HELP/URGENT! Open Work permit under Spousal Sponsorship

[vanprincess93]

Hi there,
I have applied my PR application under common-law spousal sponsorship submitted Jul 1, 2017 and I'm still waiting for their response. Currently, I'm on study permit but stopped going to school ever since I applied PR application which means that I am missing two terms of official semesters. I mistakenly believed that I was applying for open work permit as i was filling out the form for PR because i was ignorant. Since then, I worked until recently I've been told that I needed an open work permit and stopped working right away. But this happened after I applied my PR and I had the talk with a lawyer and he said it wouldn't really affect my PR status unless I open up the story when I apply for open work permit. Apparently, my study permit expires July 1, 2018 and I'm not attending school at this time so I need to apply for either a visitor visa or open work permit.

My lawyer suggests that I should be honest about what i have done in the past 3 months(fall semester) and write an explanation mentioning I have worked with study permit which still gives me an authorization.
Basicially, there is a gap between Sep-Jan where i need to explain what i have done. I am really terified that I might not get approved. If refused, what should i do next?

Is anyone in a similar situation as me or know anyone who is in this situation? Can you please give me advice and what kind of action i should take at this point?

Thanks in advance!

 

[KBH]

It sounds like your lawyer might be giving you bad advice. The problem right now is that you are not in status since July 2017, since you violated the terms of your study permit. You must be studying in order for a study permit to give you valid status in Canada, and if I am understanding your post correctly, you have not been studying since July 2017. This means you cannot apply for the OWP right now, because you need to be in status in order to apply. If you're not in status, you need to wait until you receive approval in principle (AIP) on your PR application, which happens almost at the end of the process, before you will be eligible to apply for the OWP.

I'm not an expert in this area, but I also believe there are some rules against you being issued a work permit if you have previously worked illegally in Canada, so you may not even be eligible for the OWP even after you receive AIP.

In terms of applying to stay as a visitor, you can only do that within 90 days of going out of status - but it sounds like it has been longer than 90 days, so restoring would not be an option. As of right now, there is no way for you to become legal again without physically leaving Canada. Meaning your only options at this point are to stay in Canada while out of status, not studying, not working, until your PR app is approved (likely in about six months), or leave Canada and risk the loss of your application since it is inland. (The chances of them letting you back into Canada when you've overstayed are not great, and you need to be living in Canada for your inland app to be processed).

The good news is that there is no requirement to be in status to be approved for PR. So while your lack of status will not have a negative impact on your PR app, it does mean that if you choose to stay in Canada without status until it's finished processing, you need to lay low, not work, and understand you are not in the country legally and all the implications of that.

Hope that helps.

 

[vanprincess93]

It sounds like your lawyer might be giving you bad advice. The problem right now is that you are not in status since July 2017, since you violated the terms of your study permit. You must be studying in order for a study permit to give you valid status in Canada, and if I am understanding your post correctly, you have not been studying since July 2017. This means you cannot apply for the OWP right now, because you need to be in status in order to apply. If you're not in status, you need to wait until you receive approval in principle (AIP) on your PR application, which happens almost at the end of the process, before you will be eligible to apply for the OWP.

I'm not an expert in this area, but I also believe there are some rules against you being issued a work permit if you have previously worked illegally in Canada, so you may not even be eligible for the OWP even after you receive AIP.

In terms of applying to stay as a visitor, you can only do that within 90 days of going out of status - but it sounds like it has been longer than 90 days, so restoring would not be an option. As of right now, there is no way for you to become legal again without physically leaving Canada. Meaning your only options at this point are to stay in Canada while out of status, not studying, not working, until your PR app is approved (likely in about six months), or leave Canada and risk the loss of your application since it is inland. (The chances of them letting you back into Canada when you've overstayed are not great, and you need to be living in Canada for your inland app to be processed).

The good news is that there is no requirement to be in status to be approved for PR. So while your lack of status will not have a negative impact on your PR app, it does mean that if you choose to stay in Canada without status until it's finished processing, you need to lay low, not work, and understand you are not in the country legally and all the implications of that.

Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for your advice. I feel like your advice sounds more reliable than the lawyer that I met.
The fact that the lawyer told me about applying for open work permit with being honest on the form actually got me choked and I was worried that i might get refused.

What if I enroll the next semester just to maintain my study permit, and apply for a visitor visa/OWP maybe in March, would i be able to get it by any chance?

Regards,

 

[KBH]

Thank you so much for your advice. I feel like your advice sounds more reliable than the lawyer that I met.
The fact that the lawyer told me about applying for open work permit with being honest on the form actually got me choked and I was worried that i might get refused.

What if I enroll the next semester just to maintain my study permit, and apply for a visitor visa/OWP maybe in March, would i be able to get it by any chance?

Regards,

You may want to pop over to the study permit section of the forum and inquire about that. My area of expertise is the spousal stuff and I am not 100% on what happens when you start studying again after previously violating the terms of the permit.

 

[scylla]

Thank you so much for your advice. I feel like your advice sounds more reliable than the lawyer that I met.
The fact that the lawyer told me about applying for open work permit with being honest on the form actually got me choked and I was worried that i might get refused.

What if I enroll the next semester just to maintain my study permit, and apply for a visitor visa/OWP maybe in March, would i be able to get it by any chance?

Regards,

Your study permit was automatically canceled once you stopped attending school for more than 90 days. It's not longer valid and you're in Canada without status right now. Enrolling in the next semester will be studying illegally since your study permit is no longer valid - don't do that.

I would instead submit an application to restore your status to visitor as soon as humanly possible. That should be your next move and first priority. Do this as soon as you can (i.e. Monday). It's possible it may already be too late - or possible you may still have a day or two remaining before it's too late. Worth a try.