Question about work permit/PR, special situation, could not find anything online

[nocatix]

Hey everyone, I have been roaming the CIC page and the forum for quite a while now and could not find a solution that would apply to me. So let me start off with the details about my situation:

Academic:
- graduated with my Master's from a Canadian university beginning of 2013
- decided to do a PhD afterwards, also in Canada
- still doing my PhD but my funding is running out at the end of the year and I won't graduate any time soon so I have to look for other opportunities
- I am doing my PhD together with a big Canadian company but they don't do LMIAs, they only hire graduating students or permanent residents or Canadians
- my study permit expires in April 2016

Personal:
- in a relationship with a Canadian for over 16 months
- living together for over 13 months
- from Germany (if that has any impact on anything)
- don't want to go back to Germany

The question now is, what is the best and quickest way for me to getting a work permit?

Can I still get the post graduate work permit? Probably not, because on CIC's page it says that I could only apply for up to 90 days after graduation. But back then I would have never known that I won't be able to finish my PhD in time, otherwise I would've applied for the PGWP back then and not done a PhD.

The company I am working for right now does not do any LMIAs. The only thing I could do is work part time for them and still stay a student (which would also mean that I need to keep on paying tuition) and at the same time go for PR? I don't think that is the optimal solution though.

I also sent out applications to other companies but none of them replied, probably also because they don't want to go through the LMIA stuff.

My boyfriend would sponsor me but I have seen that those things take ages, I think in total 27 months. Is there a way to speed that up?

Is there anything else that I can do? The way it looks right now is that I will have to leave Canada in April because no one wants to hire me and I don't know what else I can do.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[scylla]

It's too late to apply for a PGWP. You needed to apply within 90 days of completing your Masters.

Provided you have hard proof you have lived together for a full year, your partner can sponsor you using either the inland or outland process. The inland process comes with an open work permit that is issued four months after you apply for permanent residency - downside is that processing takes over two years and you shouldn't leave Canada during this time (doing so will put your application in jeopardy). Applying outland comes with no open work permit - but processing should take less than a year.

You can look into the IEC / working holiday visa program that would allow you to live and work in Canada for a year or two without going through the LMIA process. Downside is that the program is closed for this year and won't reopen until sometime next spring (likely).

Otherwise your only other options finding an employer willing to give you a full time job offer and go through the LMIA process so that you can obtain a closed work permit tied to that specific employer.

 

[nocatix]

Thanks for the response! I'm curious about the open work permit that comes with the sponsorship. How does this work and how much money would be involved? I need to file my application for sponsorship before I can apply for the open work permit, right? So I also need to pay all the attached fees (I believe it was somewhat around $550 for the application and then x amount of dollars for the medical examination) before I could apply for it? And then I need to wait 4 months before I would get the open work permit?

 

[scylla]

Thanks for the response! I'm curious about the open work permit that comes with the sponsorship. How does this work and how much money would be involved? I need to file my application for sponsorship before I can apply for the open work permit, right? So I also need to pay all the attached fees (I believe it was somewhat around $550 for the application and then x amount of dollars for the medical examination) before I could apply for it? And then I need to wait 4 months before I would get the open work permit?

Move over to the Family Sponsorship section of the forum. This is where you'll find all of the discussions on this topic. The short answer is that you need to include the open work permit in the same package as the inland PR application. The OWP will be granted four months after the application is submitted (provided there are no complications with your application). Yes - there's $550 you need to pay immediately for the sponsorship, also additional fees for the work permit, the cost of the medical will be extra - as will anything you have to pay to obtain police certificates. Again, move over to Family Sponsorship and browse through a few threads there.