Spousal Sponsorship/work permit extension/open work permit

[steffimaus0906]

Hello guys,

Hope someone can help me with my question.

I came to Canada with a 1 year work and holiday visa and lived with my Canadian boyfriend, who I met a year before on a visit. My work visa expires on 02 June 2010 and we are getting married on 11 April 2010. I will apply for pr as soon as we get the marriage certificate. My question is how I can extend my work visa, so that I can work while we wait for pr status. I am currently without a job as the department of HSBC where I worked for 7 months got closed and I haven't found anything new due to the expiry of my work visa.

I called a CIC representative and that girl told me that I can apply for an "open work permit" together with the sponsorship application as long as it is 30 days before my visa expires. That will be very tight, but anyways, after searching the internet I'm not sure if I'm eligible for this kind of visa. And as I understand I can only extend my work visa if I have a job or job offer with an HRSDC confirmation, right?

So any suggestions what I should do or if the CIC representative is right?

Thanks for your help,

Steffi

 

[getaround]

You can apply for owp with the pr application; though you won't get the owp till you are aip which could be at least 6 months.

 

[RobsLuv]

If you had a "normal" work permit, you'd be eligible to continue working on that permit - even after it expired - if you applied for PR via the inland application process AND included an change of conditions/extension application WITH the inland PR application, ensuring that it is received by CIC prior to expiration of your original work permit. This, in part, is what the CIC agent was talking about - unfortunately (but not surprisingly), her information was a bit misleading. She neglected to ascertain whether you had a work permit that made you eligible to continue workingi - and she didn't tell you that if you don't have that, you'll wait at least six months without the ability to work while they get around to assessing your for first stage approval. Also, the 30 days prior is not a hard and fast rule. What has to happen is the extension application HAS to be received by CIC before your status expires - so you could FedEx overnight it to them two days prior and still be fine.

That said - a holiday working visa is not eligible to be extended. So applying via the inland PR process may or may not be of advantage to you. It depends on whether you're from a visa-exempt or non-visa-exempt country, and which overseas visa office would be processing your file if you were to elect to apply outland (yes, you can still apply outland even if you're wanting to stay in Canada during processing).

getaround is right in that you can apply, with an inland PR application, to extend your status with an open work permit. The requirement for your inland PR application AND your extension application to be received by CIC prior to expiration of your holiday working visa still applies. But you'd wait at least six months for first stage approval - after which you'd be issued the open work permit - and then another 6-12 months to finalize the PR ap. If you apply outland, you can still apply separately to extend your status as a visitor - based on your marriage - and you could possibly (depending on the processing timeline for your particular visa office) see your PR finalized in about the same time frame as it would normally take the inland PR process to get you to first stage approval and an open work permit. Of course, with landed status, you don't need a work permit anymore.

So - in order to advise, we need more info about which country you're from so we'll know about how long you could expect to wait for finalization of an outland ap - that will determine whether applying inland and waiting longer for PR in order to be able to work sooner is a reasonable alternative. There are things you give up when you apply inland - like the right to appeal a refusal and the ability to leave Canada during processing. If you are not present and residing in Canada with your sponsor/spouse, you cannot be approved - so if you leave and are not readmitted, you forfeit your inland application.

 

[matthewc]

Doesn't a WHP work permit give you implied status as a worker, if you go the inland PR route with OWP application included, even though you couldn't extend the WHP permit it if that was all you were doing? I seem to recall this being a gray area - perhaps PMM knows.

 

[steffimaus0906]

Hello,

Thanks for your replies. So I am originally from Germany and I would like to stay in Canada (Vancouver) and live with my spouse while we wait for my pr status. Best case scenario would be if I could work here of course, or maybe go back to University and do another Master's. I really want to avoid just sitting around for as long as I have to wait for first stage approval.

We talked to a really expensive immigration lawyer a few months ago and she also said that the out land application would be faster. Also, one of my best friends is getting married in August and I'd really like to go to Germany for 2-3 weeks. So if I applied for the in land than I might not be allowed to re-enter Canada, right? But if I applied outside of Canada I would still be able to live here and more important, leave Canada for a holiday and come back? What would my status be then? Visitor?

So if we apply for pr outside of Canada then we have to fill out completely different forms, too, right?
The documents for the sponsor are basically the same, but the forms I would have to fill out are slightly different to the in land application kits. Is that correct? So I would have to send everything to Berlin then? Would I have to give them a mailing address in Germany or could my mailing and residential address be in Canada?

And I would have to send in the IMM 1249 form together with the pr application to extend my current visa and select "C" An initial work permit or extension of work permit"? By the way, I have a work permit, case type 20, employer open and under remarks it says: Youth Mobility Germany 09 - Validity: 12 months after entry - PR/Sec/Health/Child Care Prohibited.

Hope that helps. Thanks so much for your help and clarification.

Steffi

 

[steffimaus0906]

Hey again,

just wandering if anyone could help with my new questions.

Thanks!

 

[DeniseBoeing]

Hey Steffi,

I can not help you with advice because I have the exact same issue than you. German, on visitor record, married recently to canadian, wanna visit Germany, inland or outland application. Would be great if we could talk. This whole procedure really is too complicated. What have you done since we are already in Sept?

Thank you so much
Denise

 

[kelKel]

Hi Denise,

If you're here on a visitor visa and plan on filing for PR you have 2 options. You can file an inland application and file a OWP with the application. You will have implied visitor status until first stage approval which you're looking at 8-9 months. At this point you will recieve a work permit until you get PR which could be soon after or 12 months after there are no definite timelines. OR you could file an outland application through Berlin which is processing applications in 3-15 months. That would be for full PR. With an outland application you have right of appeal and can leave the country if you chose. The inland route suits some people but people from Visa exempt countries as you are outland seems to be the way to go. Btw my boyfriend is also here from Germany on visitor status

 

[kmr]

I'm sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm curious what you (the original poster) decided to do, and how it worked out.

I'm in the same situation - here on a Working Holiday Visa, married to a Canadian, and probably will not have my PR finalized before my Working Holiday Visa expires in July 2012. This is all my fault, I read that spousal sponsorships outland through Buffalo were 4 months on average and got overconfident - only to work on my PR application today and discover that since we're in Quebec, we need to wait additional months for additional documents, and that the path was not as smooth as I'd envisioned.

Even if we sent it in a month, which seems unrealistic since I haven't yet sent away for my US security clearance or scheduled a dr's appt for the medical, I have to face the possibility (not a certainty, but it may happen) of running out of time on my Working Holiday Visa if my application hits a snafu. This visa says that the visa holder *must* leave Canada upon its expiration. I know that if I get my PR approved before then I can land no problem, but is there any other kind of visa I could apply for that would supercede the requirement that I leave after the WHV expires?

I don't want to be separated from my husband and our adorable kitten!

So here's my question - has anyone gone from a working holiday visa to any other kind of visa after filing a PR app from outside of Canada, or does the "you must leave after your WHV expires" preclude me from getting other types of temporary visas, such as a work permit?