Suspension of Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (“A-LMO”)
On April 29, 2013 CIC and HRSDC announced the suspension of the A-LMO for an indefinite period. There is no official indication as to when the A-LMO program will be reopened. The A-LMO was valuable for employers as it allowed for the faster processing of labour market opinions. As a result of the change, employers will now have to apply for the regular LMO, which could take up to three months to process.
The average processing time for Service Canada LMOs is between 8 to 10 weeks. Depending on the province, processing time may increase to 13 or 16 weeks for a complete LMO application. For applications requiring more information or details, the processing time can be even longer - up to 28 weeks.