Open Work Permit expires in 3 months. Apply for new visitor visa or extend work permit? Please advise

[starsky30]

Hello all,

My cousin is currently working in US on H1B. And, has an Open Work permit for Canada which expires in August. His wife is attached to the same Open work permit. They want to move to Canada and be able to stay longer than just 3 months. Please advice on the following:

1. Can he & his wife apply for new Visitor Visa while they have a current open work permit? This way they have up to 6 months to find a new job & switch back to extended open work permit.
2. Or, is it a better to extend open work permit from inside Canada (on-paper application) as it takes only 3 weeks?

Thanks in advance.

 

[scylla]

Hello all,

My cousin is currently working in US on H1B. And, has an Open Work permit for Canada which expires in August. His wife is attached to the same Open work permit. They want to move to Canada and be able to stay longer than just 3 months. Please advice on the following:

1. Can he & his wife apply for new Visitor Visa while they have a current open work permit? This way they have up to 6 months to find a new job & switch back to extended open work permit.
2. Or, is it a better to extend open work permit from inside Canada (on-paper application) as it takes only 3 weeks?

Thanks in advance.

On what basis will they be extending the open work permit? What kind of open work permit is it?

 

[canuck78]

Would add extending WP rarely take only 3 weeks.

 

[starsky30]

On what basis will they be extending the open work permit? What kind of open work permit is it?

Thank you for your response.
The open work permit was originally applied and approved through his current employer who has offices both in US & Canada. He would extend the work permit via them only I guess. Unless, he is able to switch jobs in 2 months and extend via the new employer. Open to other ideas as well if you have any.

1. What about applying for visitor visa since there is no work dependency?
2. Also, they're currently in US and it looks like visitor visa only takes 3 weeks. Even if takes up to a month of so, it looks like a safer option.
3. What should they do to the current open work permit in order to apply for the new visitor visa?

Please advice.

 

[scylla]

Thank you for your response.
The open work permit was originally applied and approved through his current employer who has offices both in US & Canada. He would extend the work permit via them only I guess. Unless, he is able to switch jobs in 2 months and extend via the new employer. Open to other ideas as well if you have any.

1. What about applying for visitor visa since there is no work dependency?
2. Also, they're currently in US and it looks like visitor visa only takes 3 weeks. Even if takes up to a month of so, it looks like a safer option.
3. What should they do to the current open work permit in order to apply for the new visitor visa?

Please advice.

I still don't understand how he is holding an open work permit. Having an employer who has offices in both the US and Canada does not allow a person to apply for an open work permit. I think you have confused the facts. I suspect he actually holds a closed work permit that is LMIA exempt (an ICT work permit).

1. They can certainly apply to change their status to visitor. Obviously they will not be able to work in Canada on visitor status and won't have health care coverage.
2. You're confusing a TRV with visitor status. They can certainly apply for a TRV while in the US. However once they are back in Canada, they will still need to apply from within Canada to change their status to visitor before their work permits expire in August. I would recommend they submit this application around 3 weeks before.
3. They don't need to do anything with the work permit. They simply apply to change their status to visitor once they are back in Canada and a few weeks before their work permits expire. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio.../services/visit-canada/extend-stay/apply.html

 

[starsky30]

@scylla -- Thanks so much for your response!! Will definitely pass along the info. Appreciate the ideas & suggestions as well.