Temporary Work Permits (London, UK applic). No communication! Need advice!

[MattandLou]

Hi there,

My husband and I have applied for TWPs for Canada through the London office (he has a job offer in Vancouver). Our application has been with them for 2 months now. We have supplied them with police checks during this period. We received our passports back 3 days ago, but there was no work permit or information about what has happened with our application, or indeed whether it is still being processed!! We fly on Tuesday, in less than a week, so are a bit concerned!

Can anyone tell me if it is normal that the work permit comes back after the passports, and if so, how long was it between receiving passports and receiving the authorisation to work letter?

Also, has anyone applied in London, and can tell me how the "authorisation to work" letter was sent to a UK resident? (The website says either letter or email).

If we do not get authorisation to work before we go, we are worried that immigration will not be happy that we have one way tickets. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Any advice would be very gratefully received!! Thank you!

Louise

 

[job_seeker]

Hi there,

My husband and I have applied for TWPs for Canada through the London office (he has a job offer in Vancouver). Our application has been with them for 2 months now. We have supplied them with police checks during this period. We received our passports back 3 days ago, but there was no work permit or information about what has happened with our application, or indeed whether it is still being processed!! We fly on Tuesday, in less than a week, so are a bit concerned!

Can anyone tell me if it is normal that the work permit comes back after the passports, and if so, how long was it between receiving passports and receiving the authorisation to work letter?

Also, has anyone applied in London, and can tell me how the "authorisation to work" letter was sent to a UK resident? (The website says either letter or email).

If we do not get authorisation to work before we go, we are worried that immigration will not be happy that we have one way tickets. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Any advice would be very gratefully received!! Thank you!

Louise

Was there a visa attached to your passports (though I don't think you need visas if you citizens of the UK). Was there a letter that came with your passports when they were delivered to you?

Does your husband have a LMO with the job offer? Did you send a copy of the LMO with your application package? If you you are citizens of the UK and your husband has received a LMO, then you can get your work permit once at POE. If it is skilled you can apply for an OWP.

 

[MattandLou]

Thanks for your reply. No there wasn't anything attached to the passports, and no letter. Like you say, we don't need a visa to enter Canada. My husband's job is exempt from LMO because it's skilled, so when we applied originally and sent off our passports we applied for OWPs. They say that, if approved, they will send a letter of authorisation to work, but there is no sign of this! Cheers. Louise

 

[job_seeker]

Thanks for your reply. No there wasn't anything attached to the passports, and no letter. Like you say, we don't need a visa to enter Canada. My husband's job is exempt from LMO because it's skilled, so when we applied originally and sent off our passports we applied for OWPs. They say that, if approved, they will send a letter of authorisation to work, but there is no sign of this! Cheers. Louise

Not all skilled type of jobs are LMO exempt.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/apply-who-permit.asp

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/special-tech.asp

 

[imatwkrp]

I am in a similar situation, and submitted my work permit application in June for a job that starts in August (actually, the contract has already started, but my presence is not required there until August). My moving day is just ten days away now and I still haven't heard a thing! I emailed the Canadian Consulate General Buffalo desparately asking if I could just reapply at the Port of Entry if I arrive without the letter of authorization, and got an email back saying simply, "The answers to your questions are in the guide found at http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/buffalo/imm/working-travailler.aspx?lang=eng&menu_id=60&menu=L "

I've looked at every web page multiple times, of course, but this time I am going ahead and taking completely literally the statement that we can apply at port of entry. Of course, it doesn't say anything anywhere to the effect that it is totally okay to RE-apply, which is what you and I will be doing. But I'm just going to do it and hope, a lot, for the best. Sadly, I think this DOES mean that we have to re-pay the $300 for my TWP and my husband's OWP. I'm just worried enough to do it anyway, but I'm really vexed that I wasted two days' travel to go to the embassy and $300 for services-not-rendered.

 

[job_seeker]

To the OP (MattandLou):

Was just wondering. Did they also send you back the fee paid for the processing of the visa/work permit?

 

[imatwkrp]

I'm betting he didn't get the fee back. Processing is counted as services-rendered, and fees are rarely returned.

 

[ContractorTaxation]

Re: Temporary Work Permits (London, UK applic).

Does anyone know where I can find statistics on how many people are applying for Work Permits at the London, UK office? We are putting together a report on temporary migration - especially IT Contractors - between UK, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Re: Temporary Work Permits (London, UK applic).

Does anyone know where I can find statistics on how many people are applying for Work Permits at the London, UK office? We are putting together a report on temporary migration - especially IT Contractors - between UK, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia.

From April/09 to April/10 London received 12,094 WP applications and approved 95% or 11,454. The stats are at www.data.gc.ca Note that as UK citizens are Visitor visa exempt, they can apply for a work permit on entry to Canada, which won't be reflected in the numbers. Also 5K of those applications submitted are for BUNAC open work permit visas.