As with most cases on this forum, I'm facing quite a dilemma and it's an extremely long and intricate story. Not to bore with details, but I've been dating a Canadian girl since 2011. Flying back and forth between Ireland and Canada for years and I finally got my IEC 2 year Working Holiday visa on August 26 2015. After moving to Canada, and moving in with my girlfriend, I quickly established myself in my job and stayed with the company - moving up to manager level - for a year and a half. For the last half a year of my working holiday visa being valid, I tried to get Express Entry, followed by ONIP - both ending in disappointment as the company headquarters refused to help. It ultimately led me to ask my girlfriend to sponsor me - something I was not completely in love with because of the potential financial burden it could cause her. Because this was a very last-minute decision, I only had a month to gather all the necessary Inland Spousal (Common Law) Sponsorship (with an Initial Open Work Permit Application) and send it off. To "buy" time, I also applied to extend my Working Holiday, resulting in quick refusal as IEC visas cannot be extended. Two months later, with just less than a month left the "90 day to restore status" calendar, I received the PR application back unprocessed as it was missing one page. I now have to send back the application, but I will be completely illegal by the time it even gets to the point when they start to look over it again.
I have two questions regarding my case, which, after hours of searching through these forums, I could find no answer to.
1. When going from my IEC Working Holiday to applying for my PR - after having lost my status - am I applying for an initial Open Work Permit to accompany my PR, or am I applying for Status Restoration as a Worker or as a Visitor? Or is it possible to select several? When paying for my fees, I selected both just so it's on file that I have both paid for and not to cause delays in processing.
2. When I re-submit my application, is there any way for me to gain legal status (even if it is in the form of a visitor) for a few months so I could continue to live in the country without going to sleep at night wondering when the police are going to break in to my home and ship me back to the motherland? Also, I've read on other posts that people have been refused PR (even at a late stage in the application) because they were discovered to have been living illegally in the country. I feel like flag-polling is an option, but I don't know how they view things like "implied status" and the grey area 90-day thing to allow people to restore their status.
Any and all help on this issue would be massively appreciated. I would also love to document my process and try to give those in a similar situation some insight and guidance on how to deal with this predicament if they encounter it!
Kindest regards,
Dam
I have two questions regarding my case, which, after hours of searching through these forums, I could find no answer to.
1. When going from my IEC Working Holiday to applying for my PR - after having lost my status - am I applying for an initial Open Work Permit to accompany my PR, or am I applying for Status Restoration as a Worker or as a Visitor? Or is it possible to select several? When paying for my fees, I selected both just so it's on file that I have both paid for and not to cause delays in processing.
2. When I re-submit my application, is there any way for me to gain legal status (even if it is in the form of a visitor) for a few months so I could continue to live in the country without going to sleep at night wondering when the police are going to break in to my home and ship me back to the motherland? Also, I've read on other posts that people have been refused PR (even at a late stage in the application) because they were discovered to have been living illegally in the country. I feel like flag-polling is an option, but I don't know how they view things like "implied status" and the grey area 90-day thing to allow people to restore their status.
Any and all help on this issue would be massively appreciated. I would also love to document my process and try to give those in a similar situation some insight and guidance on how to deal with this predicament if they encounter it!
Kindest regards,
Dam