Extend my stay in Canada as a Visitor

[carlos89]

Hi there,

My wife has been living with me in Montreal since Nov on a TRV visa (visitor) while we wait for her outland sponsorship immigration (I'm the sponsor). She is studying French at a private school, and we are going to ask for a visitor extension in April.
As CIC takes an avg of 4 months to process the visa extension and her current right of permanence expires in May, she will be on implied status.
Important to say, she hasn't received her CSQ yet, and by the end of her current visa she will have taken a total of 21 weeks of French classes at 2 different schools.
I have 3 questions about it:

- Is she allowed to keep taking her French classes while on implied status?
- If her TRV extension is approved, does she have the right to continue studying French as she does now, or is it just a permission to stay in Canada?
- Although her French courses have less than 6 months each, if you look globally she would be studying more than 6 months. Is a CAQ for studies and then a study visa required even if it is just a language course?


Please help if you know the answer, it's a hard situation for us...


Thanks so much!

 

[sokosan]

This is unclear, and you cannot find a straight answer anywhere on the CIC website (which is not strange for the CIC website...).

All official documentation says is that studying less than 6 months does not require a study permit (a TRV will do, if you need one at all).

That is what language schools, that cater to foreign students, also say. For example, this one:

http://www.inlinguavancouver.com/registration/visa_info

it says explicitly that you can study without a study permit for 6 months. If it's more than that, you need a study permit. Even if you are just studying English (or in your case, French).

What I would do in your case is

1) Call CIC. See if you can get a straight, clear, and rigorous answer from them.

2) Contact the school and ask them. If the school allows her to enrol in a new course against the law, it's not just her breaking the law, it's also the school. So they should know the rules, or have a way to find out. If the school where she is studying doesn't have a lot of foreign students, find one which does (i.e. similar to the one above) and go ask them. Tell them she wants to enroll in a course with them but is not sure if she is allowed.

3) From the page I linked above, it looks like it is possible to convert a TRV into a study permit. If you haven't applied for the TRV extension yet, consider doing the conversion from TRV to study permit. Many language schools with lots of foreign students say things like "we are certified with the government and our courses are eligible for a study permit extension" etc. Find a school like this, and see how they can help you, they should have experience with those cases.

 

[carlos89]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback, I will do it and share the info here. After reading a lot of CIC and private school instructions I also think a study permit will be needed, but as you said, there isn't a straight answer for it. On the other side, I see a high chance of having the visa refused because she would be asking for a study permit just to study a language and with an outland immigration process in parallel. But we have to play by the rules right, my first concern is not to break any law.


Thanks!

 

[sokosan]

You never really know, in cases like yours the visa/immigration system is a bit schizophrenic. On one hand, to get a TRV (initial or extension) you are supposed to demonstrate ties to your home country and convince the Canadian authorities you will leave Canada. On the other hand, many people on this forum apparently apply for a TRV extension for their partners in order to fulfill one year for common-law status, and then apply for PR, and even very clearly say so - which obviously means the person applying for the extension intends to stay in Canada permanently - and CIC accepts this and grants extensions.

Nobody can give you a certain answer. We can just speculate.

Btw, check how long it takes to convert TRV to a study permit. During the application, your wife is still only on a TRV, explicit or implied, and whatever limits on her studying exist still apply. What I mean is that she might to take a break from her studies either way.

 

[carlos89]

I called CIC. The agent confirmed that she will need a study permit to continue with the French classes, and more important, she is not allowed to study while on implied status with a visitor's visa.

When you are already in Canada as a visitor, you can apply for a study permit by mail at the Canadian visa office in your home country, or in person or by mail at the VAC in Los Angeles.
I forgot to ask, but I guess you need to flag polling at the U.S. border to complete the visa change.

 

[imran364]

My 3 months old Son arrived with his mother who is a Permanent Resident of Canada on 17 Nov 2015 on multiple visitor visa .
Immigration officer give him 6 months stay up to 2nd May 2016. now we want to extend his stay Please advise what is the proecdure ?

 

[dr_eraK]

URGENT:Online visa fee issue

Can anybody help me with this .....
I initially was trying to upload my online visa application at my CIC but was unable to upload my documents due to large file size,I therefore gave up and paid the fee online for paper application.Meanwhile I was able to finally upload the documents online but since I have already paid the fee...is there a way I can use the same for online application.

