Renewing ETA visitor visa after applying for an open work permit

[Catsea]

Just need some help here... I can't find the info...
Living now in Canada, I am a Canadian citizen, my husband is from Australia. He entered Canada on a ETA-visitor visa 5 months ago. His Visitor visa will expire in 2-3 weeks. I have applied to sponsor him under the family-spouse visa class and he has applied at the same time for a open work permit. The IRCC has texted us to let us know they have received our application at the beginning of October. Does he need to apply for a new visitor visa to maintain his status in Canada while he is waiting for the open work permit? I have read online that it takes about 4 months for processing this open work permit??

 

[KBH]

Hi,
First I would like to clarify that an ETA is not a visitor visa. It's just a requirement to travel to Canada by air if your passport is from a list of certain countries. It has nothing to do with whether or not you will actually be allowed to enter Canada, how long you can stay, etc. If your husband applies to extend his stay as a visitor, it will be unrelated to the ETA he used to enter Canada.

If your husband applied for an OWP, he will be under implied status only once you receive AOR letting you know your application will not be returned to you. The text message is not AOR, it's just letting you know that it was received in the mail room. AOR comes in 6-8 weeks after submittal.

This is a situation I see happen very frequently... someone applies for sponsorship and OWP, they let their visitor status lapse assuming they now are under implied status, but their application gets returned to them (which is happening much more commonly in 2017) and now they are out of status. And, to complicate things further, you can't apply for the OWP once you are out of status.

All that being said, I would STRONGLY suggest your husband apply online to extend his visit. It's $100 and he will be under implied status as soon as it is submitted. It will prevent you from stress and complication in the case that your application ends up being returned for whatever reason.

 

[Catsea]

Excellent! Thank you so much for the info!! We will do that! Really appreciate your time!!