Open Work Permit for Canadian Spouse

[crewe]

Can a spouse of a Canadian citizen apply for open work permit with my permanent resident? I'm in Canada on a visitor visa and I'll be applying for my permanent resident visa soon. How do I apply for an open work visa or do I even need to apply for one? I've been searching for a form that i can fill up for someone like me who is married to a canadian citizen and can't find any... please help.

thank you

 

[parker24]

Can a spouse of a Canadian citizen apply for open work permit with my permanent resident? I'm in Canada on a visitor visa and I'll be applying for my permanent resident visa soon. How do I apply for an open work visa or do I even need to apply for one? I've been searching for a form that i can fill up for someone like me who is married to a canadian citizen and can't find any... please help.

thank you

It entirely depends on if you are applying INLAND or OUTLAND. Let us know which one and we can tell you how. (Note: Outland is usually faster altogether, but you cannot apply for OWP)

 

[Leon]

If you apply inland, you can apply for an open work visa with your application. You would use a temporary worker change of status form. You could expect to get the open work permit at your first stage approval after about 6 months. Note that inland requires you to stay in Canada during the processing time and until you get PR. If you leave Canada during the processing time and for some reason can't return, you would lose your application.

If you apply outland, you can not apply for an open work visa. You would not have to stay in Canada during the processing time but if you do, you need to make sure that your visitor visa is still valid or to apply to extend if it is about to expire. The processing time for outland is often shorter than with inland, but not always. It depends on the processing country.