Questions about maintaining legal status

[nmuntz]

Hello,

My wife came to Canada last year under the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. Her work permit is due to expire early next month (May).
We got married in November and submitted our PR Sponsorship package along with an application for an OWP early last month.

My question is how can she maintain legal status in Canada while our PR & OWP applications are being processed. On the other hand if our PR application is refused after her work permit expires she would be out of status and maybe won't be able to reapply.
According to https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/iec/extend-change.html you can only extend your work permit under certain situations. Not sure if our situation qualifies.

Looking for advise on how to do especially considering how the pandemic is probably going to slow everything down.

Thanks!

 

[scylla]

Hello,

My wife came to Canada last year under the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. Her work permit is due to expire early next month (May).
We got married in November and submitted our PR Sponsorship package along with an application for an OWP early last month.

My question is how can she maintain legal status in Canada while our PR & OWP applications are being processed. On the other hand if our PR application is refused after her work permit expires she would be out of status and maybe won't be able to reapply.
According to https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/iec/extend-change.html you can only extend your work permit under certain situations. Not sure if our situation qualifies.

Looking for advise on how to do especially considering how the pandemic is probably going to slow everything down.

Thanks!

She has implied status because you submitted an OWP with the inland application. She can legally remain in Canada and continue working.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hello,

My wife came to Canada last year under the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. Her work permit is due to expire early next month (May).
We got married in November and submitted our PR Sponsorship package along with an application for an OWP early last month.

My question is how can she maintain legal status in Canada while our PR & OWP applications are being processed. On the other hand if our PR application is refused after her work permit expires she would be out of status and maybe won't be able to reapply.
According to https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/iec/extend-change.html you can only extend your work permit under certain situations. Not sure if our situation qualifies.

Looking for advise on how to do especially considering how the pandemic is probably going to slow everything down.

Thanks!

1. The application for the OWP with the sponsorship gives her implied status until a decision is made. No need to apply for an extension as a visitor. Note she has to stop work when the IEC work permit expires.

 

[nmuntz]

Hello,

Thanks for your responses!
I have two further questions around implied status:

1) I assume that she has implied status as long as my application is not rejected. My concern is if for whatever reason my application gets denied two months down the line (because everything is backed up right now). If this happens then we would probably be unable to reapply as inland since she will no longer have "legal status" since her work permit will have expired by then. If this is the case then I see value in trying to get her current work permit extended so she keeps legal status for longer.

2) Is there any way to extend her current work permit so she doesn't have to wait until the OWP is issued? Again, everything seems to be backed up so it might be many months until she gets the OWP.

Thanks!

 

[ishyfishy]

Hi

1. The application for the OWP with the sponsorship gives her implied status until a decision is made. No need to apply for an extension as a visitor. Note she has to stop work when the IEC work permit expires.

If your wife is on IEC, and you've applied for a work permit with your PR application, your wife can continue working until a decision on the OWP is made, even if the IEC work permit expires.

My parner is on IEC and we've applied for common law sponsorship with OWP. I have contacted IRCC multiple times and also confirmed this multiple times. Attached is an email response from IRCC after I asked to get it in writing.

http://imgur.com/Qm7XJxH

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hello,

Thanks for your responses!
I have two further questions around implied status:

1) I assume that she has implied status as long as my application is not rejected. My concern is if for whatever reason my application gets denied two months down the line (because everything is backed up right now). If this happens then we would probably be unable to reapply as inland since she will no longer have "legal status" since her work permit will have expired by then. If this is the case then I see value in trying to get her current work permit extended so she keeps legal status for longer.

2) Is there any way to extend her current work permit so she doesn't have to wait until the OWP is issued? Again, everything seems to be backed up so it might be many months until she gets the OWP.

Thanks!

1. She can still apply inland if out of status. I don't know what you mean about "trying to get her current work permit extended". She has already applied for the only work permit extension that she qualifies for, so there are no other options.

2. As above, no other way. If she hasn't received the OWP before her IEC permit expires, she can continue to work on Implied Status while waiting on the OWP.

 

[nmuntz]

Thanks for your responses everyone, your responses have been extremely helpful!
I was not aware you can still apply inland if out of status and that you can continue working past the IEC work permit expiration while in implied status.

Thanks much!

 

[canuck78]

Thanks for your responses everyone, your responses have been extremely helpful!
I was not aware you can still apply inland if out of status and that you can continue working past the IEC work permit expiration while in implied status.

Thanks much!

If out of status she wouldn’t qualify for the OWP pilot program that is available for inland applicants.