Open work permit & travel confusion

[Seempee]

Hi

How is everybody doing? Happy new year as well.
Here my question: My husband is Canadian and sponsoring me. I came here last year on a tourist visa, we got married and started the sponsoring. We also applied for an open work permit. Since than it has gotten completely confusing with immigration. We called them several times and they all came up with different answers every time. I didn't have my tourist visa extented because waiting for my RP i could stay in Canada they said and the open work permit would give me a status until the RP, a limited one, but still a status. Fine, so we appplied for the whole RP & open work permit.

Now we need to travel abroad in feb. So we called immigration and they were saying that my RP will be another 9 months but my open work permit which was only a few weeks away would give me a status that allows me to re-enter. We booked the tickets and now the work permit came in the mail with huge letters on it saying: "Does not autorize reentry". What does this mean? Well i can see what it means but what the h*ll were they telling me on the phone? My hunch is that it means that you can't demand re-entry if anything comes up that would make them reject you or something or were they just blatantly misinforming me?

Addition: I'm from a visa exempt country.

Thanks everyone for reading!

 

[QCSunshine]

After trying to figure this out last year, what I thought it meant was that if a visa was required to enter Canada, the work permit alone would not be enough to authorize re-entry. The person would still need the necessary visa to enter Canada. If a person is from a visa-exempt country, then a visa is not necessary. I am from a visa-exempt country, had a work permit that said that, and left the country once, and re-entered without problem. It did make me nervous though, because of the wording, so I understand your concern. I have a couple of other friends (from visa exempt countries) who had work permits with that phrase on it, and they each also left and re-entered several times without any problems.

However, your question prompted me to look around a bit more because I was never really sure about it all, and I did a search in the CIC site. I found this:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/5551E.PDF

The bottom of page 6 talks about leaving and re-entering Canada. I don't know that I am interpreting it accurately, but it seems that there is a possibility that re-entry could be denied. I would assume this rarely happens, but I don't know very much about it. I look forward to hearing what others have to say about your question, since it is one I also am curious about. Thanks for bringing it up!

 

[rjessome]

Hi

How is everybody doing? Happy new year as well.
Here my question: My husband is Canadian and sponsoring me. I came here last year on a tourist visa, we got married and started the sponsoring. We also applied for an open work permit. Since than it has gotten completely confusing with immigration. We called them several times and they all came up with different answers every time. I didn't have my tourist visa extented because waiting for my RP i could stay in Canada they said and the open work permit would give me a status until the RP, a limited one, but still a status. Fine, so we appplied for the whole RP & open work permit.

Now we need to travel abroad in feb. So we called immigration and they were saying that my RP will be another 9 months but my open work permit which was only a few weeks away would give me a status that allows me to re-enter. We booked the tickets and now the work permit came in the mail with huge letters on it saying: "Does not autorize reentry". What does this mean? Well i can see what it means but what the h*ll were they telling me on the phone? My hunch is that it means that you can't demand re-entry if anything comes up that would make them reject you or something or were they just blatantly misinforming me?

Thanks everyone for reading!

You don't mention if you are from a visa exempt country or not. If you require a visa to enter then you must have a valid one to re-enter Canada if you leave. You will need to apply for one at the nearest embassy/consulate outside of Canada before you travel or in the country where you are travelling. If you don't require a visa to enter Canada, you can leave but there is no guarantee that CBSA will allow you to re-enter. However, that being said, if you bring proof of AIP and the OWP, they should allow you to re-enter without issue. Also, if there are compelling reasons for your travel such as illness of a family member, funeral, etc., bring proof of that as well to show to CBSA if they ask for it.

Inland applicants are advised not to travel outside of Canada during the processing of their PR application. However, it can be done if you are properly prepared.

 

[candy2]

google the travel visa requirements before leaving

 

[Stacey120]

Hi everyone , my inland spousal sponsorship just got approved and I have a valid open work permit in which my PR is in process but I need to travel to my home country , can I travel out of Canada and enter with a valid visa and work permit