Common-law & work permit questions

[Zoobivan]

My Japanese girlfriend and I plan to live together here in Vancouver. We met when she came to Vancouver from Japan to study English. She stayed for over 14 months in my home during that time. Our plan is for her to get a working holiday visa, find a place to rent together, apply for common-law sponsorship after 12 months(365days) living together. I also know she can stay longer on a visitor visa to be sure of those 365 days. We intend to apply for her open work permit once our common-law sponsorship application is recieved. We expect her working holiday visa to last only 12 months.

Questions:
1. Is it possible to send the work permit application at the same time as the common-law sponsorhip application?

2. I am worried that she will not be able to work after her working holiday visa expires after the first 12 months. Is there a way for her to continue to work while we wait for our work permit application and common-law sponsorship application to be processed?

3. I will be a full time student at a major college (BCIT) by the time we submit our common-law sponsorship application and her work permit application. Will this affect anything?

 

[scylla]

1. Yes - they will be sent together as one application package. The work permit should be approved 2-4 months after her application is received.
2. She will need to stop working once her IEC expires and only start working again once she has the open work permit. If she does not wish to stop working, then her employer would need to obtain an approved LMIA so that she can obtain a closed work permit. The LMIA process is long and expensive (plans on 4-6 months) with no guarantee of approval.
3. Should be no impact.

 

[KBH]

Also keep in mind that if she stayed with you for over 14 months continuously already, you have already met the common law requirement (as long as you can prove she was living with you that entire time). I am assuming you're planning to do the WHV and live together for 12 months because you don't have sufficient proofs from her 14 month stay?

 

[Zoobivan]

1. Yes - they will be sent together as one application package. The work permit should be approved 2-4 months after her application is received.
2. She will need to stop working once her IEC expires and only start working again once she has the open work permit. If she does not wish to stop working, then her employer would need to obtain an approved LMIA so that she can obtain a closed work permit. The LMIA process is long and expensive (plans on 4-6 months) with no guarantee of approval.
3. Should be no impact.

This has really helped. We are now discussing the 2-4 months that she won't be able to work.

What if the common-law application is lacking something, would this halt the processing of it? And will that in turn affect the processing time of the work permit?

Or will they begin to process the work permit right away as long as the common-law application is recieved?

Once we send in the applications. Could there be anything to slow down the processing of the work permit?

I'm confident in being able to pay for expenses for 4 months with the savings I have, but longer than that would begin to worry me.

 

[Zoobivan]

Also keep in mind that if she stayed with you for over 14 months continuously already, you have already met the common law requirement (as long as you can prove she was living with you that entire time). I am assuming you're planning to do the WHV and live together for 12 months because you don't have sufficient proofs from her 14 month stay?

Yes. She stayed with my family and I for about 2 months through a homestay agency. After that, she paid my parents directly. We only became romantic with one another about 7 months into her stay in Vancouver. She was an international homestay student. She went back to Japan mid September last year.

 

[scylla]

This has really helped. We are now discussing the 2-4 months that she won't be able to work.

What if the common-law application is lacking something, would this halt the processing of it? And will that in turn affect the processing time of the work permit?

Or will they begin to process the work permit right away as long as the common-law application is recieved?

Once we send in the applications. Could there be anything to slow down the processing of the work permit?

I'm confident in being able to pay for expenses for 4 months with the savings I have, but longer than that would begin to worry me.

If the common law application is lacking something they generally send them back and then you have to re-submit and start the waiting time from scratch. No - they won't process the open work permit application if this happens. They'll return it along with the common law sponsorship package. The OWP is dependent on having submitted a complete sponsorship application.

You need to ensure your wife has valid status in Canada at the time the sponsorship application is submitted. Otherwise you won't benefit from the OWP pilot (which is what grants the OWP in 2-4 months) and will have to wait until AIP (first stage approval) which is substantially longer.