The online application submission requires fee payment for it to be submitted,that I have already done.I havent yet submitted my paper application at a VAC.I tried searching online for answer to my problem but could not find any answer nor any address to email to.

Do I have to reverse this payment and again pay with online application or I proceed with paper application now.What to do?

please reply at your earliest as I plan to submit my paper application in about 8 hours time if I cannot come up with a solution for online application as VAC will be closed on sat and sun

I will be highly obliged if anybody could help with my query.

 

[artin2015]

My spouse extended visitor visa inside Canada since 2,November 2015 and her visa expire on 6 December 2015, anyway it s long processing for her extended visa . She got letter on 8 March 2016 her application transferred to Etobicoke office ! i am wondering why they sent to local office?
Just I want mention we are applied for PR and already my application ( principle applicant ) transferred to Etobicoke office for further assessment. My question is why Cic sent my wife extended to that office as well?

 

[Winter20151]

My husband applied for his visa extension 30 days prior to his visa expiring, we applied January 2016. We just received a message from CIC (April 24,2016). The message said that the application had been transferred to the Etobicoke office for further processing and to expect a call from them. Also states about passport being valid (which it is) for duration of stay. We stated in the online extension application that we would be applying for permanent residency through spousal sponsorship, we have not applied yet, but will be applying this week. Wondering if it's normal for the extension application to be transferred to Etobicoke? I've read in other forums that they do this for PR applications for interviews. Are there other reasons an extension application would be transferred? They didn't request any other information.

 

[Dave01]

I got my mom here on approved 5 years TRV but she can only stay 6 months at a time except we extend her stay to more than 6 months and she would be 6 month in Canada by May 26. Now we would like to extend her stay for more than 6 months. Anybody done this before should please advise us on how to go about this. Also we got 2 babies and my wife is studying in a school while mom help to take care of babies at home when she’s away, Can we draft a letter stating mom is helping out with babies while my wife is away to school? If not what else can we say as reason for extending her stay in Canada?

Thanks everyone.

 

[jbhkaur]

My husband applied for his visa extension 30 days prior to his visa expiring, we applied January 2016. We just received a message from CIC (April 24,2016). The message said that the application had been transferred to the Etobicoke office for further processing and to expect a call from them. Also states about passport being valid (which it is) for duration of stay. We stated in the online extension application that we would be applying for permanent residency through spousal sponsorship, we have not applied yet, but will be applying this week. Wondering if it's normal for the extension application to be transferred to Etobicoke? I've read in other forums that they do this for PR applications for interviews. Are there other reasons an extension application would be transferred? They didn't request any other information.

Hi,

my parents' visitor extension file transferred to etobicoke as well with the same message that you got, can you please reply as to what was the outcome in your case and how many days they took to reply and did you guys end up having interview.

thanks for your reply in advance.

 

[Rolento416]

Long story short came to Canada in 2016 of Jan for a 1 year course. In Dec 2016 completed it and applied for pgwp which expired Feb 2018. I then applied for work permit extension which got refused because these bosses don't do lmia good worker or not. Applied for visitor status March 22nd but wrong fees paid it was rejected. I then reapplied to restore status but as a visitor April 15, 2018. I am married to a Canadian resident since March 2018 as she intends to sponsor me. This is stressful with no decision as yet only a apologize for delay message. By my math my 90 days grace is over June 22nd.

 

[macwhitby]

Hi folks,
we applied for extend to stay in Canada application for my mom and requested for six months extension. Few days ago they requested to do a medical within 30 days but today we got a letter stating that, the decision has made and she can stay until August 2019. Do we still have to complete the medicals ? I'm confused ... Please advice or share your experiences ?
FYI: She has multiple entry visitor visa for 10 year's.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi folks,
we applied for extend to stay in Canada application for my mom and requested for six months extension. Few days ago they requested to do a medical within 30 days but today we got a letter stating that, the decision has made and she can stay until August 2019. Do we still have to complete the medicals ? I'm confused ... Please advice or share your experiences ?
FYI: She has multiple entry visitor visa for 10 year's.

Yes, she needs to do the medical. The approval is contingent on it being done. The Visitor Record will state this.