In September 2025, Service Canada introduced a new rule applicable to employers who wish to hire foreign workers through Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) stream. The rule requires employers to use the “Direct Apply” feature on the Canadian Job Bank – a previously optional feature that allows job seekers to digitally submit their resumes to a hiring employer on the Canadian Job Bank platform, rather than only through traditional methods such as email or mail. Employers who do not use the Direct Apply feature can expect to receive a negative LMIA result, so read on to find out more about this new requirement.
Canadian employers who wish to hire a foreign worker are generally subject to the requirement to test the Canadian labour market before applying for permission – in the form of an LMIA – to offer the position to a non-Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Since 2017 it has been mandatory when applying for an LMIA for employers to advertise their vacant job position(s) on the Canadian Job Bank platform to demonstrate that they have made genuine efforts to fill the position(s) from the domestic labour pool. Since the Job Bank is administered by Service Canada, this allows the government to directly exert influence on the recruitment process, even before an LMIA application is ever filed.
Employers who use the Direct Apply feature will be notified by email every time a job candidate submits a resume to them through the Job Bank platform. There are strict requirements that the employer must review resumes within 21 days of receipt. If they do not follow this requirement, their job advertisement might be taken down, which will impede their ability to apply for an LMIA. The new rule is intended to ensure that Canadian employers act transparently and in good faith in their interactions with Canadian job applicants. Compared to other application methods such as email submission, the Direct Apply feature allows Service Canada to track in real time whether Canadian employers are responding to candidates in a timely fashion, or at all. Employers wishing to apply for LMIAs must become familiar with this feature and commit sufficient human resources to meeting Service Canada’s new expectations.
Unfortunately for employers desperate to fill labour market shortages, the mandatory requirement to use the Direct Apply feature is only the latest government attempt to assert control over an employer’s recruitment activities on the Job Bank. Earlier this year, immigration lawyers began seeing a new phenomenon where Job Bank administrators are refusing (or at least threatening to refuse) to allow an employer to activate certain job advertisements on the platform when they have questions about why the employer is willing to pay a much higher wage than what might normally be expected for the role. Employers are now potentially subject to questioning as to why they’re advertising the role and their justification for offering a high wage, even at the job posting stage, and the entire exercise feels very much like a pre-vetting of an LMIA application.
As an immigration lawyer, I began assisting clients with applying for LMIAs many years ago when they were still referred to as “Labour Market Opinions” or “LMOs”. Like other areas of immigration law, the LMIA application process is subject to constant change and has become increasingly difficult to navigate over the years. There are now rules governing just about everything, including where you must advertise, how you must receive and respond to resumes, and whether you can even apply for an LMIA based on changing factors such as local unemployment rates. Gone are the days when employers felt confident handling their own immigration matters. In today’s rapidly changing landscape, filing LMIA and other forms of immigration applications can often feel like you’re walking through a minefield where any slight misstep can potentially lead to a refusal. In this high-stakes environment, employers need to stay updated on relevant changes in immigration law and policy and to seek legal assistance where necessary.
