Lost Job while permanent residence application in process

[sk0101]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, so please let me know if I have posted it in wrong forum.

So here is my situation:

• I came here as a student, graduated in 2016 summer, applied for my PGWP, got it approved in 1 month.
• Worked for 1st employer for almost 1 year.
• Switched to a 2nd employer in 2017 and applied for OINP - PNP - Employer Job Offer: International Student Stream at the same time, got that approved in 1 month. Applied for permanent residence in 10 days after PNP approval.
• I got medical request in end June 2018, got it done in start of July and status is passed.
• Now, my PGWP (which is an open work permit) is about to expire in November 2018 (in next 2 months)
• After almost 1 year and 3 months working for 2nd employer, they have started laying-off people (because of some bad circumstances of company), and I am one of them.

Note:

• The PNP, I have says restricted to 2nd employer name, but that was expired after 6 months of the issue date.
• The PNP also came with Work Permit support letter with 2nd employer name on it. And it also says that "This letter must be used in support of a work permit application within 6 months to remain valid". I am not sure what does that mean.
• My wife is a dependent in all above applications including WorkPermit, and PR.

Am I still eligible to apply for BOWP, or Open Work Permit ??

I have done little research about BOWP. here is the link about BOWP eligibility, according to this, it looks like I am not eligible:

• https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/extend-permit/bridging-open-work-permit.html
• https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/provincial-nominees-permanent-resident-applicants/bridging-open-work-permits.html

Also I tried creating an application on CIC portal, with the situation I explained above and selected "applied for permanent residence", and "no job offer" in one of option in questioner. It gave me option for Open Work Permit, I checked the requirement of the documents, and there were simple documents it didn't even asked for PNP or PR or any supporting letter.

I am not sure what should I do ??? Please Help!!!

 

[sk0101]

LifeDreamer: "Do you have employment restrictions as conditions of your nomination? i.e. Did you sign a pledge to work for a specific employer, job or industry as permanent resident? Check your PNP.

In any case, your PR application is fine despite you being laid off now. What matters are your conditions at the time you had applied and understandably things can take unpredictable turns as in your case."

@LifeDreamer above is your post you responded on my other thread, which is just deleted, as it was duplicate of this one.

 

[sk0101]

@LifeDreamer Answer to your post:

Yes, I have restriction on my PNP says "Restricted to the Ontario employer - 2nd employer name"

and on WorkPermit support letter there is a heading Employer: and it says "2nd Employer name"

 

[LifeDreamer]

In that case it appears that you do not qualify for an open work permit from IRCC while your PR application is being processed. However, to be sure you need to check the letter issued to you by Ontario for any employment restrictions placed. Listing an employer name does not mean that there are restrictions. See below:

Determining if nomination has employment restrictions
In order to determine whether the applicant is subject to restrictions on employment, a nomination template letter has been provided to all provinces and territories. Different versions of the letter have already been implemented by several provinces and territories and are in the process of being implemented by all other provinces and territories.

This letter contains 1 of the following boxes, which IRCC officers can use to determine whether there are employment restrictions on the nomination. Provinces and territories have been instructed to choose “Yes” or “No” in the Restrictions on employment field, as this will provide IRCC officers with confirmation of whether the nominee is, in fact, eligible to apply for a BOWP.

Provinces and territories may include an employer or the name of the occupation and the National Occupational Classification (NOC) code, and still indicate that there are no employment restrictions. In these cases, the applicants are eligible for an open work permit, provided they meet the other eligibility criteria. A separate letter from the applicant or the nominating province to confirm that no employment restrictions exist should not be requested.

For previous versions of nomination letters (not template letters), if there is no specific indication on the letter that there are employment restrictions, the applicant is eligible for an open work permit, provided they meet the other eligibility criteria. A separate letter from the applicant or the nominating province to confirm that no employment restrictions exist should not be requested.

Since you have very short time left. I would suggest you contact the provincial nomination office and inquire directly whether you have employment restrictions placed on your PNP or not.

