'We are seeing a backlog now of more than a year. … It's the first time we are seeing such a delay'
Migrant workers across Canada are increasingly losing their legal right to work due to prolonged delays in the processing of key employment documents, according to a recent report.
A Reuters investigation has found that backlogs at Service Canada have significantly extended the processing times for Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs), which are required for the renewal of most temporary foreign worker permits.
An internal email reviewed by Reuters confirmed that, as of April 1, 2025, Service Canada was still processing LMIA applications submitted one year earlier.
"We are seeing a backlog now of more than a year. … It’s the first time we are seeing such a delay," said immigration consultant Kanwar Sierah in the report.
Recently, three Ontario-based employers were fined a total of $450,000 for employing foreign nationals without proper authorisation to work in Canada, according to the federal government.
Processing times for LMIAs have surged to unprecedented levels, according to the Reuters report. As of March 2025, LMIA processing had nearly tripled from 58 business days in September 2023 to 165 business days, according to the report, citing data from Employment and Social Development Canada.
Because of this, multiple cases where individuals have fallen out of status, according to the report.
Some of these workers are working under the table for exploitative employers or falling victim to “unscrupulous actors” who give them bad advice, for example by urging them to apply for asylum when they may not have a strong case, according to the report.
The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program opens workers to risks of various forms of slavery, according to a previous report from the United Nations (UN).
Also, the loss of work status also restricts access to public services, including healthcare and education, according to the Reuters report.
One such case is that of Devi Acharya — who migrated from India in 2022 and worked in housekeeping in Prince Rupert, B.C, according to the report. After her work permit expired amid the delay, she avoided medical care during a miscarriage, fearing high out-of-pocket costs.
“If I got medical attention on time, maybe we could have saved the baby,” Acharya told Reuters.
While exact numbers are unclear, the undocumented migrant population in Canada is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, according to the report.
Grant migrant workers permanent residency upon their arrival in Canada — that’s the first recommendation of a previous report on how to fix the problems with the country’s TFW Program.
"That overall recommendation is, OK, we could solve this all if we granted permanent residency upon arrival,” said Eliza MacLauchlan, lead author of the report, in a CBC report.
