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Seasonal Farm Hiring in Focus as Canada's Agricultural LMIA Times Edge Up for May

Employers gearing up for Canada's planting and harvest season face slightly longer waits for the labour approvals they need to bring in foreign farm workers, according to figures Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) published on June 9, 2026.

The update covers May 2026, measured against April, and shows modest increases across the two streams most closely tied to agriculture. The agricultural stream now takes 22 business days, one day longer than in April. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) sits at 11 business days, also up one day. Both figures are measured in business days, so weekends and statutory holidays do not count toward the totals.

These two streams sit within Canada's Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process, the step most employers must clear before hiring a temporary foreign worker. An LMIA is a document issued by ESDC. A positive assessment confirms that an employer has a genuine need for the worker and that no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available to fill the role. Once an employer holds a positive LMIA, the worker can use it to apply for a work permit.

The agricultural stream and SAWP exist to address the labour demands of Canadian farms, which often cannot find enough domestic workers for physically demanding, time-sensitive jobs tied to growing seasons. SAWP is the older and more structured of the two, channelling workers from a set group of partner countries for defined periods that line up with seasonal cycles. The broader agricultural stream covers a wider range of on-farm roles and commodities. For producers, the timing of an LMIA decision can be the difference between having crews in place when crops are ready and missing a narrow window.

The single-day increases in both streams are small, but they point in the same direction as most of ESDC's latest data. Across the streams ESDC tracks, processing times in May either rose or held steady, with one exception outside the agricultural category that moved the other way. The department notes that processing time depends on the stream, whether the application is complete when submitted, and the volume of files in the queue at a given time.

Employers planning seasonal hiring should also account for a step the published figures leave out. ESDC's processing times do not include the time needed to meet the minimum advertising and recruitment requirement, which ranges from 14 days to eight weeks depending on the stream and must be completed in the three months before an LMIA application is submitted. Because of that, the real-world timeline for bringing on a seasonal worker runs longer than the published number suggests, and farm operators working around fixed planting and harvest dates are advised to start well ahead of when they need workers on the ground.

A small portion of this article — research support, fact-cross-checking, and copy-editing — was assisted by AI tooling. Editorial decisions, source verification, and final sign-off remain with our team. We cite primary sources from canada.ca for every factual claim.

Last reviewed: June 26, 2026

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