The similarity is that under both agricultural programs employers can hire foreign workers only in the following commodity sectors: apiary products, fruits, vegetables (including canning/processing of these products, if grown on the farm), mushrooms, flowers, nursery-grown trees including Christmas trees, greenhouses/nurseries, pedigreed canola seed, sod, tobacco, bovine, dairy, duck, horse, mink, poultry, sheep, swine. The activity must be related to on-farm primary agriculture.
However, under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, Canadian employers can hire only foreign workers – citizens of specified countries: Mexico and Caribbean countries of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Also, the difference is in LMIA duration. Under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, a maximum employment period is eight months (minimum 240 work hours within every six weeks or less), between January 1 and December 15. While the maximum LMIA duration under the Agricultural Stream is two years.
Under these streams, employers are also required to find, and select Canadians and permanent residents through recruitment efforts. Advertisement must be posted for 14 days during the three months before applying for LMIA.
