Please help with inland vs outland and OWR

[tesing1234]

(Edit: OWP not OWR in the title)

Hi, I'm from the UK looking to be sponsored by my Canadian girlfriend of 4 years - we lived abroad together. Now she is living in Canada and I'm in the UK.

Currently trying to sort out the quickest and least painful way to live in Canada together. I've been reading up on this but couldn't find the exact information I'm looking for so some help would be much appreciated.

Would inland or outland be better? We're thinking inland at the moment - but this depends on a few things:

1. How long does it take to get an open work permit? Any chance of it getting denied?

2. How long does it take compared to outland currently? Because maybe it would be easier for me to work here in the UK until outland gets accepted? However the possibility of 12 months seems too long to spend apart. Is there a way of seeing how long it's taking for everyone currently?

3. Also I know you're not supposed to leave the country during inland period but are there any exceptions made e.g. for weddings, funerals, seeing family etc abroad?

I would be extremely grateful for any help. Thank you.

 

[spousalsponsee]

Hi, I'm from the UK looking to be sponsored by my Canadian girlfriend of 4 years - we lived abroad together. Now she is living in Canada and I'm in the UK.

Currently trying to sort out the quickest and least painful way to live in Canada together. I've been reading up on this but couldn't find the exact information I'm looking for so some help would be much appreciated.

Would inland or outland be better? We're thinking inland at the moment - but this depends on a few things:

1. How long does it take to get an open work permit? Any chance of it getting denied?

2. How long does it take compared to outland currently? Because maybe it would be easier for me to work here in the UK until outland gets accepted? However the possibility of 12 months seems too long to spend apart. Is there a way of seeing how long it's taking for everyone currently?

3. Also I know you're not supposed to leave the country during inland period but are there any exceptions made e.g. for weddings, funerals, seeing family etc abroad?

I would be extremely grateful for any help. Thank you.

The OWP applications seem to be taking a few months at the moment.

Inland is probably *slightly* slower than outland still, but it's gotten a lot closer - before the 2016 reform, Brits had a reasonable chance of getting their entire process done in under 4 months, especially if it went through Ottawa (in/outland only refers to how you apply, loads of 'out'land apps are processed in Canada rather than London). These days that seems rare, and although inland apps have come down from 26 months to the promised 12, the price of that is outland apps now normally taking 8 months or more. (Side rant: Therefore completely destroying the Govt's claim that the reforms are bringing people together faster, since inland apps could only be filed within Canada meaning people were together already, while the ones who were apart were filing outland apps which now take longer).

Realistically, since you cannot apply for the inland app & OWP until you arrive as a visitor, the time difference will be: about 3 months of being allowed to work in Canada, and about 6 months of being in Canada. So it depends things like what your employment situation is in Britain, how your earnings stack up against cost of living while you wouldn't be able to work, etc.

There are spreadsheets to show how long outland apps are taking, and which processing office they got (eg https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kYJ0Xo_jHLeArkCVeicZyqIE8YLpnZqVJlFrnpmKMx0/edit?usp=sharing) I don't know if there are the equivalent for inland.

The problem with going abroad during an inland application isn't that leaving the country is not permitted. The problem is that you are required to be living in Canada. This can cause two problems if you leave: (1) if you leave for a long time, eg more than a couple of weeks, they can decide you no longer live in Canada, so don't qualify for inland processing. (2) Every time you seek to enter Canada, they have to grant permission. If you get an angry border officer having a bad day who decides you're trying to live in Canada on visitor status, they can refuse you entry, at which point your inland application would be deemed abandoned (because you're no longer in Canada). So leaving Canada is a risk during inland processing since nobody can ever guarantee what will happen when you try to get back in.