Regarding the new Work Permit extension

[ilshreya]

Hi, Any advice for this issue is greatly appreciated. Anyway, i am presently in Canada working for a Canadian company as a Contractor. My parent company is located in India. My current work permit expires on March 31, 2011. My customer wants me to extend my contract by a year. Due to the new guidelines (LMO policy) the processing time and the cost involved is very high. My customer is not willing to go through the new process. Is it a good idea to go back to India and then re-apply from there itself? If so, what will be the processing time and what are the cost implications? I need some info to educate my customer. I look forward to the response. Thanks Sam

[scylla]

There is no fee charged by the Canadian government for the LMO process (i.e. the application is free). If your company has said that the cost of the LMO process is too high, then they must be referring to what it costs them in time/hours to complete the application process.

An LMO is required and the LMO process is the same whether you apply from within Canada or from outside of Canada.