IEC due to expire - Residency Application?

[Sirweste]

Hello I'm hoping for some help.

Me and my common law partner are both living and working in BC on IEC Visas. We are both in our first year of our two individual years (UK Citizens), but are now both over 31 so could not apply for our second year.

We are both professionals, Mechanical Engineer and Environmental Compliance Consultant.

Our question is that if we apply for residency here would be still be able to work while our application is in process? Our IEC Visas expire end of May and mid June.
If not we are quite screwed money wise!

Cheers
Ryan

 

[scylla]

The only way you would be able to continue working is if you apply for residency and receive AOR (acknowledgement of receipt) before your current work permits expires. If this happens, then you can use the AOR to apply for Bridging Open Work Permits (BOWP) that will allow you to continue working while your applications for residency are being processed. This problem you have is that to the best of my knowledge, it takes around 3 months to receive AOR from the time you apply for PR - which means that even if you applied now, you wouldn't have AOR in time to apply for the BOWP (your current work permit must be valid when the BOWP application is received).

How are you planning on applying for PR? Through the Canadian Experience Class program once you have a year of work experience? Or another stream?

I think you're out of time. Having said that, if you can tell us how you plan to apply and when you qualify to apply - we can try to give you a more exact answer with regards to working while your application is being processed.

 

[Sirweste]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.
Bad news it seems.

I have a Great Uncle is a citizen of Canada and when I completed the CIC check on the website it said that I would be eligible because of family, though I suspect I would be eligible though my proffesion if not.

But without being able to continue working there is no way we can stay.
A lot of our friends had said that you could apply in writing to extend your IEC and so would be able to continue working on implied status, but our research suggests other wise.

So frustrating that as part of the commonwealth we don't get an equal deal to places like Australia!

 

[scylla]

There is no implied status on IEC. This is a mistake many people make. Some get away with it - others are caught by CIC. We've had a few people on this forum who've mistakenly thought that they did have implied status and were clearly told by CIC they were working illegally (in at least two cases the illegal work created big issues for their applications).

It's unlikely your great uncle can sponsor you. Does he have any family in Canada (child, spouse, sibling, anyone else)?

If you qualify to apply for PR, then you can certainly apply and then leave while the application is being processed. While I know this is far from ideal, this can still lead to having PR status and allowing you to return to Canada to work without restriction.

 

[beholder69]

Scylla are you sure you can use the bridged work permit in the case of IEC? Asking because I'm on a similar boat, already have AOR and my IEC work permit is valid till June, so trying to find a way to keep working as I'll probably not have AIP by then.

 

[scylla]

Scylla are you sure you can use the bridged work permit in the case of IEC? Asking because I'm on a similar boat, already have AOR and my IEC work permit is valid till June, so trying to find a way to keep working as I'll probably not have AIP by then.

I think you misread my answer. In your case you should be fine because you already have AOR. Just make sure you apply for the Bridging Work Permit well before your IEC expires so that you have your Bridging Work Permit in hand before your IEC ends.

If you look at the OP's original post, you'll see there's no chance he'll have AOR before his IEC expires. That's where the problem lies. You need to have AOR AND a valid work permit to qualify for the BOWP.

 

[beholder69]

Got it, thanks! That's good because I thought I had no way to keep working after June. I'll search for the application package as soon as I get home and complete it right away then ;D

 

[beholder69]

Actually just checked cic and apparently who have to have applied for PR via an economic class, I forgot to mention I've applied under spousal sponsorship, so I guess I have no luck, ah too bad :