Open Work Permit when applying for PR when in Common-Law Relationship

[BenjiTreitz]

Hi!

My situation: I am from Germany and in Canada on a Student Visa (expires July 2016) and I am also in a Common-Law Relationship with a Canadian Citizen for more then 3 years now.
Recently I am preparing my application for PR and my girlfriend would like to sponsor me.
I read on the CIC website that they issue now open work permits to persons who are sponsored by PRs/Citizens.

My question is how much time it approximately takes from the time CIC receives all necessary documents (for sponsorship and application for PR) until I can obtain a work permit.
Does anybody have experience with this procedure?

I would appreciate a lot if you could help me with this! Thanks so much!

 

[surleplateau]

Look at the different current processing timelines:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp

Outland:

As you are from Germany, I believe that your PR application would get processed in the Vienna, Austria office, which appears to take 17 months to complete 80% of their cases. Please keep that figure with a grain of salt, because if your case is straight-forward and with good evidence, it's very possible that your case may take a LOT less than 17 months. Please check the current threads for other Germans or other Europeans in the Vienna, Austria thread.

The benefit of doing outland is not just the (generally) faster time, but that you can "stay" in Canada as a visitor, including applying for a visitor status/visa extension, and you can feel free to leave (in case of family emergency) without jeopardizing your Outland application, and you can probably re-enter as a VISITOR (at your own risk, your mileage may vary, it always depends on the border agent, and NO ONE can guarantee that you'll be admitted, since ONLY Citizens and Permanent Residents have Right of Reentry -- but chances are you will be fine).

Inland:

It doesn't matter where you are from, you get lumped into the 25 months current timeline along with all the other Inland applicants. Yes, during this time you can get an Open Work Permit (assuming you have current status and don't have any other issues going on), and while you "may" leave Canada, the risk is if you get turned back at the border when you try to come back. This kills your Inland application.

Please read: Hands down the most often asked question from Inland applicants