Hello Lanzie and the forum. Few important questions were raised in your email, which should be addressed for everyone's benefit. Hence not replying in private.
Lanzie - i'm on exactly the same boat, except that mine expiring on 25th Nov.
First thing - if you were NOT able to arrange another work permit application before 25th Nov, YES - you will have to LEAVE Canada.
Second thing - NO, leaving Canada will not impact on your CEC application. I found your answer on the CEC FAQ page:
"I meet the requirements to apply under the Canadian Experience Class but have since returned to my home country. Am I eligible to apply under the Canadian Experience Class?
Yes, but you must apply within one year of leaving your job in Canada. If you left your job more than one year ago, your work experience is not recent and does not meet the requirement."
So it doesnt matter, if you are inside Canada or not. You can apply and leave by 20th Nov, and your CEC application will still proceed.
But if you stayed ILLEGALLY, in other words, your immigration document became INVALID, that will have a direct impact on the application. Of course! Any violation of laws will have a direct impact. So don't over stay at any cost, rest assured your return is guaranteed as long as your CEC application goes through smoothly.
So you have to make sure, that either you arrange:
A) Work Permit application before 25th November
For that to happen, your potential employer will have to start the LMO process. Yes, the regular LMO takes 90+ days. So in this case, you have to tell them to go through Accelerated LMO route. here's extra info (You can keep these handy incase an employer is interested and wants to learn about the route, just in case:
B) If you can arrange some extra money, dont waste time and get into a full time one year program in a college. Do that right away, so that you can secure the College acceptance letter and then you can apply for Study permit. As long as you apply for study permit BEFORE 20TH NOV, your stay will be legal in Canada.
C) Return home now, perhaps get a job back home, keep rolling the cash flow. In the mean time, your CEC will take at the most 14-15 months. Once you get that, then come back to Canada and you wont have any LMO and work permit issues.
Those are the 3 options i'm facing as well. Most probably will go through route B, as its difficult to convince an employer to apply for A-LMO. But you never know, i have heard the Alberta employers are applying more A-LMOs than Ontario. Again, I cant substantiate this with any figures, just the rumor mill
All the best!
