Do I NEED TO EXTEND Visitor Visa? Already applied for Open Work Permit and PR.

[AlbertEng]

Hi there,

My friend is in Canada on a visitor visa until April 12th, 2016. She has married a Canadian and has applied for her PR (in-land spouse) and Open Work Permit at the same in December 2015.

QUESTION: Does she has to extend her visitor Visa or does she do nothing because of her work permit application will give her 'implied status'? FYI, other people who applied for the same thing last November have received their open work permits already this month.

Any help/reply you can give is appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.

AL

 

[scylla]

I would definitely apply to extend. We've seen a number of cases here where inland applications have been returned for minor reasons (e.g. missing fees, missing signature, outdated form). They are typically returned around the 4 month mark. If this happens to your friend, she would then be out of status, have to resubmit her inland application, restore her status and no longer qualify for the OWP pilot. Better to play it safe and apply for one extension.