family class sponsorship - can i apply for an open work permit while waiting

[lindav]

Hi All,

I am an Australian, and have worked in Canada as a temporary foreign worker for 7 years. I am married to a Canadian, and currently have my permanent resident application (Family Class) submitted. I have not yet received notification of my initial assessment (the 13-month time-point will be in November 2014).

Does anyone know:

- can i apply for an open work permit BEFORE i get notification of my assessment?? (is it possible to put a note on my application so that it is processed immediately after permanent residence application??)

I am trying to get another work permit ASAP for a new job that is time-sensitive. I think my options are to try for an open work permit, or an extension (although i will reach my '4-year maximum' at the end of March 2015).

I appreciate any help!

 

[Rob_TO]

If you applied INLAND, then you were supposed to have submitted your OWP application along with your initial inland PR application. Then they would have automatically processed the OWP as soon as stage 1 processing was complete. I don't think you can send it in now though. You will need to wait until you get stage 1/AIP, and only then submit your OWP app. I've heard it can take a couple weeks to months to process the OWP.

So you might be better off to continue on your closed work permit for now.

In hindsight you should have applied OUTLAND. If you applied back in October 2013 through either Ottawa or Sydney outland office, you would probably have had your full PR by now. But water under the bridge now!

 

[lindav]

That's a shame

I couldn't find anything on the CIC site about submitting the open work permit with the permanent resident application (INLAND), other than it being listed under the 'live-in caregiver' option (i'm not a live-in cargiver).

Thanks though. Looks like i'm going to just have to wait around for a while