IMM5669: Is my education considered "ongoing" if I'm taking a gap year?

[chargior]

Hello,

I'm an American citizen and I'm applying for permanent residency through the common-law partner in Canada class.

Because of COVID-19, I've decided to take time off school and I'm applying for my permanent residency (being sponsored by my partner) in the hopes that I can stay in Canada with him and continue to work for the next year or two to save up money before finishing my education. I'm currently on the "150 day grace period" after having started my gap year and I'm hoping that this still means I have legal status in Canada to be eligible for applying.

Furthermore, I'm currently filling out form IMM5996 and I'm not sure if I should mark studying at my university as "ongoing" because I intend to finish school in Canada once I have the money, but I'm not currently enrolled full-time or part-time at my university. Would it be better to instead indicate my final month being enrolled before my gap year? In a similar vein, should I declare myself as self-employed (I'm working online) or unemployed instead of listing my current occupation as "student"? Thank you so much, I really appreciate any help you have to offer!

 

[davidoqc2]

Hello,

I'm an American citizen and I'm applying for permanent residency through the common-law partner in Canada class.

Because of COVID-19, I've decided to take time off school and I'm applying for my permanent residency (being sponsored by my partner) in the hopes that I can stay in Canada with him and continue to work for the next year or two to save up money before finishing my education. I'm currently on the "150 day grace period" after having started my gap year and I'm hoping that this still means I have legal status in Canada to be eligible for applying.

Furthermore, I'm currently filling out form IMM5996 and I'm not sure if I should mark studying at my university as "ongoing" because I intend to finish school in Canada once I have the money, but I'm not currently enrolled full-time or part-time at my university. Would it be better to instead indicate my final month being enrolled before my gap year? In a similar vein, should I declare myself as self-employed (I'm working online) or unemployed instead of listing my current occupation as "student"? Thank you so much, I really appreciate any help you have to offer!

Looking at the rules about it, you should be alright to take a gap so long as you go back to school within the 150 days.
As for marking down your studies, personally I took a year off my studies to work in the industry related to my degree, which was technically still part of university, but I never had to report there. When filling out my papers, I just classed myself as employed for that period and didn't mention anything about education at that time, you should probably do the same thing if you're currently self employed. I think it'd be a good idea to mention that you're on a gap year though, just to give IRCC peace of mind that you're planning on resuming your student visa legally.

Hopefully this info is useful to you, its a pretty unique situation you're in but everything seems fairly straightforward to put down on paper!

 

[armoured]

There are really two separate questions here - assuming (you havne't stated explicitly) that you are currently in Canada on a student visa:

1) How long you can remain in Canada under your current student visa status and whether or not you can 'prolong' your stay in Canada legally on that current entry (i.e. not leave) by means of filing a sponsorship application; and,

2) Whether in filling out forms you should present yourself as a student when you're taking a gap year.

Of these two, the first question is far, far more important - and it's a distinct question from the gap year concept. I don't know the answer to that question - my guess would be that you cannot, that if you're not studying, that status expires and can't be extended by filing a spousal sponsorship. But that's only a guess.

And for the second: there's no concept for visa purposes of 'studying but not this particular year' - gap year is not a (legal) thing. I don't think there would be a big issue of including a few months at end of studies but mainly as a courtesy. If you're employed, I think that's what you should put. (Caveat again here, since there's some link to the student status, that is important, and those familiar with student visas may have direct experience).

For your common law app: if you do not get married before you submit your sponsorship app, you must make very sure you can document thoroughly your cohabitation. It sometimes becomes an issue for students who were living in shared accommodation (dormitories, shared flats/houses, etc). If in any doubt, you might consider marriage.

Also note: Canadian authorities are aware that domestic tuition rates are a fraction of those for foreign students - and you might reasonably expect some heightened caution or scrutiny of anything that might look like 'go common law to get cheaper tuition', i.e. sponsorship from not-really-spouse to get a material benefit.

And in that sense, 'gap year' (take a year off to requalify as a domestic student) isn't going to help much.

 

[chargior]

Looking at the rules about it, you should be alright to take a gap so long as you go back to school within the 150 days.
As for marking down your studies, personally I took a year off my studies to work in the industry related to my degree, which was technically still part of university, but I never had to report there. When filling out my papers, I just classed myself as employed for that period and didn't mention anything about education at that time, you should probably do the same thing if you're currently self employed. I think it'd be a good idea to mention that you're on a gap year though, just to give IRCC peace of mind that you're planning on resuming your student visa legally.

Hopefully this info is useful to you, its a pretty unique situation you're in but everything seems fairly straightforward to put down on paper!

I was hoping to take a gap year and finish up my studies somewhere around Winter 2022 (I unenrolled from classes in September 2021). I'm worried that because the gap year is longer than the 150 days I'll be in a bad spot, but I was also told previously by an IRCC representative that I'll be on implied status while the application is processing so as long as my status is legal when I submit it, I should be okay but I'm not sure if I believe that.

I just keep hearing different things and I'm getting confused, but I appreciate your help a lot. I agree, I'll be more explicit about my gap year and future plans and declare myself as self-employed.

 

[scylla]

I was hoping to take a gap year and finish up my studies somewhere around Winter 2022 (I unenrolled from classes in September 2021). I'm worried that because the gap year is longer than the 150 days I'll be in a bad spot, but I was also told previously by an IRCC representative that I'll be on implied status while the application is processing so as long as my status is legal when I submit it, I should be okay but I'm not sure if I believe that.

I just keep hearing different things and I'm getting confused, but I appreciate your help a lot. I agree, I'll be more explicit about my gap year and future plans and declare myself as self-employed.

