HELP!!! Visa situation well waiting for PR

[Canadaiwi]

My common law partner and I are both living in Canada, I am a canadian resident and he is from NZ. I am sponsoring him for his residency and we sent our application in June 2010. We have yet to hear anything from immigration but they are processing up until April 2010 so not too much longer now till they acknowledge that they have it.

Our situation is that my partner applied for and received a visitor visa after his working holiday visa and then the swap visa expired. On the application for his visitor visa, in space for the reason he was wanting to stay on he wrote that he was applying for residency. He got a visitor visa back and they had written on it " extension pending the receival of your residency application"
So we assumed we had to wait to apply for another visitor visa till they "received" our application for PR.If we have to wait till they send us something from the government to say that they recognize that we have applied in order for us to receive an extension on his visitor visa, the time on the visitor visa will have expired before then.

This is what happened to us. His visitor visa expired in August and it is now January and we have yet to receive anything from immigration. So he has over stayed his visa.
Are we in a pending status with the government so he does not need another visa of some sort? ( is there another kind of visa he could be on)
Have we totally messed this up?!
HELP!!!!

 

[RobsLuv]

It sounds like you submitted an inland application for PR - if so, you should have included the extension application WITH the inland PR application to protect his temporary status while waiting for the first stage of assessment to be made. The instructions for doing this are in the inland applicant's guide under Part II - Your Status in Canada. When you do that, as long as the inland PR ap is received by CPC-V before the temporary status expires, the applicant is protected under "implied status" to remain in Canada until first stage assessment is completed. In addition, you can submit the "change of conditions" part of the extension application and elect to have him issued an open work permit as soon as first stage assessment is complete. Then, when they grant Approval in Principle, he'd be sent an OWP as his new temporary status document and would be able to look for a job.

Instead, you applied separately - which is okay - but you didn't submit any proof with the extension application of having submitted the PR ap - copy of the tracking receipt for it having been received at CPC-V, or proof of PR fees paid using a copy of that receipt. Because the PR application is not yet in process, they may not be able to find it. Hopefully you still have proof that you not only applied for his extension before his status expired, but also that you submitted a permanent residence application for him, and when. In my opinion, that's what you need to send back to them to support the extension ap.

 

[Canadaiwi]

Thank you so much for your reply.

We did apply inland.

The problem is we thought he had implied status until we received a yes or no from immigration for his PR, so we didnt send anything in except for his PR application. I suppose he didn't read the instructions as thoroughly as he should have.

We didnt apply seperatly because we thought we had to wait for the case # from immigration. So he is here with no visa now and we have yet to apply for an extension of his

What should we do!? I am SO worried.

Should we send in an application now with the reasoning why we didnt send it in right away and the receipt from when we sent in the PR application? Or should we get a lawyer to help us sort out the mess?

What kind of chances do you think we have?!

 

[RobsLuv]

If his status has already expired, there isn't anything you can do. He has to stay put in Canada and wait for them to contact him. Chances are good that once the application is opened for assessment and they see that he does not have valid temporary status, CPC-Vegreville will transfer the application (without issuing AIP) to your local CIC office for processing. When the ap gets to your local office, it will go back into a holding queue until it comes up for review. How long this will take depends on how busy your local office is - you can contact the Call Centre and ask about processing times for inland spousal aps transferred to your local office.

The local office will then do the first stage assessment, and then finalize the application. They will probably want to meet with him for an interview just to ascertain that he is not doing anything in Canada that contravenes the Act - like working or going to school. That's part of the reason out-of-status applicants are transferred locally - so that the CIC officers in the area can do an independent investigation to be sure he is not doing anything he shouldn't be.

 

[Canadaiwi]

So there is nothing we should do now? Should we not fill it in and send it? Or get a lawyer? Any precautions we should take?

Thank you again for your help.