 

[sk0101]

In that case it appears that you do not qualify for an open work permit from IRCC while your PR application is being processed. However, to be sure you need to check the letter issued to you by Ontario for any employment restrictions placed. Listing an employer name does not mean that there are restrictions. See below:


Since you have very short time left. I would suggest you contact the provincial nomination office and inquire directly whether you have employment restrictions placed on your PNP or not.

Thanks @LifeDreamer, sure will do that on Monday.

 

[Wonderland_1010]

Thanks @LifeDreamer, sure will do that on Monday.

If you had obtained OINP due to a job offer that was given by your employer. Once you lose that job offer, you are also no longer qualified under OINP and hence your PR application is also invalidated.

Check your nomination certificate. It will state if there is employment restrictions. But i am assuming there is employment restrictions for your OINP.

You will need the work permit support letter from OINP but they will need to confirm your job first before issuing the letter.

 

[rabrakha]

I

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, so please let me know if I have posted it in wrong forum.

So here is my situation:

• I came here as a student, graduated in 2016 summer, applied for my PGWP, got it approved in 1 month.
• Worked for 1st employer for almost 1 year.
• Switched to a 2nd employer in 2017 and applied for OINP - PNP - Employer Job Offer: International Student Stream at the same time, got that approved in 1 month. Applied for permanent residence in 10 days after PNP approval.
• I got medical request in end June 2018, got it done in start of July and status is passed.
• Now, my PGWP (which is an open work permit) is about to expire in November 2018 (in next 2 months)
• After almost 1 year and 3 months working for 2nd employer, they have started laying-off people (because of some bad circumstances of company), and I am one of them.

Note:

• The PNP, I have says restricted to 2nd employer name, but that was expired after 6 months of the issue date.
• The PNP also came with Work Permit support letter with 2nd employer name on it. And it also says that "This letter must be used in support of a work permit application within 6 months to remain valid". I am not sure what does that mean.
• My wife is a dependent in all above applications including WorkPermit, and PR.

Am I still eligible to apply for BOWP, or Open Work Permit ??

I have done little research about BOWP. here is the link about BOWP eligibility, according to this, it looks like I am not eligible:

• https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/extend-permit/bridging-open-work-permit.html
• https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/provincial-nominees-permanent-resident-applicants/bridging-open-work-permits.html

Also I tried creating an application on CIC portal, with the situation I explained above and selected "applied for permanent residence", and "no job offer" in one of option in questioner. It gave me option for Open Work Permit, I checked the requirement of the documents, and there were simple documents it didn't even asked for PNP or PR or any supporting letter.

I am not sure what should I do ??? Please Help!!!

I Think you should takk to province ask for give you some time and find another employer who agrees to support you.

 

[sk0101]

If you had obtained OINP due to a job offer that was given by your employer. Once you lose that job offer, you are also no longer qualified under OINP and hence your PR application is also invalidated.

Check your nomination certificate. It will state if there is employment restrictions. But i am assuming there is employment restrictions for your OINP.

You will need the work permit support letter from OINP but they will need to confirm your job first before issuing the letter.

Thanks for you reply. Are you sure about that, I will lose my PR application as well ?

And as I mentioned, my work permit is about to expire, not even sure if any other employer will accept me.

I think in any case, I'll have to call "Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration" to get me a valid work permit support letter, as both my PNP and support letter were expired in Jan 2018.

 

[sk0101]

I

I Think you should takk to province ask for give you some time and find another employer who agrees to support you.

Thanks for your reply. Not sure if that's really possible, even not sure if any other employer will accept me because of my WorkPermit situation.

Although it's completely unclear that my PGWP is still an Open Work Permit or not.

 

[sk0101]

There is another thing I forgot to mention.

Because of my passport validation, I didn't receive full duration on PGWP work permit (which is 3 years), and I received 2 years and 5 months of validation.

My PGWP work permit has following remarks:

• DOCUMENT ISSUED TO PASSPORT EXPIRY DATE; MUST BE RENEWED FOR FURTHER EXTENSIONS. POST GRADUATE WORK PROGRAM.

am I eligible to apply for extension of my PGWP work permit ?

That's the only thing which I received based on my education.

 

[Fabiorf]

If you had obtained OINP due to a job offer that was given by your employer. Once you lose that job offer, you are also no longer qualified under OINP and hence your PR application is also invalidated.

