Inland Spousal Sponsorship - UK

[Bbb493]

Hi there,

I am a Canadian citizen and will be applying to sponsor my boyfriend (UK) under the common law program. We have lived together for two years and shouldn’t have a problem with providing the documentation however I was hoping for some insight regarding the timelines:

He arrived in Canada on June 12, 2016 under a two year IEC visa. We plan to complete and send the application by February 12, 2018 (4 months to visa expiry). The reason we are waiting until then is so he is eligible to apply for an OWP - Is this correct? Or can we apply before the 4 month window of when his IEC expires?

If anyone has any information that would be great!

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Hi there,

I am a Canadian citizen and will be applying to sponsor my boyfriend (UK) under the common law program. We have lived together for two years and shouldn’t have a problem with providing the documentation however I was hoping for some insight regarding the timelines:

He arrived in Canada on June 12, 2016 under a two year IEC visa. We plan to complete and send the application by February 12, 2018 (4 months to visa expiry). The reason we are waiting until then is so he is eligible to apply for an OWP - Is this correct? Or can we apply before the 4 month window of when his IEC expires?

If anyone has any information that would be great!

Not sure why you would be waiting for his visa expiry to be 4 months away? Because they say the OWP app takes around 4 months to process? This doesn't matter, it could take more or less and there is no reason why he can't be approved for an OWP with an IEC permit still running.

Get the app and OWP in now.. This way his chances of having to stop working are slim because his OWP app would more than likely (pretty definitely) be processed by June 12.

 

[Bbb493]

Thanks for the info! We thought we read somewhere that you couldn’t apply for an OWP until 4 months before your IEC expires.
Do you know if he would have to cross the border to change status? Or can we just apply online for the OWP and include it in the package?

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Thanks for the info! We thought we read somewhere that you couldn’t apply for an OWP until 4 months before your IEC expires.
Do you know if he would have to cross the border to change status? Or can we just apply online for the OWP and include it in the package?

Include the OWP app with your inland common law sponsorship application when you mail it in. You can put it in a separate envelope (within the package) and mark it open work permit application.

There is a checklist for the sponsorship app (which you should start checking through to see what you have/need to get). There is a question on there that asks if you are including an OWP app with this PR application.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks for the info! We thought we read somewhere that you couldn’t apply for an OWP until 4 months before your IEC expires.
Do you know if he would have to cross the border to change status? Or can we just apply online for the OWP and include it in the package?

The 4 month rule you are referring to applies to Bridging Open Work Permits, which are for economic applicants. It has nothing to do with the inland sponsorship OWP.