Hi All,
I'm really hoping someone can help me out here. I'm putting together all the documents required for my partner and myself for the work permits etc. He has been offered a postdoctoral position at University of Western Ontario. We are both Irish residents. The process seems fairly straightforward, I can apply for an open work permit as his common-law partner. The big hick-up is that on the application he is required to provide a copy of his PhD. Which he doesn't have yet. He has submitted his dissertation, but his viva isn't even scheduled yet, it will most likely be in September (and late September rather than beginning of the month). His new contract starts beginning of October.
I know it's a bit of an unusual situation but had anyone came across anything like that? Is there a way around this while submitting the application? Could either university perhaps provide some documentation that could help, and the actual PhD certificate would be provided later? I feel that the fact that he hasn't actually defended his dissertation is not to our benefit. It's not like he's only waiting for the certificate to be issued, he actually doesn't have the PhD yet. There is little doubt that he will get it but officially nothing's confirmed. The postdoc offer has only been officially confirmed very recently, and the time for work permit application was tight already. If we have to wait until after his viva, there is no way we will get the permits before we're supposed to be going to Canada and frankly I am now really, really stressed. Any help, ideas or suggestions will be highly appreciated.
I'm really hoping someone can help me out here. I'm putting together all the documents required for my partner and myself for the work permits etc. He has been offered a postdoctoral position at University of Western Ontario. We are both Irish residents. The process seems fairly straightforward, I can apply for an open work permit as his common-law partner. The big hick-up is that on the application he is required to provide a copy of his PhD. Which he doesn't have yet. He has submitted his dissertation, but his viva isn't even scheduled yet, it will most likely be in September (and late September rather than beginning of the month). His new contract starts beginning of October.
I know it's a bit of an unusual situation but had anyone came across anything like that? Is there a way around this while submitting the application? Could either university perhaps provide some documentation that could help, and the actual PhD certificate would be provided later? I feel that the fact that he hasn't actually defended his dissertation is not to our benefit. It's not like he's only waiting for the certificate to be issued, he actually doesn't have the PhD yet. There is little doubt that he will get it but officially nothing's confirmed. The postdoc offer has only been officially confirmed very recently, and the time for work permit application was tight already. If we have to wait until after his viva, there is no way we will get the permits before we're supposed to be going to Canada and frankly I am now really, really stressed. Any help, ideas or suggestions will be highly appreciated.