Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has updated its officer instructions on Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) review under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), extending the concurrent processing grace period from 60 days to 90 days, effective August 21, 2026.

Concurrent processing allows an in-Canada foreign national to submit a TFWP work permit application before their employer’s LMIA application has received a decision, provided they can show:

• their current work permit expires in 2 weeks or less;
• their prospective employer has submitted a complete LMIA application with sufficient lead time for a decision to reasonably have been made; and
• no decision on the LMIA application has yet been issued.

Under the updated instructions, IRCC will now hold these applications for 90 days from the date of submission — up from 60 days — before making a final determination on the work permit. This gives applicants an additional 30 days to provide proof of a positive LMIA (and Quebec Acceptance Certificate, if required) before a decision is rendered based on the documents on file.

New Tracking Code for Concurrent Processing Files

IRCC has also introduced a new client-facing process for identifying concurrent processing applications: applicants who need concurrent processing are now instructed to include the code CPTS2026 in the intended occupation field of their application. IRCC has clarified that this code is for tracking purposes only and will not affect the officer’s decision.

Practitioner Implications

A few points worth flagging for clients relying on concurrent processing:

• The exception remains narrow. All three eligibility conditions must be met simultaneously — this is not a general grace period for any LMIA-based work permit application.
• Timing of the LMIA filing still matters. IRCC’s instructions explicitly warn that employers who submit an LMIA application immediately before the work permit application should not expect concurrent processing to apply automatically; such requests are assessed on an exceptional basis only.
• Use the CPTS2026 code where eligible. While IRCC says the code won’t influence the decision itself, using it correctly may help ensure the file is properly flagged and tracked as a concurrent processing case.
• The extra 30 days is meaningful runway, particularly for clients in sectors facing longer-than-average LMIA processing times, but it doesn’t change the underlying requirement that a positive or neutral LMIA is still needed for a final approval.

Full details are available on IRCC’s Labour Market Impact Assessment Review – Temporary Foreign Worker Program page.

Our Navigating LMIAs: From Application to Approval course, led by Andrew Carvajal and Viviane Albuquerque, walked through the full LMIA and concurrent processing landscape practitioners need for files like these. It was held live on July 23, 2026, and the recording remains available — access it here.

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