You will have implied status as a visitor but you need to stop working if your gap is going to be greater than 150 days.

 

[chargior]

There are really two separate questions here - assuming (you havne't stated explicitly) that you are currently in Canada on a student visa:

1) How long you can remain in Canada under your current student visa status and whether or not you can 'prolong' your stay in Canada legally on that current entry (i.e. not leave) by means of filing a sponsorship application; and,

2) Whether in filling out forms you should present yourself as a student when you're taking a gap year.

Of these two, the first question is far, far more important - and it's a distinct question from the gap year concept. I don't know the answer to that question - my guess would be that you cannot, that if you're not studying, that status expires and can't be extended by filing a spousal sponsorship. But that's only a guess.

And for the second: there's no concept for visa purposes of 'studying but not this particular year' - gap year is not a (legal) thing. I don't think there would be a big issue of including a few months at end of studies but mainly as a courtesy. If you're employed, I think that's what you should put. (Caveat again here, since there's some link to the student status, that is important, and those familiar with student visas may have direct experience).

For your common law app: if you do not get married before you submit your sponsorship app, you must make very sure you can document thoroughly your cohabitation. It sometimes becomes an issue for students who were living in shared accommodation (dormitories, shared flats/houses, etc). If in any doubt, you might consider marriage.

Also note: Canadian authorities are aware that domestic tuition rates are a fraction of those for foreign students - and you might reasonably expect some heightened caution or scrutiny of anything that might look like 'go common law to get cheaper tuition', i.e. sponsorship from not-really-spouse to get a material benefit.

And in that sense, 'gap year' (take a year off to requalify as a domestic student) isn't going to help much.

Thank you for your comment! I agree, I'll put that I'm employed online and indicate that I finished my studies before the gap in September 2021 when I unenrolled. COVID-19 really just messed everything up and what complicates it more is that I'm hoping to transfer to a university closer to my current residence to finish up because I can't afford to move back to the city. I suppose you're right that my ultimate goal is to be able to stay in Canada to live with my partner (or legally prolong my stay). Would you happen to know if I'm allowed to apply to change my status to a visiting visa at the same time as sending my spousal sponsorship application? That might complicate things less because I know I won't be returning to school within 150 days; I was just told by the IRCC that if I submit my sponsorship application while on the 150 day grace period, I would have implied status while it's processing so I didn't realize I might need to change it.

I appreciate you bringing up the point about tuition, I didn't even have that in mind. I guess an important thing to note is that I only have a single semester of school left before I'm finished with my degree. I wrote a sort of "explanation of status and intention" letter to include and indicated that I'm saving up the money to pay the international tuition for my final semester, do you think it would still seem suspicious? At this point I've already paid thousands of dollars for Canadian tuition and I feel like it wouldn't be at all worth it for me to spend like $2000 more to submit this application just to have a reduced tuition cost for one semester, but of course my perspective is different. Also my partner and I have been living in a co-signed apartment for a little bit over a year now. We lived together in my family's home for 7 months before we got this apartment, but we put the official start of our common law relationship as the day we began living in the apartment alone just to avoid complications like you had mentioned. Thank you again, I really appreciate your help!

 

[chargior]

You will have implied status as a visitor but you need to stop working if your gap is going to be greater than 150 days.

Ohh I see. So I wouldn't have to formally apply to have my status changed from my study visa to a visiting visa? I stopped working when I unenrolled from my classes just in case; the only work I do now is online which, from my understanding, should be okay because it isn't through Canada.

 

[scylla]

Ohh I see. So I wouldn't have to formally apply to have my status changed from my study visa to a visiting visa? I stopped working when I unenrolled from my classes just in case; the only work I do now is online which, from my understanding, should be okay because it isn't through Canada.

The online work is fine as long as it involves no Canadian customers / companies / clients.

In terms of the implied status, some of that may depend on timing and you also have to make sure you submit a complete inland application with an OWP application in time. It's critical both applications be 100% complete (i.e. no missing forms, no missing signature, right fees, etc.) - otherwise IRCC will return the package as incomplete and your implied status will be gone. Safest way to play it would in fact be to apply to change your status to visitor while also separately submitting the inland application + OWP.

 

[armoured]

I appreciate you bringing up the point about tuition, I didn't even have that in mind. I guess an important thing to note is that I only have a single semester of school left before I'm finished with my degree. I wrote a sort of "explanation of status and intention" letter to include and indicated that I'm saving up the money to pay the international tuition for my final semester, do you think it would still seem suspicious? At this point I've already paid thousands of dollars for Canadian tuition and I feel like it wouldn't be at all worth it for me to spend like $2000 more to submit this application just to have a reduced tuition cost for one semester, but of course my perspective is different. Also my partner and I have been living in a co-signed apartment for a little bit over a year now. We lived together in my family's home for 7 months before we got this apartment, but we put the official start of our common law relationship as the day we began living in the apartment alone just to avoid complications like you had mentioned. Thank you again, I really appreciate your help!

Others have commented on the current status aspect, so I won't try to.

Personally I think this 'gap year' stuff and whatnot isn't worth the trouble in your case (it's not the classic gap year anyway). The reality is: you have an unfinished degree you'd like to finish eventually. That's basically the whole story, and it doesn't really fit in any boxes. You could make an argument it's better for employment, but that's not a formal part of the sponsorship process anyway. There might be situations where you'd want or need to specify this but I don't see it here.

Common law: it will get scrutinized carefully, in my view more so as students, so check carefully what you submit - it's your decision and I don't know the details. I think it's a fact that married will be looked at differently: your marriage would be a documented legal fact, and living together supports the genunine nature of relationship - with common law (paraphrasing) the burden is more on you to demonstrate both.