OWP, illegal work and public policy protection

[sdabadie]

Hi all. My partner and I recently submitted an inland sponsorship application. I am the sponsor, he is principal applicant. We met common law requirements many months ago and have excellent proof of our relationship being genuine. I have a lot of confidence in our application. We recently received the AOR and plan to apply for his OWP. He has never lost status while living here but has worked illegally as he had a visitor permit. We were honest in the PR application about his illegal work.

I understand that the public policy, so long as you have submitted an inland family class application, offers a sort of protection from deportation for out of status applicants while the PR is being processed. My question is - if he is honest about his illegal work in his OWP application will this affect his ability to get a OWP? Or will they deny the OWP while the PR is being processed. I don’t know if the OWP and PR will be viewed and assessed with the same public policy so am curious to hear what others’ experiences have been.

I also understand there may be very severe consequences to misrepresentation. With the processing time of inland applications being 24+ months, we are really keen to get his OWP. We are stressed as I’m sure many others are too!

 

[Ponga]

You're going to elevate the angst by posting the same question in multiple places!

Nobody can answer the question regarding whether or not working without authorization will impact a decision on the OWP that is available via the spousal sponsorship.

It's possible...that the PR will be approved before there is even [really] a need to work. He could always try to find remote work (online, or by phone), which would not require a work permit, so long as the employer is outside of Canada.

In the `old days', a person that was without legal status needed to wait until they reached the all-important AIP stage, before they were eligible to apply for the OWP. Some applicants opted to include the OWP application with their spousal sponsorship package but had to write (in red ink across the top of the OWP application :`Do not process until Approval In Principle has been reached' (or similar). Since it appears that your partner does have legal status, this whole Public Policy discussion may be moot.

I also do not understand how/why there would be `misrepresentation' unless he answered untruthfully if a question in the sponsorship application asked if the applicant had worked without authorization. Even if he did not voluntarily disclose that information, it would not be misrepresentation, IMHO.

 

[Canada sponsorship]

I believe you're the same person I replied on reddit, I am in similar situation, read my posts here and on Reddit to get more clarity and ask for more information if you are interested. Good luck!