LMIA employers and their open jobs.
How to find Canadian employers on the government’s positive LMIA list and see their current job postings by API, and what LMIA data can and cannot tell you.
Updated
The short answer
An LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment) lets a Canadian employer hire a temporary foreign worker. The government publishes the employers that received a positive LMIA. The Jobs API matches that list to company profiles, so /v1/organizations?country=CA&has_lmia=true finds employers approved in the last two years, and you can then read their current job postings. An LMIA employer is not proof that a given job is open to foreign workers.
What is an LMIA?
An LMIA is a document from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). A positive LMIA says an employer may hire a temporary foreign worker for a job, because no Canadian or permanent resident was available.
ESDC publishes a list of employers that received positive LMIAs, by quarter, on the Government of Canada open data portal.
What does “LMIA job” really mean?
People search for “LMIA jobs” when they want jobs open to foreign workers. Be careful: an LMIA belongs to one position at one time. An employer on the list may have other jobs that are only for people already allowed to work in Canada.
So the honest use of LMIA data is to find employers that have hired through the program before, then read each job’s own text for what it says about work permits.
How do I find LMIA employers with the API?
Use the has_lmia filter on company search. It matches companies named on ESDC’s positive LMIA list in the last two years. Each profile’s signals section shows the LMIA match with its jobs and provinces.
curl "https://api.thejobsapi.com/v1/organizations?country=CA&has_lmia=true&hiring_trend=growing" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"How do I see their current jobs?
- Find employers with has_lmia=true.
- Open each profile with /v1/organizations/{id} for its hiring section: open jobs by region, new jobs and top titles.
- Search their postings with /v1/jobs, using the employer name in q.
- Read each job’s description, or the derived visa_sponsorship value, for what the posting itself says.
What does a posting say about sponsorship?
Every job on /v1/jobs includes a derived section read by rules from the posting’s own text. Its visa_sponsorship value is filled only when the posting states it. A job that does not mention sponsorship stays empty; we do not guess.
Is LMIA data in the free trial?
The free trial lasts 14 days and includes 100,000 jobs from the US and Canada, with no request limit. You do not need a card. The trial shows a sample of the company directory, so LMIA employer lists are complete only on paid plans. Canada is $200 USD a month.
Questions people ask
Is there an official list of LMIA employers?
Yes. ESDC publishes the employers that received a positive LMIA on the Government of Canada open data portal, under the Open Government Licence.
Does has_lmia mean a job accepts foreign workers?
No. It means the company was named on the positive LMIA list in the last two years. Each job may have its own rules.
Can I filter jobs by LMIA?
The LMIA filter is on companies, not jobs. Find employers with has_lmia=true, then search their jobs.
Are LMIA jobs only in some provinces?
No, but some programs and sectors are more common in some places. Each profile’s LMIA signal lists the provinces from the government list.
Do you sell LMIAs or help with applications?
No. We provide job and employer data only. For immigration advice, talk to a licensed consultant or lawyer.
Where do the jobs and the LMIA list come from?
Job postings come from employer career sites and their hiring systems. The LMIA list comes from ESDC open data.