Visa sponsors in Nova Scotia
138 sponsoring employers, 1.8% of every sponsor in Canada, making it the 6th largest, covering 1,115 approved LMIA positions. Figures as of September 2026.
What this number counts
ESDC publishes approved headcount on positive Labour Market Impact Assessments, not visas issued. A position can be approved and never filled, so this measures permission to hire abroad rather than arrivals.
LMIA volume is dominated by seasonal agriculture, so this shows who sponsors, not demand for any particular profession.
An employer operating in more than one province appears under each of them, so province figures do not add up to the national total. Every number on this page is read straight from IRCC / ESDC positive LMIA employer list, and none of it is an estimate.
The largest sponsors in Nova Scotia
These are the employers with the most approved LMIA positions recorded against a Nova Scotia address, named exactly as the register spells them. Between them they account for 49.6% of everything the register attributes to Nova Scotia, which is how concentrated sponsorship here really is.
| Employer | Approved positions |
|---|---|
| Pecheries Cheticamp Fisheries Intl. (2016) Ltd | 127 |
| North Nova Seafoods | 90 |
| Petit de Grat Packers Ltd. | 60 |
| 3274876 Nova Scotia Ltd | 55 |
| Charles Keddy Farms Limited | 42 |
| Noggins Corner Farm II Ltd. | 39 |
| G & C Hughes Enterprises Limited | 38 |
| Melvin Farms Limited | 37 |
| Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd. | 35 |
| Stirlings Mountainside Farms 2017 Ltd | 30 |
What sponsored work in Nova Scotia looks like
Every positive assessment names the work it was granted for. Counting employers rather than positions keeps this exact: a single approval total covers all of an employer's occupations at once, and splitting it between them would invent a number ESDC never published.
| Occupation | Employers |
|---|---|
| Harvesting labourers | 31 |
| Cooks | 18 |
| Transport truck drivers | 11 |
| Fish and seafood plant workers | 9 |
| Construction trades helpers and labourers | 7 |
| Nursery and greenhouse labourers | 6 |
How Nova Scotia compares
9 provinces and territories clear the 25-employer floor we report on individually, and sponsorship is nowhere near evenly spread between them. Quebec carries 19.6 times as many sponsoring employers as Nova Scotia, so where you look changes the odds before your CV does.
Using this to find a sponsored job in Nova Scotia
A place on the register means an employer has sponsored before, which is the single hardest thing to verify from a job advert. It does not mean they are hiring today, so treat the list as a shortlist to research rather than a set of open roles.
Our job board for Canada only carries listings from employers on this register. The full Canada breakdown ranks every region, and our analysis of all three registers sets out how the UK, US and Canadian sources differ and why their numbers should never be added together.
Source: IRCC / ESDC positive LMIA employer list, last confirmed current in September 2026.
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