Ontario PNP application - timeline crisis! Help appreciated

[La Glas]

Hi
I've reviewed lots of threads about this topic but I am still not clear on what needs to be done - I would greatly appreciate some solid advice as I am stressing about this.

I will keep it as simple as I can:

I am in Canada on a SWAP/USIT 1year WHP. It expires in late September.

I am working full-time and my employer is willing to support me for long-term visa.

I cannot apply for LMO as my job wasn't advertised.

I applied for the Ontario PNP 2 weeks ago (I know its a late application but it took my employer a while to complete application). The process is not yet fully underway as my employer has to provide the attachments that go with the application form.

I'm aware that the PNP process will take 4 - 5 months if successful. This means that my SWAP visa will expire before I can get the PNP. I will stop work before my current visa expires in September.

My plan is to:

1) Apply for a Visitors visa roughly 5 - 7 days before the SWAP visa expires. It will take Vegreville at least 60 days to process application.
2) Stop working in late September (I will discuss keeping the job with my employer)
3) When the PNP comes back, get a new work permit by flag-poling
4) Apply for PR

Can anyone tell me if this plan is okay?
Will the visitors visa be granted?
Should I tell Immigration what I'm planning to do?
Will the flag-poling work?

Any feedback or similar experiences will help alot.

La Glas

 

[La Glas]

Hey guys

Anyone got information on this!! Surely someone has had a similar experience that they can share!?

 

[colmforest]

Hi La Glas,

I was in a very similar situation to you last year, maybe I can offer you some help. Unfortunately I'm now in France having been kicked out in March of this year and went back home to Ireland, but I know a why to buy you some time possibly, perhaps in exchange for some knowledge on the Ontario PNP!

I arrived in Toronto in Dec 2008 on the same USIT visa. Like you, my employer wanted to keep me, and we applied for a visa extension and Labour Market Opinion, but it was declined. However, what the application did do was buy me time, and put a natural extension on to my USIT visa which gave me the opportunity to continue working whilst I waited for the visa to be accepted/rejected.

You can send off for a work permit extension without having a positive Labour Market Opinion, which in the mail can take about 60 days to process. All you have to do for the application is show that you have applied for a positive LMO, but even if that gets rejected you can still wait until your visa extension application gets officially rejected around 60 days later and continue to work. What I did was wait until a few days before my USIT visa expired and then sent the application by registered post, thus putting my work status in to "Implied status" which means you can continue working until you get officially accepted/rejected. Your employer still has time to try and apply for an LMO also as they only have to advertise the job for 14 days on jobbank.gc.ca (which is free) and perhaps also on another website to prove they've tried to hire another candidate. However, if they will not do this, they will still have to at least attempt to get an LMO in order to buy you some more time, even if they know it will get rejected.

However, I do not know if this will compromise your PNP application, and it potentially could mess up your visitors visa application. Perhaps the visitors visa application is not necessary though if you can work for a couple of months and then you can apply.

Sorry, I'm a little bit drunk so I'm not articulating this as well as I could, but if you need any more help or links on where you need to go and what you need to do then let me know. Have to try and keep the Irish in Canada, trying to get back myself!

Can you maybe point in me in the direction of a good website to see how I may go about applying for the PNP for Ontario? Are they looking for only specific skill sets?

 

[La Glas]

Hi Colmforest


Thanks for the reply.

I hope the hangover wasn't too bad!

I can't go down the LMO route as my job wasn't advertised.

I am going to wait until just before my USIT visa runs out before applying for the Visitors Visa. As you mentioned, it takes around 60 days to process in the post.

If you want to check out the Ontario PNP - go to the Opportunities Ontario website - they've got all the information, forms etc. that you need. You will need to have a job lined up before you apply. And it will cost you $2000. But as far as I know, it goes through every time.