Aussie needs a visa to work in Canada whilst waiting for residency back.. SPOUSE

[elsypelle]

Hi Folks,

So I am Australian and married to a Canadian. I currently live in Ontario and have been on Working Holiday Visas for canada.
I applied for permanent residency in August 2013 (shouldn't be too long til I hear back) but because I had my visa already organised as a working holiday participant I didn't apply for that $150 CAD spousal visa that apparently i could have sent in with my residency application.

ANYWAY - The question is, does that $150 cad visa allow you to work in Canada whilst you wait for residency to process?
And if so, is there a way I can apply for this now (separately of course) in case I am not allowed to get another working holiday visa???
Just looking for a way for me to be able to stay and work in Canada whilst i wait for my residency to come through.

Thank you everyone!

Els

 

[scylla]

Since you are on an IEC, you don't benefit from implied status. So even if you had submitted an OWP, you still would not be able to work past the expiry of your IEC.

You'll have to wait until you actually have first stage approval before you can apply for the OWP.

 

[andrew-brit]

Did you apply inland? I think you are referring to the Open Work Permit which you could have submitted with your PR application back in August 2013?

The answer is no, you cannot separately apply for the OWP, it has to be at the time of applying. Also, it does not allow you to work whilst the application is processed. Rather, it allows you to work after stage 1 approval of inland applications (about 13 months).

I am not 100% on this but another aussie on this forum mentioned that Australians can do the IEC/Working Holiday program for 4 years, maybe that is an option for you while you wait for PR.

 

[kiwi123]

Once you have got an AIP(firsts state approval) you will be able to apply for an open work permit. As you say this shouldn't be long now as I believe they are working on August 2013 applications(although it could still be well over a month as I think they did 2 days of applications in 1 week based on the last update). I have no idea if it is $150, but it sounds like that is on par with other work permits I have applied for. You dont state when your current work permit expires but if it has a few months left on it then this sounds like it should be a viable option for you. As Scylla stated if your work permits dont overlap you will have to stop working between them.