That's exactly what my consultant told me.
This is not a normal application to change status.
Thank you!
Authorized to study or not-Unclear OWP condition-Common-law Inland
- Thread starter Kits
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That's exactly what my consultant told me.
This is not a normal application to change status.
Thank you!
russ6970
VIP Member
Working off campus on a study permit is totally different. You can only work part-time. If you apply for a work permit, you can't study.
No, working off campus is not “totally different”. Not everyone is allowed to work off campus, again it depends on the conditions of your study permit.
On some study permits it is written: “this permit does not authorize the holder to work off campus” and in that case the holder “needs to apply for a work permit” (See the link in my post above where this is written on the CIC website where it clearly says “Who can’t work off campus?”)
It would logically follow that when the holder then applies for and receives a work permit as instructed, then they hold an “authorization” to work (e.g. off campus)
russ6970
VIP Member
I know you are trying to rationalize things, but the brutal truth is you made a mistake when applying for the OWP if you wanted to study. I tried to help and to give and explanation, but it seems like you don't want to listen, so I will be brutally honest. Your mistake, you deal with it.
Thanks for the reply and your explanations I do appreciate them
UPDATE: The conclusion of this topic is that when you are an international student with a valid study permit which doesn’t expire soon, YES, you can apply for the Open Work Permit and the government will allow you to continue with your studies. Legally, your study permit is still valid until it expires (you can check its status on your study permit online application in GCKey) and you can get your OWP for the normal two years. But you are not allowed to take more school courses, programs, etc. with your current valid study permit, it just works for the previously assigned school program, your current course and until the study permit expires. The advantage of getting the open work permit during your studies is that you won’t have to be limited to the work clauses in your study permit, then, you will have more freedom to work in more industries.
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Thank you for this update! I looked into this question on my end too after these discussions and came to the exact same conclusion based on what can be found from a legal perspective. I would strongly caution anyone considering to do this to ALWAYS make sure you remain compliant with both permits as I can imagine that the main issue here is not that one of your documents will get cancelled (that will not happen!), but that you inadvertently put your status at risk by not complying with the conditions. I would like to remind anyone who considers applying for an OWP while holding a study permit to remember that as a study permit holder, they are required to "remain enrolled at a DLI" and "actively pursue their course or program of study" (IRPR 220.1. a and b). Having a work permit does not and will not exempt you from these basic conditions!
Actually, for anyone interested, it seems like the above conditions (about needing to actively pursue your studies and remain enrolled) do not apply to some people as per IRPR 220.3 (a. and b.). Some of the people it would not apply to are anyone whose family member is a temporary resident in Canada (e.g. OWP or SP holders for example). If I understand this correctly that would mean that the spouse (e.g.) of an OWP holder in Canada would not be required to actively pursue their studies while holding a study permit. Similarly, I wonder what would happen if two foreign students (married to each other) both held study permits, would neither be subject to the condition of actively pursuing studies or would both be? In my personal opinion, the law should also provide for relaxing the conditions for family members of Canadian citizens and PRs too as it already does in the cases shown above, but that's a whole other debate... Thanks for reading
Thank you for this update! I looked into this question on my end too after these discussions and came to the exact same conclusion based on what can be found from a legal perspective. I would strongly caution anyone considering to do this to ALWAYS make sure you remain compliant with both permits as I can imagine that the main issue here is not that one of your documents will get cancelled (that will not happen!), but that you inadvertently put your status at risk by not complying with the conditions. I would like to remind anyone who considers applying for an OWP while holding a study permit to remember that as a study permit holder, they are required to "remain enrolled at a DLI" and "actively pursue their course or program of study" (IRPR 220.1. a and b). Having a work permit does not and will not exempt you from these basic conditions!
Actually, for anyone interested, it seems like the above conditions (about needing to actively pursue your studies and remain enrolled) do not apply to some people as per IRPR 220.3 (a. and b.). Some of the people it would not apply to are anyone whose family member is a temporary resident in Canada (e.g. OWP or SP holders for example). If I understand this correctly that would mean that the spouse (e.g.) of an OWP holder in Canada would not be required to actively pursue their studies while holding a study permit. Similarly, I wonder what would happen if two foreign students (married to each other) both held study permits, would neither be subject to the condition of actively pursuing studies or would both be? In my personal opinion, the law should also provide for relaxing the conditions for family members of Canadian citizens and PRs too as it already does in the cases shown above, but that's a whole other debate... Thanks for reading
You’re welcome.
I didn’t trust any of the previous comments of other users in this topic because they didn’t apply to my situation as an international student with OWP and my common-law Sponsor is a Canadian born citizen. People in this topic were talking about a change of status from student to worker, but even if they think it is impossible to remain with student status, yes, it’s possible with restrictions because I’m still studying and “the government knows it”, the government granted me to “remain with student status” just for my specific school program. How can I know this? I asked to lawyers, called immigration, and I also checked my status online, and I’m pretty fine, my study permit is still valid. I can continue with my course. Thank you for your comment! I hope this information will be useful to other people.
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