Spouse Open Work permit

[kalpan]

Dear Fkl,
I am planning to bring my 2 kids from India. They got their TRV's when I came to Canada. But they are going to school and I thought dont want to disturb their studies in between and they are with my parents. Now I got full time job and planning to apply TRV'S again.

1) Can I apply online to get their visa's?
2) Do they need study permits or TRV's?
3)Me and my wife does not have visa's to visit India, Can we apply together for visa's online(2+1 kid with us from In canada + 2 from India)
4) At what age they need study permit or is it ok them to join without study permit in schools?

 

[kht]

Hi FKL, I have submitted application for work permit for my spouse 3 weeks ago before now my spouse went for upfront medical one week ago the IOM center give her letter conformation for medical So my question is how can I send the form to CIC . should I wait for the results or send them now..

Thanks

 

[GreenHak]

Good news to all Paper applicants.

You can now check application status online directly at the CIC website by linking your paper application to mycic account.

Give it a try guys

 

[Asma12]

Dear FKL and others,

As you all are the most experienced people on this topic i want to discuss my issue with guys.
I applied for SOWP on 14/Jan/2016 with all the formal and additional documentation.
1. My husband is on student visa and his student permit is valid till July/2016 and i have mentioned in the cover letter that he will apply for PGWP after his student permit. Will there be any problem because of less time as i have mentioned about PGWP?
2. This month he got the Job Alhamdulillah and will receive masters transcript, Job Description, Job offer, PGWP visa at the end of this month. Do i have to inform CIC? how can i approach them? will it benefit me?

Please can you guide me. I would appreciate your help on my concern.

 

[GreenHak]

Dear FKL and others,

As you all are the most experienced people on this topic i want to discuss my issue with guys.
I applied for SOWP on 14/Jan/2016 with all the formal and additional documentation.
1. My husband is on student visa and his student permit is valid till July/2016 and i have mentioned in the cover letter that he will apply for PGWP after his student permit. Will there be any problem because of less time as i have mentioned about PGWP?
2. This month he got the Job Alhamdulillah and will receive masters transcript, Job Description, Job offer, PGWP visa at the end of this month. Do i have to inform CIC? how can i approach them? will it benefit me?

Please can you guide me. I would appreciate your help on my concern.

Your husband's study permit validity is very low to get the SOWP processed. If you are from India, then the work permit will take 2 months and the processing time for pakistan is 10 months :'(

Mentioning about PGWP will not make any change in the decision process as your husband is yet to get his PGWP processed.

To get SOWP, your spouse should hold a valid study permit or work permit. The SOWP will be valid until the expiry of your spouse's current status (Work permit or study permit).

-------------

Once your husband get his PGWP and start his employment, he should have worked in that job atleast for one month before you apply for SOWP as a spouse of a worker.

You should submit his offer letter that includes his duties, payslip, reference letter from his employer (optional) etc., The job should come under NOC category of skilled jobs (NOC 0,A,B,C).

Your application will be processed faster if you submit with your husband's positive LMIA (optional). It will also improve the chances of getting approved.
----

I would suggest you to either withdraw the application and wait for your husband to work for atleast 1 month in PGWP and then apply for SOWP. OR wait for the outcome.

If you want to contact CIC you can send a case specific enquiry using the web form in the link below.

https://www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=case+specific+enquiry

Good luck

 

[Asma12]

Your husband's study permit validity is very low to get the SOWP processed. If you are from India, then the work permit will take 2 months and the processing time for pakistan is 10 months :'(

Mentioning about PGWP will not make any change in the decision process as your husband is yet to get his PGWP processed.

To get SOWP, your spouse should hold a valid study permit or work permit. The SOWP will be valid until the expiry of your spouse's current status (Work permit or study permit).

-------------

Once your husband get his PGWP and start his employment, he should have worked in that job atleast for one month before you apply for SOWP as a spouse of a worker.

You should submit his offer letter that includes his duties, payslip, reference letter from his employer (optional) etc., The job should come under NOC category of skilled jobs (NOC 0,A,B,C).

Your application will be processed faster if you submit with your husband's positive LMIA (optional). It will also improve the chances of getting approved.
----

I would suggest you to either withdraw the application and wait for your husband to work for atleast 1 month in PGWP and then apply for SOWP. OR wait for the outcome.

If you want to contact CIC you can send a case specific enquiry using the web form in the link below.


