Hi All Seniors, please review my case and release my confusion.
My wife and I are in Canada right now with work permits. Mine is a closed work permit and my wife’s is open. My two year contract with my last employer ended on the 13th of December 2013, and my wife is working as a store manager at a local grocery store. However, our work permits are going to expire at the end of January. To continue working legally in Canada, we need to extend our work permits or apply for permanent residency. As for our situation, I have some questions for you.
1. I know we need a LMO so that my wife can apply for a work permit. My wife’s boss is applying for a LMO for her according to the procedure, but I would like to know if there are any restrictions on the number of employees in the company and I’m not sure if we can get a LMO eventually because her store is a small one—about four to five employees. Can we apply for work permits while the LMO is in process?
2. Since both of us already have over a year or equivalent work experience in Canada, theoretically either of us can be the principal applicant to apply for the PR under CEC. Here are our problems:
My two year postdoctoral experience at University meets the requirements of CEC without a doubt, but I only got 6 in total on my IELTS test with two 5.5s in writing and speaking respectively. So we decided that my wife would be the principal applicant at the moment. My wife got an 8 on IELTS with 9 in listening, 8.5 in reading, 7.5 in writing, and 7 in speaking. She has been working as the store manager of a grocery store for nearly a year, supervising the overall operation of the whole store, determining pricing, recruiting and training staff, etc. In short, her responsibilities fit the job duties of Retail and wholesale trade managers (NOC 0621). Our concern is whether the size of the company would affect her application. The ownership of her store has just changed. I’m wondering if this change has bad effects on counting her work experience time. On the other hand, if we want to hand in our PR application before our work permits expire, her work experience as a store manager will be seven days shorter than a year, though hours are far over 1560 hrs. Can we count her time as an administrator assistant at an education agency into it? But it happened the agency closed last year and we couldn’t find her supervisor anymore, it would be hard for anybody else to verify her job duties, though we know it has other branches in other cities of Canada. Would it be possible to count her hours at the agency without a letter of recommendation, describing her payment, job responsibilities and others?
3. If we hand in our applications for work permits and PR next week, we might not be able to hear anything from CIC before Jan. 31st. Do we have to leave Canada at the end of January when our work permits expire? It would be a bit troublesome moving our stuff out of Canada and in again in a short period.
Thank you for your time. All of your kind answer will be appreciated.
Best wishes,
Wesley
My wife and I are in Canada right now with work permits. Mine is a closed work permit and my wife’s is open. My two year contract with my last employer ended on the 13th of December 2013, and my wife is working as a store manager at a local grocery store. However, our work permits are going to expire at the end of January. To continue working legally in Canada, we need to extend our work permits or apply for permanent residency. As for our situation, I have some questions for you.
1. I know we need a LMO so that my wife can apply for a work permit. My wife’s boss is applying for a LMO for her according to the procedure, but I would like to know if there are any restrictions on the number of employees in the company and I’m not sure if we can get a LMO eventually because her store is a small one—about four to five employees. Can we apply for work permits while the LMO is in process?
2. Since both of us already have over a year or equivalent work experience in Canada, theoretically either of us can be the principal applicant to apply for the PR under CEC. Here are our problems:
My two year postdoctoral experience at University meets the requirements of CEC without a doubt, but I only got 6 in total on my IELTS test with two 5.5s in writing and speaking respectively. So we decided that my wife would be the principal applicant at the moment. My wife got an 8 on IELTS with 9 in listening, 8.5 in reading, 7.5 in writing, and 7 in speaking. She has been working as the store manager of a grocery store for nearly a year, supervising the overall operation of the whole store, determining pricing, recruiting and training staff, etc. In short, her responsibilities fit the job duties of Retail and wholesale trade managers (NOC 0621). Our concern is whether the size of the company would affect her application. The ownership of her store has just changed. I’m wondering if this change has bad effects on counting her work experience time. On the other hand, if we want to hand in our PR application before our work permits expire, her work experience as a store manager will be seven days shorter than a year, though hours are far over 1560 hrs. Can we count her time as an administrator assistant at an education agency into it? But it happened the agency closed last year and we couldn’t find her supervisor anymore, it would be hard for anybody else to verify her job duties, though we know it has other branches in other cities of Canada. Would it be possible to count her hours at the agency without a letter of recommendation, describing her payment, job responsibilities and others?
3. If we hand in our applications for work permits and PR next week, we might not be able to hear anything from CIC before Jan. 31st. Do we have to leave Canada at the end of January when our work permits expire? It would be a bit troublesome moving our stuff out of Canada and in again in a short period.
Thank you for your time. All of your kind answer will be appreciated.
Best wishes,
Wesley
