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URGENT: My employer is forcing me to take unpaid leave because i’m in maintained status.

R

Raisin_

Newbie
Aug 12, 2024
3
0
Hi everyone,

I initially applied for a work permit under IEC working holiday category. My employment contract is until November 27th and my WP is set to expire today. I requested an extension in may which got rejected.

however, I have also applied for a PR under common law in june which we haven’t received AOR for. This makes me ineligible to apply for a open bridge wp. There is a category on the IRCC website that allows you to apply for an open wp if you haven existing wp that is expiring in 2 weeks or less + you don’t have an AOR yet (source). My partner and I after a lot of effort managed to apply for this last week. We got a confirmation from IRCC, but the confirmation does not explicitly state that I can keep working until a decision is made. This is because I had to apply for a new wp instead of an extension.

Nonetheless, I have applied for a new wp and I am waiting for a response from them. I applied before my current work permit expired. Yet, I received an email today from my employer to take unpaid leave until i get confirmation that i can keep working. Is this even legal? As per the IRCC website I am in maintained status and should be able to keep working. Am I wrong? Or am i being misled by my employer? Any help/tips would be very much appreciated.

thank you all :’)
 
Raisin_ said:
Hi everyone,

I initially applied for a work permit under IEC working holiday category. My employment contract is until November 27th and my WP is set to expire today. I requested an extension in may which got rejected.

however, I have also applied for a PR under common law in june which we haven’t received AOR for. This makes me ineligible to apply for a open bridge wp. There is a category on the IRCC website that allows you to apply for an open wp if you haven existing wp that is expiring in 2 weeks or less + you don’t have an AOR yet (source). My partner and I after a lot of effort managed to apply for this last week. We got a confirmation from IRCC, but the confirmation does not explicitly state that I can keep working until a decision is made. This is because I had to apply for a new wp instead of an extension.

Nonetheless, I have applied for a new wp and I am waiting for a response from them. I applied before my current work permit expired. Yet, I received an email today from my employer to take unpaid leave until i get confirmation that i can keep working. Is this even legal? As per the IRCC website I am in maintained status and should be able to keep working. Am I wrong? Or am i being misled by my employer? Any help/tips would be very much appreciated.

thank you all :’)
Click to expand...
Sure it is legal. Your employer wants confirmation that you can even work. You don’t have status to work if you don’t have AOR to apply for WP. Your work permit expires today so you need to maintain status.
 
Raisin_ said:
Hi everyone,

I initially applied for a work permit under IEC working holiday category. My employment contract is until November 27th and my WP is set to expire today. I requested an extension in may which got rejected.

however, I have also applied for a PR under common law in june which we haven’t received AOR for. This makes me ineligible to apply for a open bridge wp. There is a category on the IRCC website that allows you to apply for an open wp if you haven existing wp that is expiring in 2 weeks or less + you don’t have an AOR yet (source). My partner and I after a lot of effort managed to apply for this last week. We got a confirmation from IRCC, but the confirmation does not explicitly state that I can keep working until a decision is made. This is because I had to apply for a new wp instead of an extension.

Nonetheless, I have applied for a new wp and I am waiting for a response from them. I applied before my current work permit expired. Yet, I received an email today from my employer to take unpaid leave until i get confirmation that i can keep working. Is this even legal? As per the IRCC website I am in maintained status and should be able to keep working. Am I wrong? Or am i being misled by my employer? Any help/tips would be very much appreciated.

thank you all :’)
Click to expand...

Your employer is entitled to do this.
 
Naturgrl said:
Sure it is legal. Your employer wants confirmation that you can even work. You don’t have status to work if you don’t have AOR to apply for WP. Your work permit expires today so you need to maintain status.
Click to expand...
Yeah but I already applied for a new open work permit under the following category:


"Who’s eligible to apply for a work permit without an AOR
You can only apply for a work permit without an AOR if you meet both of the following criteria:

your work permit, study permit or temporary resident status will expire in 2 weeks or less and
you’ve applied for permanent residence under one of the following classes:
the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class (SCLPC) as a spouse or common-law partner
the family class as a spouse, common-law or conjugal partner (sponsored overseas)"

I meet both criteria and I applied (I received a submission confirmation letter) and i am now simply waiting for a response from ircc. I applied while my wp was still valid and my employment conditions haven’t changed.
 
Raisin_ said:
Yeah but I already applied for a new open work permit under the following category:


"Who’s eligible to apply for a work permit without an AOR
You can only apply for a work permit without an AOR if you meet both of the following criteria:

your work permit, study permit or temporary resident status will expire in 2 weeks or less and
you’ve applied for permanent residence under one of the following classes:
the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class (SCLPC) as a spouse or common-law partner
the family class as a spouse, common-law or conjugal partner (sponsored overseas)"

I meet both criteria and I applied (I received a submission confirmation letter) and i am now simply waiting for a response from ircc. I applied while my wp was still valid and my employment conditions haven’t changed.
Click to expand...
You are missing a key point - you are not eligible to apply.
 
Could you clarify as to why you think I won’t be eligible? I have an open work permit that was set to expire in 2 weeks or less. And I have applied for PR under the spouse or common law in Canada Class
 
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