Good luck

Thank you very much for your reply. He has started working on 11/April/16, comes under NOC A. He is a post graduate of Waterloo university so he is LMIA exempt. Taking your point in view i can update my application on 11/May/16, as he would have served 1 month in job, he will have his PGWP visa, his transcript. I have heard that through case specific enquiry you can update changes in your application related to employment etc, so would it be beneficial for my case? Can my husband inform and provide his updated visa changed from student permit to PGWP through case specific enquiry in may? I am from Pakistan

 

[b4ahmad]

Thank you very much for your reply. He has started working on 11/April/16, comes under NOC A. He is a post graduate of Waterloo university so he is LMIA exempt. Taking your point in view i can update my application on 11/May/16, as he would have served 1 month in job, he will have his PGWP visa, his transcript. I have heard that through case specific enquiry you can update changes in your application related to employment etc, so would it be beneficial for my case? Can my husband inform and provide his updated visa changed from student permit to PGWP through case specific enquiry in may? I am from Pakistan

I did the same thing in a different way. After completing my Masters, I applied for my PGWP and spouse open work permit together ( I have job in skill level A). I applied on 19-Jan-2016, spouse is in Pakistan. I have received my PGWP, but my wife's open work permit is still in process. She applied with upfront medical exam.

Coming to your case, here is the CIC link, which asks for specific documents, regarding spouses of open work permit holders.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/work/opinion/policy.asp

I would suggest, instead of sending case inquiries a number of times, wait for your husband to submit his PGWP application. By that time he will also have his 1-2 salary slips. Once you have these documents, upload those using case specific inquiry, along with a cover letter that your visa be issued until the validity of your spouse's open work permit.
I did the same, after having my PGWP, I sent that using CSE and attached additional salary slips etc.

Have you received request for medical? or you went with upfront?

Please update here when you hear anything?

 

[Asma12]

I did the same thing in a different way. After completing my Masters, I applied for my PGWP and spouse open work permit together ( I have job in skill level A). I applied on 19-Jan-2016, spouse is in Pakistan. I have received my PGWP, but my wife's open work permit is still in process. She applied with upfront medical exam.

Coming to your case, here is the CIC link, which asks for specific documents, regarding spouses of open work permit holders.


I would suggest, instead of sending case inquiries a number of times, wait for your husband to submit his PGWP application. By that time he will also have his 1-2 salary slips. Once you have these documents, upload those using case specific inquiry, along with a cover letter that your visa be issued until the validity of your spouse's open work permit.
I did the same, after having my PGWP, I sent that using CSE and attached additional salary slips etc.

Have you received request for medical? or you went with upfront?

Please update here when you hear anything?

Thank you very much that really helped me a lot. I was thinking of the same option. I haven't receive medical request up till now. I will keep updating about my application.

 

[abhinavshah]

Good news to all Paper applicants.

You can now check application status online directly at the CIC website by linking your paper application to mycic account.

Give it a try guys

I am not able to find my wife's SOWP paper application on the CIC website to have it linked to her myCIC account. Have you or anyone else found any luck with this?

 

[fredcoque]

Hello Guys,
I came to Canada with my wife to study and for her to work.
My program is going to finish at the end of April, 2016, and both our visas will expire in July 31, 2016.
My wife is working since October, 2015 as a Sales Assistant at The Bay.
I am currently looking for a job and in a couple of months I will apply for the PGWP.
I was informed though that I will only be able to extend my wife's work permit if I get a job in NOC 0, A or B.
Otherwise, she will have to leave Canada or stay here as a visitor/tourist.
However, talking to some friends they told me that maybe there are other possibilities.
One of them would be to apply for extension, and then wait for them to analyze her case.
Another possibility would be to ask her employer to pay a fee of $230 and renew her visa only for that employer.
I am planning to start doing something now, to avoid problems in the future.
Do you have any information about these possibilities?
Thanks,
Fred

 

[GreenHak]

I am not able to find my wife's SOWP paper application on the CIC website to have it linked to her myCIC account. Have you or anyone else found any luck with this?

No luck. It's not working. I think they are yet to sync the paper application data in the application linking system.

However, it is a good initiative to know the real status of the application and get messages under one room with the advantage of the mycic platform.

 

[fkl]

Dear Fkl,
I am planning to bring my 2 kids from India. They got their TRV's when I came to Canada. But they are going to school and I thought dont want to disturb their studies in between and they are with my parents. Now I got full time job and planning to apply TRV'S again.

1) Can I apply online to get their visa's?
2) Do they need study permits or TRV's?
3)Me and my wife does not have visa's to visit India, Can we apply together for visa's online(2+1 kid with us from In canada + 2 from India)
4) At what age they need study permit or is it ok them to join without study permit in schools?

Your situation is not very clear to me but I will try my best to answer with assumptions.

1. Assuming you either have a study permit at a university or a work permit with a skilled job, yes you can apply for their visas online. But if you are a PR you can only apply for their sponsorship.
2. If they are school going, they need open study permits. Even if you apply for TRV for them and you do not try indicating a short stay of six months, you would still get a resident trv for them which has the same requirements as a study permit and processing time. A visitor trv (Short visit of less than 6 months) is the wrong category in this case and would likely be refused since your kids do not intend to visit you for a short stay. They intend to come live here and study along as long as you are here.

