Work Visa & LMIA Support

Work permits & LMIA in Canada: getting the category right

A Canadian work permit is one of the most powerful tools in immigration — it lets you build Canadian work experience, support your family, and position yourself for permanent residence — but only if the right category is chosen and the application is built correctly. The system is technical, employer obligations are real, and a single wrong turn can cost a job offer or a worker’s status. As a licensed Toronto immigration lawyer, Inna Kogan advises both workers and employers across the GTA, choosing the right route and aligning every permit with a long-term permanent-residence plan.

The first and most important decision is whether your situation needs a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) or fits an LMIA-exempt route, or whether you qualify for an open work permit. Each path has different requirements, timelines and risks, and the best option often is not the obvious one. Getting this decision right at the outset is where a lawyer earns their fee.

LMIA-based work permits and employer support

A Labour Market Impact Assessment is an approval an employer obtains from Employment and Social Development Canada to show that hiring a foreign worker will not harm the Canadian labour market. It involves advertising and recruitment requirements, a genuine job offer, prevailing-wage rules, and compliance obligations that continue after the worker arrives. A positive LMIA then supports the worker’s own work-permit application.

• Assessing whether an LMIA is required or an exemption applies
• Preparing LMIA applications and meeting advertising/recruitment rules
• Employer compliance, inspections and record-keeping obligations
• High-wage, low-wage and Global Talent Stream considerations
• The worker’s work-permit application once the LMIA is positive

LMIA-exempt routes and open work permits

Many of the best work-permit options do not require an LMIA at all. LMIA-exempt routes under the International Mobility Program include intra-company transfers for employees of multinational companies, permits under trade agreements such as CUSMA and CETA, and categories where there is a broader economic or reciprocal benefit to Canada. These can be faster and simpler than the LMIA route when you qualify.

Open work permits are different again: they let the holder work for almost any employer, without a specific job offer or LMIA. Common examples include permits for spouses and common-law partners of eligible skilled workers and international students, post-graduation work permits, and bridging open work permits for those with a pending permanent-residence application. Identifying whether you qualify for an open permit can change everything about your options.

Keeping status valid and avoiding costly mistakes

A work permit is only as good as the status behind it. Letting a permit lapse, changing employers on a closed permit without authorization, or misreading your conditions can jeopardize both your status and your future permanent residence. We keep workers ahead of renewal deadlines, change employer-specific permits the right way, apply for bridging permits so status continues while a PR application is in process, and restore status where it has been lost within the limited window allowed. For employers, we help maintain the compliance records that protect against problems during an inspection.

From work permit to permanent residence

For most workers, the real goal is permanent residence, and a work permit should be a deliberate step toward it rather than a dead end. Skilled Canadian work experience strengthens Express Entry — especially the Canadian Experience Class — and many provincial nominee streams, including the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program’s employer job-offer streams, which can add decisive points. We plan that bridge from the outset, so the time you spend working in Canada actually builds toward permanent status for you and your family. And when IRCC refuses a work permit or leaves one undecided for months, Inna Kogan challenges the refusal by judicial review or compels a decision through a writ of Mandamus at the Federal Court.