URGENT - Expired Work Permit and Valid Re entry visa

[aramide23]

Hello guys:

I am posting this on behalf of a friend who needs urgent help. Before COvid 19 my friend travelled back home (dec 2019) for her wedding and had her valid work-permit but re entry visa she was still in the process. Keep in mind the work permit is a post graduate work permit and had a few more months till it’s expiration. Her husband has also returned to Canada after the wedding while she is still in the home country due to the re entry visa.

With COvid, the re entry visa was delayed and processing took a long time, and was just approved some weeks back.

The reason for this post now is- her work permit is expiring on the 23rd Nov, and the passport that has her re entry visa hasn’t been delivered- we are anticipating it to be delivered on the same 23rd. If she leave her home country on the same 23rd (all things being equal she gets her passport) and arrives Canada on the 24th Nov which by that time her work permit will have expired, will she be allowed entry into Canada with just the valid re entry visa?

This is entirely not her fault as COvid delayed the process and she hasn’t been reunited with her husband since her marriage in December 2019.

Any suggestion or help will be appreciated

 

[Naturgrl]

Short answer, yes she will be denied re-entry with an expired visa. Also her travel isn’t essential. She has been out of the country for one year. She has to show that her travel is eseential so she should have a job offer because she cannot prove she lives in Canada.

As per the website,
Essential refers to travel for reasons that are non-discretionary and non-optional. The emergency orders under the Quarantine Act do not allow people to travel to Canada for optional or discretionary reasons, such as for tourism, recreation or entertainment.

As a worker, your travel is essential (non-discretionary) if you’re in either of these situations:

• You have a valid work permit and normally live in Canada.
  • This applies even if you’ve been laid off.
• You’re a worker who meets all of the following:
  • has a letter of introduction for a work permit (open or employer-specific)
  • has a valid job offer
  • can work once you enter Canada and complete your 14-day quarantine (unless you’re exempt)
  • 
    
  • https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/coronavirus-covid19/foreign-workers.html#restriction

Citing Covid is not valid because she has had year to return.

 

[aramide23]

Short answer, yes she will be denied re-entry with an expired visa. Also her travel isn’t essential. She has been out of the country for one year. She has to show that her travel is eseential so she should have a job offer because she cannot prove she lives in Canada.

As per the website,
Essential refers to travel for reasons that are non-discretionary and non-optional. The emergency orders under the Quarantine Act do not allow people to travel to Canada for optional or discretionary reasons, such as for tourism, recreation or entertainment.

As a worker, your travel is essential (non-discretionary) if you’re in either of these situations:

• You have a valid work permit and normally live in Canada.
  • This applies even if you’ve been laid off.
• You’re a worker who meets all of the following:
  • has a letter of introduction for a work permit (open or employer-specific)
  • has a valid job offer
  • can work once you enter Canada and complete your 14-day quarantine (unless you’re exempt)
  • 
    
  • https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/coronavirus-covid19/foreign-workers.html#restriction

Citing Covid is not valid because she has had year to return.

———————

Thank you for the response. Maybe I didn’t clarify - my friend has been living in Canada for a long time. It was not intentional that she didn’t come back to the country - her re entry visa was being processed as at the time she left Canada for her marriage and she had to travel back home for the wedding which was fast approaching and didn’t know when the re entry will be approved.

Also, she had ample time between January till now to leave her home country, but because all the visa offices were closed she could not do anything.

But thank you for clarifying though. I guess we will just have to look at other options . Thank you again

 

[Bs65]

So have you checked the immediate family travel exemption given her spouse is in Canada ? There are different processes citizen/pr versus temp worker/student in Canada for immediate family .

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/coronavirus-covid19/visitors/immediate-family.html#how-citizens-prs

 

[aramide23]

So have you checked the immediate family travel exemption given her spouse is in Canada ? There are different processes citizen/pr versus temp worker/student in Canada for immediate family .

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/coronavirus-covid19/visitors/immediate-family.html#how-citizens-prs

Thank you, I think this was explored and her spouse even called CIC, and was advised that she needs a valid document to enter the country even though the delay and processing was as a result of covid