I don't understand this, I know people who are still working when their IEC expired and they already applied for the OWP and the In-Land PR and they are having no issues...
So 1 year Letter she received a letter from the CIC stating she had been working illegally. How would the CIC even know she would be still working??
Even so if its 1 year later she would have already passed the 6 month 1st stage so she should have gotten her Work Permit already so she would have been allowed to work regardless...
This doesn't make sense if she applied for a OWP and Inland PR in September, she should have already passed the 1st stage and received her OWP...
Notes from my Lawyer.
"More important, even if you don't get the open work permit before the expiry of your current IEC visa, you would be able to continue to work legally. There is a provision of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that says explicitly that anyone who has applied for a new work permit before the expiry of their current work permit is allowed to continue working until a decision has been made about their application for a new work permit. This is called "implied status." Because you had submitted an open work permit application with your sponsorship application, you would have implied status as a worker after the expiry of your current IEC visa."