Ways to extend work permit for a few months

[harmeetjaipur]

Hi all, I landed in Canada on 26th August 2014 under the PGWP. I have been working as a Front-end Developer in Toronto since I graduated on April 17th 2015. I studied from Sikkim Manipal University in India which isn't accepted by all the agencies (WES Canada etc) here that validate the degrees so I had to go through the LMIA road or else I'd have had around 500 points with my B.Sc and one year of Canadian experience. My employer started my application in May this year but due to some unexpected delays, the ads that were supposed to be posted on jobbank got delayed. Due to this delay, the timing of the LMIA application approval will exceed my last work day (2nd September 2016). This is what my employer said related to this: "We should apply to extend your work on the basis that the application has been submitted (and another technical reason). We'll be making a special application for this." I am not sure about the "technical" and "special" part from that statement because I just got that from my boss.

What are my options now? Can I extend my stay in Canada in any way so that my application just gets started because once it gets started I can apply for a bridge visa, as far as I know.

 

[scylla]

Having started the LMIA process unfortunately doesn't entitle you to extend your work permit. You can certainly apply without having an approved LMIA in place and can continue working until a decision is made in the application. However without an approved LMIA, the extension will be refused and then you'll end up in Canada without status (at which point you would need to stop working immediately). If the LMIA is approved after you lose your status, you would have to apply to restore your status in Canada and re-apply to extend your work permit. Restration applications seem to be taking around four months to process these days (during which time you cannot work).

If you apply to extend your work permit - that application has to be approved in order for you to then successfully get a bridging work permit. You must be holding a valid work permit at the time you apply for the bridging work permit.

 

[harmeetjaipur]

What are my chances of getting kicked out of Canada? I am ok with not working for a while if it comes to that, but once you go out, it gets difficult to get back in I am afraid.