3. I didn't get this part at all. Assuming you are Indians why would you need visa? If you meant trv for ENTERING back in Canada after going to india, you can apply for that TRV from inside Canada (that is for a person who is already admitted to Canada with a valid work or study permit). However, you cannot apply for your kids in India for this type of trv. That will be a separate application.

4. CIC in different countries (local embassies) have laid down different rules for this. In my case when I was coming from Pakistan years ago, CIC Islamabad stated 6 years or more should apply and get open study permit. Younger kids would get resident trvs. Where as I didn't see other embassies explicitly following this rule.

But whatever visa category they came here on, once in Canada, it doesn't matter. For those kids who were under 6 when they came here and were on TRV, didn't need a study permit to go school. All they needed was, their parents to be on valid work / study permit status i.e. they didn't explicitly need study permit to join school here.

 

[fkl]

Hi FKL, I have submitted application for work permit for my spouse 3 weeks ago before now my spouse went for upfront medical one week ago the IOM center give her letter conformation for medical So my question is how can I send the form to CIC . should I wait for the results or send them now..

Thanks

You can always send a case specific inquiry with all the information and they can attach that info to your file.

 

[fkl]

Your husband's study permit validity is very low to get the SOWP processed. If you are from India, then the work permit will take 2 months and the processing time for pakistan is 10 months :'(

Mentioning about PGWP will not make any change in the decision process as your husband is yet to get his PGWP processed.

To get SOWP, your spouse should hold a valid study permit or work permit. The SOWP will be valid until the expiry of your spouse's current status (Work permit or study permit).

-------------

Once your husband get his PGWP and start his employment, he should have worked in that job atleast for one month before you apply for SOWP as a spouse of a worker.

You should submit his offer letter that includes his duties, payslip, reference letter from his employer (optional) etc., The job should come under NOC category of skilled jobs (NOC 0,A,B,C).

Your application will be processed faster if you submit with your husband's positive LMIA (optional). It will also improve the chances of getting approved.
----

I would suggest you to either withdraw the application and wait for your husband to work for atleast 1 month in PGWP and then apply for SOWP. OR wait for the outcome.

If you want to contact CIC you can send a case specific enquiry using the web form in the link below.

https://www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=case+specific+enquiry

Good luck

Every thing else GreehHak as well as b4Ahmad said is true except one aspect.

Your spouse doesn't need to have received PGWP and worked for x or y length of time to apply for a SOWP.

Technically you both could apply together for his PGWP + your SOWP if he has a skilled job offer along. So the day he can apply for PGWP and he already has a skilled job offer along, you can apply for SOWP along with him and submit as a single application.

Your current application most likely will be lost / refused or might even be issued for a very short time. I am not exactly sure of how CIC responds to individual cases as such. But even if you get a SOWP, it cannot be valid beyond your spouse's study permit expiry which is less than 6 months.

 

[fkl]

Hello Guys,
I came to Canada with my wife to study and for her to work.
My program is going to finish at the end of April, 2016, and both our visas will expire in July 31, 2016.
My wife is working since October, 2015 as a Sales Assistant at The Bay.
I am currently looking for a job and in a couple of months I will apply for the PGWP.
I was informed though that I will only be able to extend my wife's work permit if I get a job in NOC 0, A or B.
Otherwise, she will have to leave Canada or stay here as a visitor/tourist.
However, talking to some friends they told me that maybe there are other possibilities.
One of them would be to apply for extension, and then wait for them to analyze her case.
Another possibility would be to ask her employer to pay a fee of $230 and renew her visa only for that employer.
I am planning to start doing something now, to avoid problems in the future.
Do you have any information about these possibilities?
Thanks,
Fred

The first advice you got was correct. She cannot continue to work. But she can apply for a visitor status clearly mentioning that her spouse is transitioning from study permit to PGWP and you need to wait for him to get a Skilled job offer to become eligible for SOWP.

The applying for extension doesn't make sense. You should only apply for extension when you have any grounds. Since your spouse's study permit is expiring and ONLY having PGWP is not enough grounds for extension application. But if he gets a skilled job offer (principal spouse) before applying for PGWP, then you both could submit applications together i.e. PGWP + SOWP along with the skilled job offer.

The 230$ fee is totally ridiculous suggestion. That is compliance fee for work permits that are LMIA exempt. The SOWP is only LMIA exempt if you have a principal spouse with either a valid study permit OR a PGWP + Skilled job. If you don't have that, compliance fee has no meaning - unless your spouse gets a new job offer which is LMIA exempt on its own grounds (a university researcher, health care worker or something else for CIC has created a separate classification). Hope that helps.