Hi. I need an advice re out of status. My brother came here as a tourist 2019.
- A month before his tourist visa expired (jan 2020), an employer hired him.
- a day before his trv expired, he was able to apply for a work permit outside canada. Making us think since he changed his condition, he is automatically on implied or maintained status.
- the province nominated him for AIPP program. Which had a deadline to submit on July 2020. He was able to do so.
- april 2020, he received a notice that due to COVID 19 all processing of documents (work permit) are on hold. Hence his passport was returned.
- after 15mos os waiting last april 2021, his passport was asked because he was approved for work visa. Together with a point of entry letter stating he is authorize to work in canada. All he needed to do was apply for a work permit.
- since all borders are closed, he applied online and was advised to wait for 8weeks. Until now no work permit was issued. Follow ups were also made but due to covid backlogs and Afghanistan circumstance, no available information was available re the work permit whereabouts.
- last oct 2021 his PR was refused for the reason that he was OUT OF STATUS. In this same week, his employer was already following up on when he could work. So we asked the employer if he could follow through cic.
- a week later after the refusal. The employer gave an update that he is out of status as he was advised to restore his status last aug 13, 2020 (and a deadline of aug 31,2020) but he never did. My brother NEVER received that email request. Only after about 15-20minutes of receiving the email update from the employer. In short, CIC failed to send the Aug 13 request to restore but hd just sent it on oct 21 after the employer followed up! The request to restore came in more than 2 months late. Had he received it on time, he could have restored before aug 31.
- we made an appeal for the PR stating the said reasons (no reply yet)
- we made a call to IRCC to let them know re the late email BUT they were firm that he was out of status. No explanation of the late email.
so to date, it has been almost 3weeks since he found out that he is out of status and wants to clean his records because there was NO INTENT to OVERSTAY.
- we asked ircc re the existing and valid (until april 2022) multiple entry WORK VISA that he still has. And we asked if he can go back after exiting Canada. They did not answer straight if the work visa is valid or not but it was never cancelled. The job offer is still standing and employer still wants him because he is an essential healthcare worker. The only advice IRCC made was to prepare an explanation letter just in case the border person upon his arrival(after exiting canada) will be asked. But no guarantee if he will be let in. But they said to bring the proper work documents when he comes back. So again no promises.
- so we are decided he is going home. We are just waiting for the extension of his passport (that will arrive in 2weeks). Hopefully no DEPARTURE ORDER by then.
My questions are:
1. Is his standing and valid work visa really valid? Will we repeat the procedure of applying for a new employment number or work permit?
2. How soon can he come back after exiting Canada? Is it recommended to cool down for a bit? He has until April of 2022 to come back that is if his work visa is not cancelled.
3. Will this incident of (honest mistake and failure of IRCC to send email on time) affect his PR papers if he will be able to go back here in Canada?
4. Should we talk to an immigration lawyer?
My brothers ordeal on his papers basically got mixed up because of covid 19, negligence of IRCC but they wont give extension for him to restore.
Please help!
