Advise needed on work permit

[Nathan390]

Hi,
I am looking for advice on obtaining an open work permit. Before I go on, here is a little bit of background info on our current situation,
I am a British citizen married to a Canadian and I currently reside here in Canada with my wife and 2 children. I have applied for PR through the family sponsorship class (spousal) outside of Canada due to the difference in processing times.

Our complete package was received by Mississauga Feb 27 2012.

Sponsors application complete June 9 2012

Application transferred to Visa office in Buffalo June 9 2012 (now closed, transferred to case processing pilot; Ottawa)

Since 9th June 2012 we haven’t seen or heard anything in regards to my application.
I now desperately need to seek employment as we are barely scraping by financially.
I am hoping to find work in the Oil field services and have been unofficially offered a position but without a work permit they cannot do anything. They do not have LMO for any of their positions.
Had we applied ‘inside’ of Canada we would not have had an issue getting a work permit but at that time we were not even aware of that information. CIC are very vague when I explain our situation and always send me an email that directs me to the website which clearly doesn’t give case by case info!
We have since applied online for an open work permit which I am not too confident I will be successful, but hoping the application falls on a sympathetic officer’s desk!

Any advice or personal experiences with this matter would be much appreciated thanks in advance.

 

[scylla]

Unfortunately you don't qualify for an open work permit.

As you mentioned, had you applied inland, you would have qualified for an open work permit approximately 11 months after submitting your inland application (this would be January next year assuming you applied February of this year). However open work permits are not granted if you've applied outland - so your application is definitely going to be refused (the rules with regards to open work permits are very black and white).

Your only real option is to find an employer who is willing to go through the LMO process and once the employer has an approved LMO, you can then apply for a closed work permit tied to that specific employer.

Hope this helps at least somewhat and good luck.

 

[scylla]

Just to add something and hopefully make you feel better about the situation - I think you made the right decision applying outland.

While you would qualify for an open work permit if you had applied inland, this doesn't happen until 11 months into the process (as mentioned in my message above). So even if you had applied inland, you would still be waiting until January of next year unable to work (without an LMO).

Given you're from the UK, there's an excellent change your PR application will be approved before the 11 months mark.

 

[Nathan390]

Thanks Scylla. Like I said im not very confident I will get it but no harm in trying I guess :-\
well 6 months has past sinced they recieved my application and reading some processing times from people on here I hope we will hear something very soon.....fingers crossed !!!
Thanks again.