Working Holiday Visa ---> Federal Skilled Worker 3

[simonvee]

Hi everyone,

This is my plan so if you can share your thoughts/knowledge/opinion that would be great, and thanks a million in advance!

I intend to ultimately obtain a FSW3

So this is my plan........

1. Obtain 1 year of skilled work experience in Australia. Paralegal/Law clerk (4211)
2. Apply for a working holiday visa here in Australia. The wait is 6 weeks, I assume, therefore not so bad.
3. Arrive in Canada. The WHV is valid for 2 years.
4. Live and work in any job, skilled or unskilled, for 1 year then apply for a FSW3.
5. I have 1 year remaining to stay in Canada since the WHV is only valid for 2 years. The FSW3 is currently being processed by officials.

My question is: How long will it take to process the FSW3? If over 1 year then I would have to return back to Australia. I heard that it usually takes 3 years to process a FSW for an Australian, although it is for Australians applying FROM Australia. In this case....I am an Australian applying FROM Canada. Or could I extend my WHV longer until my FSW3 has been approved?

[Leon]

You can not extend a WHV.  If your processing is not complete by the time your WHV expires, you have 2 options.  1) Ask your employer to apply for an LMO for you so you can apply for a regular work permit and 2) Apply to change your status to visitor.

Nobody can really tell you the current processing times.  The rules were changed about one year ago making it harder to apply but also making it faster.  CIC has not yet printed any statistics for the processing time under the new system because it's just not been around long enough to collect enough data to print.

Under the old rules, it would have taken 3 years to apply from Australia but if you are legally in Canada, you can also opt to apply through the US.  The old applications in the US were taking around 18 months.  As for the new ones, there's no data yet on whether the US is faster than Australia.

[simonvee]

Apply to change my status to visitor? What is the duration of the visitor status until I have to return to my home country?

If however, I do not change my status to visitor, instead I choose to go home (e.g. visit family), I can apply for another W.H.V to return back to Canada correct? Given that I am under 30 years of age. Must I wait for a certain time interval before I am allowed another W.H.V?

[Leon]

Extending visitor is 6 months at a time.

Even though you can't extend a WHV, you can apply for it again and keep applying for it again as long as you are under 30 so that might be a better option.  You do not have to go to Australia to do it, it's enough to leave Canada, for example go to the US.  Check out http://www.whpcanada.org.au/faq_eligibility.shtml#eligibility_q15 question 15.

[Karlshammar]

A visitor extension can go beyond 6 months. I once applied to extend visitor status for 6 months, and they extended it for a whole year, despite my not even having asked for it.