Why could a work permit be refused when the employer's Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) was still in progress?

Immigration officers were told to hold a Temporary Foreign Worker Program work permit application for no more than 90 days while waiting for Employment and Social Development Canada to decide the related Labour Market Impact Assessment. If LMIA processing ran past that window, applicants could be refused even when the delay was not their fault.

Concurrent processing lets someone in Canada apply for a TFWP work permit while the employer's LMIA is still pending. The employer must have filed the LMIA with enough lead time that ESDC could reasonably have finished before the worker's current permit expired. A foreign worker still needs a positive or neutral LMIA before IRCC can issue or extend the permit.

What did IRCC change on October 28, 2026?

IRCC updated officer instructions so decisions on TFWP work permit applications under concurrent processing are not made until the related LMIA has been decided.

The public page Labour Market Impact Assessment Review to Temporary Foreign Worker Program reflects the new guidance. Refusals driven only by LMIA delays exceeding the old hold period should become less common under the updated rules.

What did the 90 day cap mean for someone using concurrent processing?

The 90 day figure was the maximum time officers could wait on a pending LMIA before deciding the work permit file. It was not a guarantee that LMIA processing would finish in 90 days.

On August 21, 2026, IRCC had raised that concurrent processing hold limit from 60 days to 90 days. The October 28, 2026 update removes the fixed cap entirely and ties the work permit decision to the LMIA outcome instead of the clock.

Can you keep working while you wait under the new rules?

If you applied before your permit expired and you qualify for maintained status, you can continue working under your existing permit conditions until IRCC decides on the extension application.

That work authorization still depends on the LMIA eventually coming back positive or neutral, because that confirmation is required for issuance or extension of a TFWP work permit.