Methodology

1. Data Sources

All datasets used on this site are obtained from publicly available Canadian government open data programs. No proprietary, scraped, or third-party commercial data is used.

• ESDC TFWP / LMIA Employer List — Employment and Social Development Canada, published quarterly. Used for employer names, occupations (NOC), provinces, positions approved, and quarter of approval.
• IRCC Designated Learning Institutions (DLI) List — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Used to identify schools whose graduates may be eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit.
• BC Student Outcomes — Government of British Columbia. Program-level outcome data for BC public post-secondary institutions.
• Ontario College KPI — Government of Ontario. Key Performance Indicator data for Ontario public colleges.
• Statistics Canada — Income, employment, and population data referenced in city and province comparisons.
• CMHC Rental Market Survey — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Rental cost data referenced in income comparisons.

2. Licensing

Federal datasets (ESDC, IRCC, Statistics Canada) are used under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Provincial datasets (BC, Ontario) are used under their respective provincial open government licences. CMHC data is used under terms permitting commercial reuse, which the publisher reserves the right to revoke.

3. Coverage Period

ESDC TFWP / LMIA records on this site cover 2024 Q1 through 2025 Q3 (seven quarters merged). Other datasets reflect the most recent publication available at the time of import.

Data is not updated in real time. Records published after our most recent import are not reflected.

4. Field Classification

Where employer or occupation records are grouped by industry field (e.g. IT, Accounting, Nursing), grouping is based on the National Occupational Classification (NOC) code reported by ESDC for each LMIA position.

A single employer may appear under multiple fields if it has approved positions across multiple NOC categories. Field labels are descriptive groupings of NOC codes and are not official ESDC categories.

5. Sorting and Display

Default sort orders on listing pages reflect raw counts published by ESDC: total positions approved, total LMIA records, or most recent quarter active. Sort order is shown on each page.

Listings are not rankings of employer quality, sponsorship willingness, or future hiring intent. Order reflects historical record counts only.

6. Limitations

• Past LMIA approvals do not guarantee that an employer will sponsor again. Sponsorship decisions are made on a case-by-case basis by the employer at the time of hiring.
• ESDC publishes employer data after approval. Withdrawn, expired, or unused LMIA approvals may still appear in the historical record.
• Employer name spelling and corporate structure may vary across quarters. Records for the same corporate entity may appear under multiple name variants.
• School coverage on this site is limited to institutions present in the IRCC DLI list at time of import. Not all DLI-listed institutions are represented on every page.
• Income, rent, and tax figures shown in tools are based on published government statistics and tax tables for the year stated. They are not personal financial estimates.

7. What This Site Is Not

8. Corrections

If you identify a factual error or a data point that does not match the cited public source, we welcome correction notices. Underlying public datasets remain the authoritative record.