Open work permit for spouse? I am Canadian...

[princesultan]

Hello,

I am very new to the concept of an "open work permit" for a spouse. How does this work exactly. I am Canadian. My fiancee (and soon to be wife) is struggling with the LMO process currently. She is here on a temporary work permit tied to her employer that laid her off beginning of the year. We will marry very shortly. We both live in QUEBEC. Is an open work permit a possibility once she's my spouse?

Any insight is valuable!

P.S. I am an accountant, so I believe I would be classified as NOC A if that makes any difference at all.

 

[scylla]

The short answer is no. She will not qualify for an open work permit after marrying you. It doesn't matter what your occupation is. She would only qualify for an open work permit if you were NOT a Canadian citizen or PR and were here on a study permit or work permit. Since you're a citizen, none of this applies.

If you decide to sponsor her inland, she will qualify for an open work permit once the application receives first stage approval. First stage approval is currently taking 11 months to complete.

However depending on where she's from, it may be far faster to sponsor her using the outland process (although no open work permit is granted as part of the outland process).

Hope this helps.

 

[princesultan]

thank you very much!