The federal government has improved domestic employment-related regulations for temporary foreign workers to promote employment.
To overcome the nationwide labor shortage, the Federal Immigration Department has changed and applied various matters from the 4th, including extending the validity period of the LMIA, which is applied by domestic employers when hiring foreigners, from 9 months to 18 months. did.
In addition, the maximum time period of employment for workers has been extended for those who are working through the high wage and global talent stream to three years, previously being two years. These measures will provide more opportunity for workers to obtain permanent residency.
The limit on the number of seasonal workers employed at farms was removed and the working period was increased from 180 days per year to 270 days per year.
The changes will see sectors including manufacturing, hospitality, construction, health and residential care facilities hiring up to 30% of their total workforce in low-wage positions through the temporary migrant worker program.
The ban on LMIA applications for low-wage jobs in the lodging, food service, and retail sectors in areas with unemployment rates of 6% or higher was ended, and applications can be made in these areas as well.
However, the impact of these measures on the Korean American industry, which is suffering from a labor shortage, is expected to be negligible.
“The extension of the validity period of the LMIA means that if foreigners staying abroad had to enter Canada within 9 months, this period was extended to 12 months,” said Lim Cheol-soo, CEO of Canada Plan Immigration and Study Abroad Consulting. These measures are meaningful in terms of resolving the labor shortage problem for Canadian society, but they are almost unrelated to restaurants, the main business of Koreans,” he explained.