and it is not a promise about your file. It is a report on what happened.

Check the current table before you commit to a hiring date. The figures above are accurate as of September 10, 2026, and they will not be the figures in December.

What the published number does not include

The mandatory recruitment period — and it happens before you can even apply.

This is the part that turns a plan into a problem. Before you submit an LMIA application, you have to have advertised the position. Depending on the stream, that runs from 14 days to 8 weeks, and none of it is inside the processing time above.

So the sequence for a low-wage position is:

1. Advertise for 8 consecutive weeks, plus your other recruitment methods
2. Then submit the LMIA application
3. Then wait the 82 business days
4. Then the worker applies to IRCC for the work permit

Add the first three with a calendar in front of you. The number you get is not the number on the Service Canada page, and it is the one your operation actually lives with.

We are not going to publish a total of our own, because Service Canada does not publish one and your stream and dates change the answer. But do the addition before you promise a start date to anyone.

Is there a faster route?

The Global Talent Stream, at 10 business days — but it is narrow.

It carries an actual service standard: processing in 10 business days, 80% of the time. IRCC applies the same standard to the associated work permit, which makes it the only route where both halves move quickly.

To qualify, you must either be an innovative firm referred by a designated referral partner (Category A), or be filling a position from the Global Talent Occupations List (Category B). You also have to submit a Labour Market Benefits Plan and report on your progress against it every year.

That last requirement is not a formality. It is an ongoing commitment, and it is the reason this stream is not simply a faster door to the same room.

LMIA time is not work permit time

They are two processes, two departments and two clocks. Confusing them is the most common planning error we see.

The LMIA is yours. You file it with ESDC / Service Canada, and the table above is its clock.

The work permit is the worker’s. They file it with IRCC after your LMIA comes back positive, and IRCC runs a separate estimate tool that asks for their country and their filing date. There is no fixed figure by stream the way there is for the LMIA — the answer depends on where they are applying from.

So a positive LMIA is not an arrival date. It is permission to start the second wait.

What else can stretch a file?

Only two things appear in the official guidance, and both are worth planning for.

Volume. The figures move with how many applications Service Canada receives that month, which is outside anyone’s control and is why last month’s number is a guide rather than a guarantee.

Quebec. If the position is for more than 30 consecutive days, the application has to be submitted to Service Canada and to the provincial ministry at the same time. Two submissions, not one, and planning for one of them is planning for half.

How to plan around this

1. Start from your start date and work backwards, not forwards from today.
2. Add the advertising period first. It is the part that gets forgotten and the part you cannot compress.
3. Check the current table, not the one you saw last quarter.
4. Budget a second wait for the work permit, and find out which country the worker will apply from.
5. If the position is in Quebec, plan two filings.

Where we come in

Workvantage has spent more than 18 years on the employer’s side of this timeline.

• Running the recruitment so the clock starts when you think it started
• Filing the LMIA with a file that does not come back for clarification
• Telling you a realistic arrival window instead of a processing time
• Handling the Quebec double filing when it applies

If you are planning a hiring season and need the real timeline rather than the published one, start with a free assessment.