zaef1989 said:
I'm currently in Canada and I have no status. I was on a IEC Working Holiday Visa which expired in October, 2016. In October before my WHV expired I applied for a Work permit extension via paper route which gave me approximately 3 months on implied status. My work permit was rejected in January at which point I stopped working immediately and I was given 90 days to restore my status, which so far I have not done.
My problem is I am planning on crossing the boarder to America in a few days on holiday. I am worried I will not be let into America because I have no status in Canada. Is this correct? What would be the best way to approach this?
I hope to return to Canada following my trip to America and get a 3 months visitors visa.
I would be very grateful for any help or advice on the best way to approach this.
Thanks in advance!
Others can comment as this is a personal view but how did you assume that you were on any type of implied status trying to extend an IEC which cannot be extended at all. You I presume knew that at the time you tried to apply so should have stopped working and left the country in October 2016 unless you had applied to stay as a visitor at that time. So retrospectively not only could it be considered that from October 2016 you were working illegally but also remained in the country illegally with no status given you cannot extend an IEC even if the system in place allowed a generalised application to extend as a worker.
As for exiting Canada to go the US how will you demonstrate to both the US CBP on the way in with no legal status in Canada your intention to leave the US and also on the way back demonstrate to CBSA your intention to leave Canada assuming they let you back in unless you are able to show travel arrangements to leave either country such as an air ticket. In addition you would need to hope that your overstay has not been flagged somewhere regardless of any offer of restoration, you will only find that out when you try to get back into Canada
Ultimately easy to overthink this but maybe the best option is to follow through on the restoration ASAP to reset your legal status before considering any travel outside of the country and just hope that none of your previous attempts to stay longer come back to bite you with a refusal at the border for the overstay.
There are many previous posts about attempting an IEC extension knowing that it will be refused plus any overstays do not go well with any future attempts at PR . So short term gains can have long term consequences,
See here as an example of consequences of assuming implied status from an expired IEC
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/apply-inland-after-iec-expire-keep-working-and-now-aip-refuse-t163087.0.html
