Outland App - Options for Staying in Canada During the Wait

[NorthwardCA]

I’ve seen a few threads about this, but nothing decisive. I guess I’m looking for some perspective for folks who’ve been on this board longer than I have and may have seen more cases like this.

I am dual Canadian/US Citizen. My spouse is American. We applied Outland in September 2017.

When we initially applied I was pretty sure we’d breeze through the process because we've been married 15 years and it all seemed so quick and easy But here we are, in the realities of the application process, with all its black box goodness and we don’t actually know if we’ll be a lucky couple that gets the paperwork in 6 months, or the one that has to wait 14 months even though everything in the application is “in order.”

Like everyone here, we don’t want to put our life on hold completely while we wait. We have to figure out when to end our lease in the US, when to schedule the movers, put stuff in storage if needed, etc. We had planned to move to Canada in summer. But I realize now that my spouse’s PR could take longer. And then what?

If I, the Sponsor, move to Canada in, say, June with just some of my belongings (most of our stuff would stay in storage in the US until he’s PR’ed).

I understand that during this time my husband can come visit me for up to 6 months but that he can’t work in Canada.

My questions are:

1. What if he keeps his US job as a US person and his US employer allows him to do work remotely from Canada when he visits me — understood that this is less than 6 months — while we wait for the PR to come through? I don’t believe this is considered “working in Canada,” but I’d love to hear if people have had experience with that.
2. Is the law is clear on this? Or is this a gray area at the discretion of the border official — which is definitely not something I am comfortable with.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

 

[KBH]

Hiya, I did what you are asking about (stayed in Canada with my husband as a visitor while my outland app was processing, and worked remotely for a US company) and I had no issues. I did this from November 2016 to January 2018. It's not really a gray area, it's completely legal for you to work remotely for a US company (to keep things totally in the clear, the US company should not have a presence in Canada and your pay should be going into a US bank account). The rules around working illegally in Canada surround taking away opportunities from Canadians. If your US employer has no presence in Canada then you are not taking away an opportunity from a Canadian by working remotely for them during your stay.

You can see the official policy here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/what-is-work.html

What kind of activities are not considered to be “work”?

• An activity which does not really 'take away' from opportunities for Canadians or permanent residents to gain employment or experience in the workplace is not “work” for the purposes of the definition.

Examples of activities for which a person would not normally be remunerated or which would not compete directly with Canadian citizens or permanent residents in the Canadian labour market and which would normally be part-time or incidental to the reason that the person is in Canada include, but are not limited to:

• long distance (by telephone or Internet) work done by a temporary resident whose employer is outside Canada and who is remunerated from outside Canada;

 

[NorthwardCA]

Hiya, I did what you are asking about (stayed in Canada with my husband as a visitor while my outland app was processing, and worked remotely for a US company) and I had no issues. I did this from November 2016 to January 2018. It's not really a gray area, it's completely legal for you to work remotely for a US company (to keep things totally in the clear, the US company should not have a presence in Canada and your pay should be going into a US bank account). The rules around working illegally in Canada surround taking away opportunities from Canadians. If your US employer has no presence in Canada then you are not taking away an opportunity from a Canadian by working remotely for them during your stay.

You can see the official policy here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/what-is-work.html

What kind of activities are not considered to be “work”?

• An activity which does not really 'take away' from opportunities for Canadians or permanent residents to gain employment or experience in the workplace is not “work” for the purposes of the definition.

Examples of activities for which a person would not normally be remunerated or which would not compete directly with Canadian citizens or permanent residents in the Canadian labour market and which would normally be part-time or incidental to the reason that the person is in Canada include, but are not limited to:

• long distance (by telephone or Internet) work done by a temporary resident whose employer is outside Canada and who is remunerated from outside Canada;

Thanks for the feedback, that's very helpful.