Thankful to find this website (hope I'm in the right place). Like many, I'm confused and stressed, so appreciate any help!
I'm Canadian. Spouse is American and has been in Canada for a couple years on an employer-specific WP. We submitted a spousal sponsorship for PR in July of 2021. It was just returned to us in early January (almost 6 mos later) for being incomplete (minor mistakes/omissions, *big sigh*). We want to resubmit for PR right away; however, my spouse is now "out of status" since the closed WP expired 3 weeks ago.
I understand we can apply to "restore status" to visitor only (spouse won't be going back to previous employer), but I've been told it can take SIX MONTHS to "restore status to visitor" alone! So we talked about quickly leaving and re-entering Canada, but do not feel it's worth the risk (of being denied entry with the 3 week overstay) since we have children.
It's my understanding that we can actually resubmit a PR application even if my spouse is "out of status"; however, we can NOT apply for an OWP at the same time? Is that correct? I'm told it's taking 3-4 months to get an AOR for PR.
So could we apply to "restore visitor status" FIRST and then soon (a few weeks later) submit an application for spousal PR without OWP? Then, if the "visitor status" is "restored" in 6 months and we have the AOR before or soon after, can we then apply for an OWP?
Rather than waiting 6 months to get "visitor status restored" and THEN submitting a PR with OWP? Which could mean 14+ months for an OWP.
Basically, we need whatever route is fastest to get an OWP.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for any help you can provide! I did the opposite - immigrated to the US many years ago and don't recall it being this complicated and stressful (although it probably was and I forget).
I'm Canadian. Spouse is American and has been in Canada for a couple years on an employer-specific WP. We submitted a spousal sponsorship for PR in July of 2021. It was just returned to us in early January (almost 6 mos later) for being incomplete (minor mistakes/omissions, *big sigh*). We want to resubmit for PR right away; however, my spouse is now "out of status" since the closed WP expired 3 weeks ago.
I understand we can apply to "restore status" to visitor only (spouse won't be going back to previous employer), but I've been told it can take SIX MONTHS to "restore status to visitor" alone! So we talked about quickly leaving and re-entering Canada, but do not feel it's worth the risk (of being denied entry with the 3 week overstay) since we have children.
It's my understanding that we can actually resubmit a PR application even if my spouse is "out of status"; however, we can NOT apply for an OWP at the same time? Is that correct? I'm told it's taking 3-4 months to get an AOR for PR.
So could we apply to "restore visitor status" FIRST and then soon (a few weeks later) submit an application for spousal PR without OWP? Then, if the "visitor status" is "restored" in 6 months and we have the AOR before or soon after, can we then apply for an OWP?
Rather than waiting 6 months to get "visitor status restored" and THEN submitting a PR with OWP? Which could mean 14+ months for an OWP.
Basically, we need whatever route is fastest to get an OWP.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for any help you can provide! I did the opposite - immigrated to the US many years ago and don't recall it being this complicated and stressful (although it probably was and I forget).
