My granddaughter has been working in BC on a 2 yr working visa, she applied for PR and was granted extended stay until she received it. She decided to go on holiday to the Dominican Republic to join her parents whom she hadn't seen for over 2yrs. On returning to Toronto airport they said she shouldn't have left the country and gave her a 6 months visitor visa and said she cannot work anymore. My granddaughter said she enquired about it before she went and they ? said it was ok. The poor girl is in tears as she has an apartment , car and job. Can anyone advise please or tell me what she can do.
Leaving Canada whilst waiting for permanent residency
- Thread starter moiramount
- Start date
We need more information and clarity on what has happened in order to understand what happened and be able to help.
How has she applied for PR? Through which program? What do you mean when you say that she was "granted extended stay"? What did she apply for specifically to give her extended stay status and when did she apply for this? When did her 2 year working visa expire?
Most likely she had implied status on the work permit and was able to continue working, but only if she remained in Canada.
In terms of being told in advance for the trip that it was fine to go, impossible to comment on this without knowing who she spoke to, exactly what question she asked and exactly what answer she received. If she simply asked if it was OK to leave Canada and return, then I agree the right answer was "yes".
Anyway - we need a ton more details.
She was living with her Aunty in BC and her 2 yr working permit expired on February 4th this year. She had applied for permanent residency in the December 2021 I think it was as that was when she could apply and she was working as a care assistant. When February came and her two years were up they extended her working visa until April 2022 as they had not processed her application yet due to covid. As April approached she emailed them again and they said they were processing her application. Her Aunty has moved to Calgary now so my granddaughter lives on her own but is still working for the same employer. Well she was until today. I forgot to say that she is from England originally. She said she checked online that she would be allowed back but I don't know who with. She had all the relevant paperwork with her at the airports so I don't know what's going on.
We really need the full details:
- Under which specific immigration program has she applied for PR?
- What happened when / after her working visa expired in April 2022? What did IRCC say with regards to her status and ability to continue working? What did she apply for if anything to continue to be able to keep working?
Where she is from is irrelevant.
Overall, it sounds like she had implied status as it relates to working. This means that she could continue working in Canada while waiting for her PR application to be processed as long as she remained in Canada without leaving. She may have misunderstood how these rules work. That would be my guess.
But again, really impossible to comment with accuracy without FULL details. We really need the FULL and accurate details. You are just giving us high level info.
