Need help with inland PR application for current student.

[k0do]

Please let me know if I'm posting this in the wrong place and it should be moved.
I very much appreciate any help with the below questions.

Backstory:
My girlfriend (from Sri Lanka) is on a student visa that is ending in August 2019.
We are planning on applying for common law PR sponsorship.
We have been together since December 2017.
We lived together from December 2017-May 2018, and now again from August 2018.
This means we will be common law in August 2019.

Questions:
1. If we apply for inland PR sponsorship and an open work permit in August (right before her student visa expires), does she have any sort of implied status until our application is accepted/declined? Can she stay in the country without any other applications, or does she have to apply for visitor status until the open work permit goes through?

2. If we are applying for PR + open work permit in August, is there anything we should be doing immediately (or should have already been doing)? In other words, is there anything that needs to be done months in advance?

3. She currently has a job and works on her student work permit. Will she have to lose this job once her student visa runs out? Is there any way to keep the job the whole time?

4. I've heard that there are two separate applications (for the PR sponsorship application), one to be a sponsor, and then one to actually sponsor the person. However, I can't find this in any official documentation. Anyone know anything about this?


Thank you very much for any help!

 

[k.h.p.]

Is she eligible for a post-graduate work permit?

You're cutting it very close if her visa expires in August, you can only demonstrate common-law in August, and will need to apply in August. Do you have police clearance certificates from Sri Lanka and any other country she's lived?

If she's eligible for a PGWP, she can apply for that and it gives her more time than implied status from a PR OWP app. If she has no other status after her student visa, she cannot continue working.

 

[k0do]

Is she eligible for a post-graduate work permit?

You're cutting it very close if her visa expires in August, you can only demonstrate common-law in August, and will need to apply in August. Do you have police clearance certificates from Sri Lanka and any other country she's lived?

If she's eligible for a PGWP, she can apply for that and it gives her more time than implied status from a PR OWP app. If she has no other status after her student visa, she cannot continue working.

Thanks for the reply.

No, she is not eligible for PGWP.

I believe she has a police clearance certificate that is around 5 years old.

Aside from work, if we apply for the PR sponsorship and open work permit in August (and nothing else), can she legally stay in Canada until a decision is made?

 

[k.h.p.]

Police clearance certificates are only good for six months to a year, so she needs a new one.

As to "can she legally stay in Canada until a decision is made," probably, if you submit everything correctly.

The implied status that lets her stay comes from the OWP. She has to be in status in Canada to be eligible for that. If her OWP is returned after you submit, she loses her status back to the day her status initially expired, making her illegally in Canada. That in and of itself is not fatal to a PR application, but it complicates things.

Can she apply for a TRV? Biometrics may be an issue. You basically want to keep her in status until you know the OWP will not be returned to you. Then she can stay (she can't easily leave and maintain the application or return)

 

[k0do]

Police clearance certificates are only good for six months to a year, so she needs a new one.

As to "can she legally stay in Canada until a decision is made," probably, if you submit everything correctly.

The implied status that lets her stay comes from the OWP. She has to be in status in Canada to be eligible for that. If her OWP is returned after you submit, she loses her status back to the day her status initially expired, making her illegally in Canada. That in and of itself is not fatal to a PR application, but it complicates things.

Can she apply for a TRV? Biometrics may be an issue. You basically want to keep her in status until you know the OWP will not be returned to you. Then she can stay (she can't easily leave and maintain the application or return)

We will look into getting the police clearance certificate, thank you.

Let me see if I understand what you said correctly. When she applies for the open work permit, she gets implied status (and can stay in Canada legally until the PR application is accepted/declined). If the application for the open work permit does not go through for whatever reason, she immediately loses any implied status, and can no longer stay in Canada legally. So the reason you are suggesting we apply for a temporary resident visa is just in case the OWP does not immediately go through (so that she can stay legally until we can fix things with the OWP)?

Please let me know if I understood you correctly, and thanks again for the help.

 

[k.h.p.]

More or less.

Implied status is the implied right to stay in Canada until a decision is made on an application. You do not get implied status from the PR application.

The OWP does give you implied status. It takes about 4-5 months. It's generally granted. When you have that, it's good for typically two years - meaning two years she would not have to leave Canada.

However, to be eligible for the OWP, you must have a valid status when you apply. I'm concerned your timelines are very tight - you become common-law in August and you must apply in August. If there's a discrepancy of even a few days, you could accidentally apply when you are not common-law and be rejected, or apply after her permit expires, and not be eligible for the OWP.

If you do something that causes the PR or OWP applications to be returned to you, she loses status retroactively back to when her study permit expired. You'd have to apply to restore status in order to re-apply for the OWP.

Applying for a TRV, or a student visa extension, or something, may give you some grace period after you become common-law for the possibility of a mistake in your PR/OWP app, in case they are returned and she loses status retroactively. If she loses status like that, no OWP and she may be required to leave the country - meaning no inland spousal application.

I'm not sure if TRV is the right option for her, but even if it's a scenario where you can prove common-law starting August 1 and her visa expires August 30, you still only have about three weeks to submit everything. You wouldn't find out if the OWP was rejected for a month or two, and if it were rejected, she'd have overstayed for that long.

 

[k0do]

More or less.

Implied status is the implied right to stay in Canada until a decision is made on an application. You do not get implied status from the PR application.

The OWP does give you implied status. It takes about 4-5 months. It's generally granted. When you have that, it's good for typically two years - meaning two years she would not have to leave Canada.

However, to be eligible for the OWP, you must have a valid status when you apply. I'm concerned your timelines are very tight - you become common-law in August and you must apply in August. If there's a discrepancy of even a few days, you could accidentally apply when you are not common-law and be rejected, or apply after her permit expires, and not be eligible for the OWP.

If you do something that causes the PR or OWP applications to be returned to you, she loses status retroactively back to when her study permit expired. You'd have to apply to restore status in order to re-apply for the OWP.

Applying for a TRV, or a student visa extension, or something, may give you some grace period after you become common-law for the possibility of a mistake in your PR/OWP app, in case they are returned and she loses status retroactively. If she loses status like that, no OWP and she may be required to leave the country - meaning no inland spousal application.

I'm not sure if TRV is the right option for her, but even if it's a scenario where you can prove common-law starting August 1 and her visa expires August 30, you still only have about three weeks to submit everything. You wouldn't find out if the OWP was rejected for a month or two, and if it were rejected, she'd have overstayed for that long.

This is very useful information. Very much appreciated.

As for the timelines, for some more context, we have actually sort of been living together since December 2017. The (only) gap from May 2018-August 2018 is because I had a job (and lived) in New York at the time. She visited me and stayed for weeks at a time, around 50% of the total gap (we have many bus receipts and passport stamps to show this). I think there is some risk in including the time before August 2018 and claiming we are already common law (and applying ASAP), but do you think this is more or less risky than having the tight gap and applying in August 2019?

 

[k.h.p.]

I think there's risk in the gap, as you say. You weren't cohabitating.

 

[k0do]

I think there's risk in the gap, as you say. You weren't cohabitating.

I've been thinking it over and I think it makes sense to apply for a visitor record just in case. (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/extend-stay.html)

The above is the right application, right?

Also, given our timeline of her student visa expiring in August (and us applying for PR in August), when would you recommend applying for the visitor record?

Thanks a bunch.