Permanent Labour Market Opinions

Arranged Employment Opinions (AEO) were originally developed as a method of validating offers of employment to foreign nationals seeking permanent resident status. These applications were processed by Service Canada in a process that was similar to Labour Market Opinions (LMO). However, AEO processing did not consider the impact on the Canadian labour market, failing to account for factors such as efforts of the Canadian employer to recruit Canadians for the position. In May of 2013, the AEO ceased to be accepted in permanent resident applications.

More recently, LMOs have taken the spot of the AEO and Citizenship and Immigration Canada has now formalized the principles of the permanent LMO. A permanent LMO considers all of the same impacts on the Canadian labour market, which may include efforts to recruit Canadians, creation or retention of employment, transfer of skills and knowledge, as well as considerations such as the wage offered. A permanent LMO may be used to support the application for a temporary work permit and permanent resident status of a foreign national. However, the permissible work permit will have a maximum duration of two years and that permanent LMO may not be renewed. If the PR application is in progress and the conditions are otherwise met, then a bridging work permit may be one option to prevent the necessity of departure from Canada pending the outcome.

As always, all other applicable requirements of the various permanent resident and temporary work permit programs must be met.

Date Posted: May 20, 2014 Posted In: Labour Market Opinion,Permanent Resident

Tags: LMO, permanent residence