Extending work permit

[diego7]

Hello everyone!
here's my case:

I have an PGWP and I'm a musician with NOC 5133, right now I'm intending to extend my stay and I'm trying to decide the best way.

First I have registered my band as a Partnership and then there's the confusion because I'm trying to decide wether to apply as a self employed or a employee of the partnership (the band), which are very different specially in processing times apparently.

Then my visa is expiring in 2 months, but I've found you can remain in Canada with implied status until a decision is made which makes me wonder that if I'm waiting for a self employed visa (no LMO required) that means I could stay for as long as the decision is made, which apparently could be up to 22 months... and even just applying for a regular work visa and the LMO all together could add up to 6 months, that's a lot of time but I can't find anywhere if there's a time limit for this "implied status"

Also if anyone has any suggestions as the option for extending my visa as a musician I would be greatly thankful.

Thanks!!

 

[scylla]

You've misunderstood the rules with regards to implied status. Applying to immigrate (i.e applying for PR) won't give you implied status. You'll still have to stop working when your PWGP expires.

However if you submit a new work permit application before your current work permit expires, then you will have implied status for the period of time it takes them to process the new work permit and make a decision (anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months). The time limit for implied status is how long it takes CIC to make a decision on your new work permit application (provided the new work permit application is submitted before your old work permit expires). So you'll end up with a couple of months extra at most.

Applying for an LMO does not give you implied status. It's the work permit application that does this.

If you want to keep working longer, your only option is to find an employer who is able to obtain an approved LMO to hire you. But that's obviously much easier said than done for musicians.

Hope this helps.

 

[diego7]

Thanks for the response and the suggestion!

So, there's no way of getting a self employed visa extension? Because this just came to my mind after looking through the online application form, where when asked about describing the closest to your work situation you can specify you are a self employed, which on an open work permit seems a valid status, as where in my case I'm part of a partnership and pretty much a self employed individual in the arts.

And then applying for a LMO seems a bit out of place when parters can't be employees of the business, so I was hoping my "job offer" could be described with a section of the partnership contract.

thanks again, there's so much information that sometimes things can get a bit confusing as what can be done for each one's situation.

 

[scylla]

No - there's unfortunately no way of getting a self employed visa extension to your work permit. To successfully extend your work permit, you need an approved Labour Market Opinion. Only an employer can obtain an LMO (you can't do this as a self employed person). And as part of the LMO process, an employer must prove that no Canadian could be found for the role through advertising the position for at least a month. There are also other criteria an employer must meet to qualify to apply for an LMO. The newly formed partnership you have described unfortunately won't qualify to apply for an LMO on your behalf.

If you had an open work permit, then you could work pretty much any job you wanted. However you can only qualify for an open work permit under very specific circumstances (e.g. being married to someone who is in Canada as a foreign worker in a skilled position, being married to a Canadian who has sponsored you for PR using the inland process and your application has first stage approval).

Unfortunately a job offer isn't enough to be approved for a work permit extension. The LMO is mandatory.

 

[fkl]

Expediating on what scylla has already said,

If you are eligible for any of PR programs such as CEC, FSWs, PNPs and you apply for them right now. Then if you are lucky and get first stage of approval (called AOR in case of CEC) by two months, (it normally takes between 2-4 months - but in some lucky cases it does even come early) then you can apply for OWP or BOWP means no LMO required. If you applied for OWP before expiry of current one, you can continue to work under implied status.

But there are too many assumptions in the above case and having total two months of time looks a bit too close.

 

[scylla]

Good point by flk - the BOWP may be another option for you. But you'd pretty much have to be in a position to apply for CEC or one of the other immigration programs right now to get AOR in time.

Do you qualify to apply for PR through any stream right now?