Hi Worderland,

Did you get this information from any previous experience? Or any IRCC/OINP document?

Because technically he didn't lose his job offer. He had a job offer by the time his Provincial Nomination was approved. He lost his job (not his job offer) after his nomination was approved.

Besides that, I'm pretty sure losing a job happens to a lot of applicants (let's give it a 10% incidence). The PR process takes one year to go through, and unpredictable things can happen during this time. There would be hundreds of posts here about people who got refused PR's because they lost their jobs. I'm not even sure if it's the purpose of OINP, since the stream "International Students - Job offer" is looking for people able to demonstrate they can settle in Ontario. The job offer is just one of the documents the applicant has to show, and it must be valid during the OINP processing time.

I'm asking because my wife had the same issue. She got her OINP on the same stream mentioned here, on June 2018, applied for PR one month later, and then lost her job. She immediately found another job and the new employer signed the employer's job offer form. She contacted OINP to inform about the job change, asking instructions about any action to be taken, and OINP didn't provide an answer to her. Actually, they ignored the information as politely saying "What's your problem? You got approved already, leave us alone"

The job restriction mentioned in the Confirmation of Nomination letter issued by OINP applies to those who do not have an open work permit, to prevent them from using OINP to get an open work permit they otherwise wouldn't be eligible for. OINP states very clearly that it's your problem to keep your status in Canada during the PR processing time, and the best they can do for you is to provide a letter to support a work permit restricted to your present employer.

About the extension of an open work permit, that's another story. From a friend's recent experience I can tell he had to wait for a letter from IRCC stating his PR application is being processed, and his documents are valid. With this document in hand (which took around 8 months to arrive after PR application started) he could apply for an extension of his work permit.

 

[Wonderland_1010]

There is another thing I forgot to mention.

Because of my passport validation, I didn't receive full duration on PGWP work permit (which is 3 years), and I received 2 years and 5 months of validation.

My PGWP work permit has following remarks:

• DOCUMENT ISSUED TO PASSPORT EXPIRY DATE; MUST BE RENEWED FOR FURTHER EXTENSIONS. POST GRADUATE WORK PROGRAM.

am I eligible to apply for extension of my PGWP work permit ?

That's the only thing which I received based on my education.

Yes if you somehow lost your job OINP may revoke your nomination and notify IRCC that you are not longer qualified for PR. You must find a new job and update OINP in order to keep your nomination. The job offer must be similar to what you submitted before to OINP.

 

[Wonderland_1010]

@Fabiorf

Yes OP must maintain his condition of nomination while his PR is processing. So if he had got approved by OINP by providing a job offer then he must still have the job offer until the day he lands as PR.

Well to my personal experience, my brother had the same situation as OP, PNP gave him 45 days to find a new job offer and update his PNP nomination. He had already got his work permit for the current employer approved recently but he was let go at the job. Meaning he cannot work for any employer since his work permit was closed.

He told PNP and they said back to him since he got PNP based on a job offer, he must find a new job offer in 45 days before PNP will notify IRCC and cancel his PR application. So my brother found a new job offer within the 45 days and updated PNP and PNP gave him a new PNP certificate with work permit support letter

 

[sk0101]

@Fabiorf

Yes OP must maintain his condition of nomination while his PR is processing. So if he had got approved by OINP by providing a job offer then he must still have the job offer until the day he lands as PR.

Well to my personal experience, my brother had the same situation as OP, PNP gave him 45 days to find a new job offer and update his PNP nomination. He had already got his work permit for the current employer approved recently but he was let go at the job. Meaning he cannot work for any employer since his work permit was closed.

He told PNP and they said back to him since he got PNP based on a job offer, he must find a new job offer in 45 days before PNP will notify IRCC and cancel his PR application. So my brother found a new job offer within the 45 days and updated PNP and PNP gave him a new PNP certificate with work permit support letter

So, does your brother needs to reapply for PR after getting another PNP for new employer ? or they just updated the information for both PNP and PR application ?

 

[OEJOS]

Is applying for Bridging open work permit not feasible for his situation?
I mean his PR application is already rolling, that means he is eligible...