The 90-day clock is gone: IRCC will now wait for your employer’s LMIA

Here is the file we see most often at our Brampton and London offices: a work permit with days left on it, an employer who applied for an LMIA weeks ago, and ESDC still working through the application. Until now, IRCC would hold that worker’s extension for 90 days and then decide it, whether or not the LMIA had arrived.

That limit is gone. IRCC’s officer guidance on LMIA-based work permits, updated on 28 October 2026, now says IRCC will not decide the work permit application until there is a decision on the LMIA. For anyone whose permit is about to run out while their employer’s LMIA sits in the queue, that is a significant change.

The old rule and the new one

The version of the guidance dated 21 August 2026 gave applicants 90 days from the date they filed to produce a positive LMIA. IRCC held the application for those 90 days and then made its final decision, LMIA or not.

The 28 October 2026 version keeps the same exception but removes the clock. IRCC now holds the application until ESDC decides the LMIA, and until the Quebec Acceptance Certificate (CAQ) is issued where one is required. Only then does it make its final decision on the work permit.

Why that matters: ESDC publishes processing times for each LMIA stream, and they do not always fit inside three months. Under the old rule, a slow stream could run out the hold before the LMIA arrived. Under the new rule, the hold lasts as long as the LMIA does.

Who can use the hold

Eligibility has not loosened. You still have to show all four of these when you apply from inside Canada:

• your current work permit expires in two weeks or less;
• your prospective employer has already submitted a complete LMIA application;
• it was submitted far enough ahead of ESDC’s published processing times that a decision could realistically have been made; and
• ESDC has not yet decided it.

Miss any one of them and the ordinary rule applies: an LMIA-based work permit application needs the LMIA with it when it is filed.

The timing trap

The third condition is the one that catches people. The guidance tells employers not to file an LMIA immediately before the work permit application and expect concurrent processing, and says those requests are assessed only on an exceptional basis. The hold exists for an LMIA that is genuinely in the queue, not one filed in the last week to buy time.

So the planning starts with the employer, not with you. If you are on a post-graduation work permit that is running out and an employer wants to keep you, the LMIA needs to go in early enough that ESDC’s published timeline could finish before your permit ends. Our Permit Expiry Planner lays out the dates that matter.

Flag your file with CPTS2026

IRCC asks applicants who need concurrent processing to follow its application instructions so that the code CPTS2026 appears in the intended occupation field. The code is for IRCC’s tracking only, and the officer’s decision should not turn on whether it appears. Include it anyway; it costs nothing.

What the change does not fix

• You still have to file before your permit expires. Filing in time is what gives you maintained status, so you can keep working under your current permit’s conditions while IRCC holds the file.
• A refused LMIA still ends the application. The hold waits for ESDC’s decision; it does not change it. If the LMIA is refused, the work permit cannot be approved on it, and if your status then lapses, restoration has its own 90-day deadline from the date status is lost.
• A PGWP still cannot be extended. Moving from a PGWP to an LMIA-based permit means a new employer-specific permit, not more time on the PGWP.

Once the permit is approved

The permit runs for the duration of employment the LMIA approves, never longer, and never past your passport’s expiry. If you are extending with the same employer and kept working on maintained status while you waited, that waiting time counts against the LMIA duration: the new period runs from the date your old permit expired. We set out these date rules in full in how LMIA dates and work permit validity actually work.

What to do now

• Permit expires within two weeks, LMIA pending: file your extension before the expiry date, include proof that the complete LMIA application was submitted, and make sure CPTS2026 appears in the intended occupation field.
• Permit expires in the next few months: ask your employer now whether an LMIA is planned and when it will be filed. The hold only helps if the LMIA went in on time.
• Employers: file the LMIA well ahead of ESDC’s published processing time for the stream, and give the worker the date it was submitted. Our employer LMIA service builds the recruitment and the file around that timeline.

If your permit is close to expiring and you are not sure whether your file qualifies, book a consultation before you file. The four conditions are judged on the documents, and getting one wrong can cost you your status.

Sources: IRCC, Labour Market Impact Assessment review – Temporary Foreign Worker Program (program delivery guidance, modified 28 October 2026), compared with the version dated 21 August 2026. General information only, not legal advice. Individual files vary; obtain advice on your own circumstances.