Pilotprogram for open work permit?

[saragunn]

Hi,

I have a couple tricky questions i hope someone out there can help answer..

Me and my boyfriend have applied for the common law visa, Outland, while living in Sweden. He is Canadian, I am Swedish and we just got our notification he is approved as a sponsor and the application has been forwarded to the London office.

All that is great, however, the processing times have gone up to 29 months and we want to move to Canada well before then.

I saw on the cic website, applicants applying from within Canada can apply for an open work permit as part of some sort of a pilot program..the question is, can I go to Canada as a visitor and then while I'm there, apply for the open work permit?

And if I can, does it then matter that my common law visa application is outland and not inland?


Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Ponga]

No. Outland applicants are not eligible for the OWP, even if they return to Canada during the process.

You can certainly come to Canada as a `visitor' and if CBSA allows you to enter, can likely remain in Canada while you wait for your PR application to be processed.

 

[MilesAway]

Also note that visa-exempt applicants through London are NOT taking 29 months. That processing time is due to the fact that cases which had been sitting in Islamabad for 2 years were transferred to London, therefore when the stats were calculated, they had to include these 2 or 3 year old files, which made the times sky-rocket. Even Pakistani applicants are currently being processed in far less than 29 months (I think I've seen 18 months as a normal range).

 

[saragunn]

Ponga:

damn, i was afraid of that. would I be able to go there on an IEC while waiting for the processing to finish? so that I can work ..

Milesaway

Thats great news! 18 months is way better would still prefer to go sooner but..18 months is def doable.

 

[MilesAway]

Ponga:

damn, i was afraid of that. would I be able to go there on an IEC while waiting for the processing to finish? so that I can work ..

Milesaway

Thats great news! 18 months is way better would still prefer to go sooner but..18 months is def doable.

I meant that even applicants from Pakistan are done in 18 months, whereas most European citizens are done in less than a year. The discrepancy is the length of time it takes for Pakistan to respond to requests (amongst other things). There's a London thread on here, so you should go check that out. It will give you a more accurate picture of the current timelines.

 

[SchnookoLoly]

Head over to the thread for Outland London UK applicants, you will find lots of people there who can help. There's also a spreadsheet linked in my signature that shows processing time for the London office. Most applicants are getting PR in njust under a year after Mississauga receives the application. If you'd like to be added to the spreadsheet, then post the following either here or in the London thread and Andrew or I will add you into the spreadsheet (it's a great way to say thanks for the advice you receive on here, since more data on the spreadsheet means everyone gets more accurate info!):

-Date application received in Mississauga
-Whether you applied as Married or Common-Law
-Date of sponsor approval
-Which office is processing Phase 2 of your application (will say on your sponsor approval letter/email)
-Date(s) of any other requests you've had
-Does the principal applicant require a visa to visit Canada (e.g., Nationals from Brazil, Pakistan, India, Russia, etc)?
-Current location of the principal applicant- closest major city is fine if you don't want to be too specific!

 

[saragunn]

Omg this is great!! I'm so happy I posted my questions here, thanks to all of you for replying!i can finally stop stressing about 29 months in Sweden I'll definitely go to the thread u advised and share my info.
Thanks!!