Hello, newbie here. I am so glad I stumbled across this message board full of people in the same situation! My husband entered Canadian in May 2015 as a visitor, following our wedding in Mexico. And following a mess involving a work sponsor ship denial after we were working with a lawyer (but that's not what is important now).
My husband and I applied for spousal sponsorship, in August 2015 - along with an open work permit application. On November 19th his visitor's visa expired. Around this same time CIC sent back his open work permit application to us because apparently the cost of processing fee's also went up in November (although we had originally applied in August). When we asked our local immigration centre for help "translating" the letter they had included with our application - she instructed us to just include a photocopy of our previous payment receipt and send it on back. Failing to mention the increase in processing costs - apparently she didn't get the memo and the mistake we clearly made was trusting her.
Which brings me to three more months down the road... February 2016. They've just sent his open work permit application back with a more descriptive letter actually explaining the increase in cost. Conveniently at this time, his 90 day "grace period" following the expiration is expired by one day. And they have also mentioned that we would need to apply for restoration of status (despite the fact our PR application has been in process since early November - well before the expiry of his visitor status). And the real cherry on the top of this mess, is that CIC sent his application for open work permit to the wrong address - despite the correct address being clearly printed throughout the entire application. And I have no idea how long it actually sat at our local post office.
I apologize for the long story! I just hope someone can offer some sort of advice or help. We are beyond stressed and exhausted by all this. ???
My husband and I applied for spousal sponsorship, in August 2015 - along with an open work permit application. On November 19th his visitor's visa expired. Around this same time CIC sent back his open work permit application to us because apparently the cost of processing fee's also went up in November (although we had originally applied in August). When we asked our local immigration centre for help "translating" the letter they had included with our application - she instructed us to just include a photocopy of our previous payment receipt and send it on back. Failing to mention the increase in processing costs - apparently she didn't get the memo and the mistake we clearly made was trusting her.
Which brings me to three more months down the road... February 2016. They've just sent his open work permit application back with a more descriptive letter actually explaining the increase in cost. Conveniently at this time, his 90 day "grace period" following the expiration is expired by one day. And they have also mentioned that we would need to apply for restoration of status (despite the fact our PR application has been in process since early November - well before the expiry of his visitor status). And the real cherry on the top of this mess, is that CIC sent his application for open work permit to the wrong address - despite the correct address being clearly printed throughout the entire application. And I have no idea how long it actually sat at our local post office.
I apologize for the long story! I just hope someone can offer some sort of advice or help. We are beyond stressed and exhausted by all this. ???