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Inland vs. outland applications and international travel

CanuckedUp

Full Member
Jul 19, 2017
40
10
Hi everyone,

I wondered if I could get some feedback on whether applying outland (which I'm leaning strongly toward) would be the better option for my particular set of circumstances.

Originally, I had been under some confusion about what constituted an inland or outland application (and under what circumstances an open work permit application could be submitted together with an application for PR under CEC), but think I now have a reasonable understanding.

Originally, I made the mistake of thinking that outland just meant applying from outside of Canada, and that I would be able to get a work permit as part of an outland application.

I now know that only inland applications are eligible to have a work permit application attached as part of the package which is submitted to CIC.

So...

I am currently in Canada on (I think, implied) visitor status and will need to return to my home country to gather supporting documents, so will need to leave Canada very soon anyway.

With inland applications, I read elsewhere that work permits can usually be issued after around four months or so, however also seem to remember reading that inland applications were currently halted/on hold?
If this is truly the case, then it seems that I would be better of just applying outland, as, if inland applications have been put on the back-burner, I could potentially be waiting for WAY more than four months for just the work permit approval, when a perfect/correctly-completed outland application could potentially be done and dusted in around six (or hopefully less) months. I hope I have this "logic" right?

Another thing that troubles me a lot, is travelling to and from my (visa-exempt) country of origin during either an inland or outland application.

Once I return home to gather the remaining documents needed to submit my PR application, I was considering working for maybe a month or two back there to earn some cash, then returning to Canada for perhaps a month or two as a visitor only, and then returning home ahead of the Christmas/New Year season, and then staying there to wait out the remaining processing time for my PR application, with maybe, one last visit to Canada after one or two months work back home, at the start of next year.

The reason I am concerned, is that I feel that the wrong border guard(s) may think I am trying to do something "untoward" (namely, trying to work here or overstay) if there is they see back and forth once I have applied for either inland or outland PR under CEC.
I also rent an apartment here, which I would hopefully like to try and keep while I wait out the PR process, and would use it on my visit(s) back to Canada, and wondered if telling the border guard straight up, "I have applied for PR, am just back here for a month or two to see friends etc., have $x to support myself, and (hopefully) a return ticket", would likely see me refused entry to Canada at the airport, if the border guard thinks there is something "fishy" about me continuing to pay rent on a Canadian apartment.

Hopefully being from a visa-exempt country, having an ETA in good standing, and not being an applicant under one of the spousal etc. immigration streams, the restrictions on travelling while waiting for an inland or outland CEC PR decision aren't too strict?

Cheers!