May have violated a visa in UAE, will this affect PR?

[Exit_before_Brexit]

Several years ago I worked in the UAE. The done thing over there is to enter on a visitors visa and your employer applies for a working visa whilst you are there (which they did), in the mean time doing border runs to keep your presence in the country legal. Legally there is some sort of grace period to allow people to work whilst a visa is being processed and it is a very common thing to do. At the time I thought nothing of it, and had absolutely no problems coming in and out of the UAE and have had working holiday visas approved in Canada and New Zealand since. I never really gave it any thought until filling out forms for PR and realise that i don't have proof of any kind of work permit and yet i was in and out of the UAE on visitors visas for about 4 months.

IF in doing so i broke the terms of my visitors visas will this stop me getting a PR? my current thinking is to be completely honest about working in the UAE and I am contacting my previous employers for confirmation of my status when i was there. Along with this I will put a letter of explanation.

Will this be enough? If my previous employers tell me I shouldn't legally have been working how bad is this for PR? For context I am applying for family class sponsored by my Canadian partner as Common-law

TL;DR potentially worked on a visitors visa in the UAE, will this stop me geting PR in Canada?

PS I have a friend who worked for the same company, and i remember he did successfully get PR, but I no longer have a way to contact him and find out what he did!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Several years ago I worked in the UAE. The done thing over there is to enter on a visitors visa and your employer applies for a working visa whilst you are there (which they did), in the mean time doing border runs to keep your presence in the country legal. Legally there is some sort of grace period to allow people to work whilst a visa is being processed and it is a very common thing to do. At the time I thought nothing of it, and had absolutely no problems coming in and out of the UAE and have had working holiday visas approved in Canada and New Zealand since. I never really gave it any thought until filling out forms for PR and realise that i don't have proof of any kind of work permit and yet i was in and out of the UAE on visitors visas for about 4 months.

IF in doing so i broke the terms of my visitors visas will this stop me getting a PR? my current thinking is to be completely honest about working in the UAE and I am contacting my previous employers for confirmation of my status when i was there. Along with this I will put a letter of explanation.

Will this be enough? If my previous employers tell me I shouldn't legally have been working how bad is this for PR? For context I am applying for family class sponsored by my Canadian partner as Common-law

TL;DR potentially worked on a visitors visa in the UAE, will this stop me geting PR in Canada?

PS I have a friend who worked for the same company, and i remember he did successfully get PR, but I no longer have a way to contact him and find out what he did!

Zero impact on your sponsorship app. If you worked as a visitor when you weren't supposed to, just fill that out in the question. Don't write an explanation letter.

I suggest you move to the Family Class section of the forum.