Express Entry after Working Holiday

[Scryden]

Hello everyone,

I am badly in need of some advise and hope somebody with experience can help me out.

I am currently residing in Canada on a Working Holiday visa with an Open Work Permit. I work in Canada for a Canadian employer in IT. I am a systems analyst which is NOC level B. I have less than one year of Canadian work experience (obviously) but 5 years of full time work experience in total. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

I want to stay permanently in Canada but my current Open Work permit is due to expire on June 14th 2017. Because the Express Entry is going to take a while (6 months according to the CIC website after being invited from the Express Entry Pool), I applied for work permit extension first. This application got refused because you cannot extend your working holiday permit. A big facepalm to myself, I admit that this was foolish of myself, cause I could've known that and not waste $250 on the application.

Now I am just in desperation as on what to do next. I can take the CELPIP language test and submit my Express Entry application after that, but again I only have 3 months left on my work permit and don't want to risk becoming unemployed. I tried talking to an immigration lawyer but they charge me $1000 right away for their services. They tell me "we can do all your applications for you and represent you in these applications", however, I think I can do that myself when I know what to do. I basically just have a few questions as to what am I supposed to do in this situation and in what order? That doesn't really justify a $1000 fee to me. The CELPIP test is going to cost me $300 as well so all in all it is already gonna be costly enough as it is right now.

So, is there any way to buy myself some extra time for the Express Entry application and retain the rights to work in Canada? Any advise would be highly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Sara92]

You can try to apply for LMIO and closed work permit, this give you 1-2 years of work permit and then apply via EE for PR

Or

You can have everything ready and apply for PR via EE the last day of your work permit (only if in this day you will have 1 full year of expirience ) but this is just technically

 

[jes_ON]

I applied for work permit extension first. This application got refused because you cannot extend your working holiday permit.

1) LOL. Well, no, you cannot extend a working holiday permit. But depending on what country you are from, you might be able to apply for a NEW one, or one of the other categories of the International Experience Canada program. -
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp

Now I am just in desperation as on what to do next. I can take the CELPIP language test and submit my Express Entry application after that, but again I only have 3 months left on my work permit and don't want to risk becoming unemployed. I tried talking to an immigration lawyer but they charge me $1000 right away for their services. They tell me "we can do all your applications for you and represent you in these applications", however, I think I can do that myself when I know what to do. I basically just have a few questions as to what am I supposed to do in this situation and in what order? That doesn't really justify a $1000 fee to me. The CELPIP test is going to cost me $300 as well so all in all it is already gonna be costly enough as it is right now.

So, is there any way to buy myself some extra time for the Express Entry application and retain the rights to work in Canada? Any advise would be highly appreciated.

2) Have you discussed this with your employer? The most usual way would be for your employer to apply for an LMIA so that you could get a temporary work permit (which can be extended : ) ) LMIAs take some time, though.

3) You might be eligible under the FSW program right now. (your Canadian experience won't help you until you have at least 1 year). Complete the EE profile and submit it. If you earn an invitation to apply, you would have to have all your documents ready to submit before your current work permit expires to be eligible for the Bridging Open Work permit program.

There's an odd technicality with your type of work permit, tho - because it cannot be extended, it is not eligible for "implied status," which would allow you to continue working while waiting for the new work permit to be processed. So #3 might not help you continue working without taking a 1-2 month break.

Without knowing what country you are from, I don't know whether another IEC program is an option. But check it out - if you can get a "young professionals" permit, you could be eligible for an extra 50 CRS points with a job offer.