Postdoctoral offer but no PhD yet - work permit issues.

[JoannaDee]

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.

 

[PMM]

Hi

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.

As answered in Immigration.ca

1. Go ahead and apply. The following is from FW 1 Temporary Foreign Worker Guidelines

"D. Post-doctoral fellows awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D) and award recipients,
C44
Post-doctoral fellows holding a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or its equivalent are appointed to a time-limited position granting a stipend or a salary to compensate for periods of teaching, advanced study and/or research. It is work designed to obtain the highest expertise possible in a particular discipline and candidates are chosen on the basis of academic excellence.
The applicant must have completed, or expects to complete, their doctorate shortly and be working in a related field to that in which they earned, or are earning, their Ph.D. to be exempt from an LMO – as long as the Canadian university has accepted the person as a post-doctorate fellow

 

[frotenacs]

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.

You could request your employer at UWO to defer your joining date. If the professor is very keen on hiring you as a post-doc, they might push the date, may be a month or two. That is what happened with me when I was offered a post-doc from Cornell University in USA.

 

[arjunkc]

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.

Hi Joanna,
I'm in a similar situation, where I've been offered a postdoctoral position, but I'll only receive my PhD a couple of months after I start. What was your experience like?
Best,
Arjun

 

[sandysrk]

Re: Postdoctoral offer- work permit issues.

Hello Everyone,

It will be great help if somebody helps me through my query.

I was having postdoc offer from Uni of Wateeloo after which I applied for work permit for Canada, but due to medical reasons my visa got delayed by four months and I lost that post doc offer. One week after loosing the PDF offer, I got approval of my Visa and it is valid till Sep 2014.
Now I am in process of getting another PDF offer from university in British Columbia, which I may possibly join by May or June 2014.

As I already I have valid postdoc work permit till Sep 2014, so can i join the new position based on that work pemit or do i need to apply again for the work permit for this new offer, and is it possible for me to extend the visa based on new offer after entering into Canada.

Please answer my query at the earliest.

Thanks
Sandy

 

[branci]

Hi guys,

my name is Branislav and I am a researcher at Institute for Heart Research of Slovak Academy of Sciences. I finished my PhD study in August last year and I got an invitation for a post-doctoral research training from our partner institution in Winnipeg, Canada (St Boniface Hospital and Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada). My stay will last from beginning of September till 21st of December.
Based on the information found on the internet and after consultation with Embassy of Canada in Bratislava (Slovakia) and our Canadian partners I suppose that the best choice for me in the visa duty is short-term (120-day) work permit exemption for researchers (according to https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/researcher-exemption.html). However, on this website and also on other websites I could not find any information about application process of this permit. Please, could you send me some information about application process of this exemption (about filling some approval form, adress to send this form, required documents, atc..)? If you could not, please, could you give me a date for personal consultation on your Embassy? I need to resolve the open questions regarding my visa duty. I adress this email to you because I can not get this information from other sources.
Thank you very much for your time and willingness.

Best regards,
Branislav Kura, PhD.

 

[scylla]

Hi guys,

my name is Branislav and I am a researcher at Institute for Heart Research of Slovak Academy of Sciences. I finished my PhD study in August last year and I got an invitation for a post-doctoral research training from our partner institution in Winnipeg, Canada (St Boniface Hospital and Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada). My stay will last from beginning of September till 21st of December.
Based on the information found on the internet and after consultation with Embassy of Canada in Bratislava (Slovakia) and our Canadian partners I suppose that the best choice for me in the visa duty is short-term (120-day) work permit exemption for researchers (according to https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/foreign-workers/researcher-exemption.html). However, on this website and also on other websites I could not find any information about application process of this permit. Please, could you send me some information about application process of this exemption (about filling some approval form, adress to send this form, required documents, atc..)? If you could not, please, could you give me a date for personal consultation on your Embassy? I need to resolve the open questions regarding my visa duty. I adress this email to you because I can not get this information from other sources.
Thank you very much for your time and willingness.

Best regards,
Branislav Kura, PhD.

This is not a government web site. It's a public forum and all of us here are normal people like you. There are no embassy staff here and no one here can help you to book a consultation with the embassy.

The government web site is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship.html

 

[RAKZ]

Hi Joanna,
I'm in a similar situation, where I've been offered a postdoctoral position, but I'll only receive my PhD a couple of months after I start. What was your experience like?
Best,
Arjun

When did you get the work permit? Did you applied before PhD defence. Please reply