We don't know what to do now... HELP!

[kcastronaro]

Alright, here is our situation:

My fiance came over to Canada to live with me last June. I am a born Canadian citizen. He came over on a temporary working holiday visa as he is not a skilled worker, nor earning enough to make him "valuable" - he never even went to college. Our wedding date is April 25th 2015, we put it off for two years in order to pay for it and give his family time to save money for their flights to come over to Canada for it. We've put down deposits on a caterer, the venue and my dress. We've been together for 2.5 years and it will only become "common-law" on the day his permit expires hence why we never applied for a change of status because it wasn't "legal" yet even though we've lived together for 3-6 month increments before his coming to Canada. I am also unemployed (I'm currently trying to get my novel published but am looking into self-publishing) and so, he is the sole provider of our income.

We applied for an extension in March asking for another year and it was denied. They told us the visa was ONLY for a 12 month period and his current job is not a job that a Canadian *can't* do, thus he is taking a job away from a Canadian - even though they have always listed these jobs to Canadians on public forums.

Now we're trying to figure out what to do from here. I've had a friend (whose parents work at a non-profit immigration organization) suggest we go and get married at city hall and claim compassionate grounds to not split a family up and another friend (who works as a deporting agent for CIC) say that we should reapply for the work permit extension but include proof of only wanting a year to show we don't have an intention of actually settling in Canada as we want to go back to the UK after we're married (i.e. our deposits, etc).

But we don't know if he'll be able to work during this time - the deporting agent said he would during the reapplication because it would be the same as before he'd be "stuck" on his current visa.

I'm sure this is a bit more of a unique situation than some of the others on this forum - I've been a long time stalker looking for answers - but does anyone have any insight or suggestions for us? We would really rather stay in Canada, even if it means applying for PR and my fiance having to stay here for the 12-15 month waiting period because at least he'll be in the country for our wedding and we won't have to live separately... The biggest thing is we obviously want him to keep working - not just for money but it's a good job and they've recently started talking about moving him to management and he'd like that experience to take back to England with him.

Any advice or suggestions would be helpful, I'm at my wits end with the CIC website.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Your situation is not all that unique. The forum is full of others on an IEC/WHV who are looking to do family sponsorship.

Your first mistake was thinking that he could extend his IEC visa. It is not an extendable work permit and there was never a chance of the extension being approved.

If he wants to stay in Canada, he will need to apply to change the conditions and extend his stay as a visitor. As a visitor, he cannot work.

Ignore ALL of your friends, as they are providing you with very bad advice. You have no basis to claim Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds, as you could very easily go back to the UK with him. As I said above, an IEC is NOT extendable and so an extension has zero chance of being approved, no matter what "proof" you include.

He cannot continue to work beyond the expiry of his current permit, regardless of whether he has applied for another work permit. If he does, he will be working illegally.

Unless he has an employer willing to go through the LMO process for him, he will not be able to work beyond June.

You can submit the sponsorship application once you are common-law. He can apply to stay in Canada as a visitor or return to the UK while he waits.

 

[MS.COLORS]

The working holiday visa is not extendable. It valid ONLY for a year so if your fiance wants to keep working there, the company has to agree to get him a visa(work permit). If they don't , your fiance has to stay here as a visitor or go back to his country.
I was here in Canada on working holiday visa for a year and changed the visa to a visitor and stayed another year. But I couldn't work when I was a visitor because I had no work permit. So I'm afraid you don't have many options now.
Even if you get married right now, it'll take about another year to get spouse visa and he can't work until he gets a visa.
If the company gives him a visa, it'll be the best.

 

[civic]

Alright, here is our situation:

My fiance came over to Canada to live with me last June. I am a born Canadian citizen. He came over on a temporary working holiday visa as he is not a skilled worker, nor earning enough to make him "valuable" - he never even went to college. Our wedding date is April 25th 2015, we put it off for two years in order to pay for it and give his family time to save money for their flights to come over to Canada for it. We've put down deposits on a caterer, the venue and my dress. We've been together for 2.5 years and it will only become "common-law" on the day his permit expires hence why we never applied for a change of status because it wasn't "legal" yet even though we've lived together for 3-6 month increments before his coming to Canada. I am also unemployed (I'm currently trying to get my novel published but am looking into self-publishing) and so, he is the sole provider of our income.

We applied for an extension in March asking for another year and it was denied. They told us the visa was ONLY for a 12 month period and his current job is not a job that a Canadian *can't* do, thus he is taking a job away from a Canadian - even though they have always listed these jobs to Canadians on public forums.

Now we're trying to figure out what to do from here. I've had a friend (whose parents work at a non-profit immigration organization) suggest we go and get married at city hall and claim compassionate grounds to not split a family up and another friend (who works as a deporting agent for CIC) say that we should reapply for the work permit extension but include proof of only wanting a year to show we don't have an intention of actually settling in Canada as we want to go back to the UK after we're married (i.e. our deposits, etc).

But we don't know if he'll be able to work during this time - the deporting agent said he would during the reapplication because it would be the same as before he'd be "stuck" on his current visa.

I'm sure this is a bit more of a unique situation than some of the others on this forum - I've been a long time stalker looking for answers - but does anyone have any insight or suggestions for us? We would really rather stay in Canada, even if it means applying for PR and my fiance having to stay here for the 12-15 month waiting period because at least he'll be in the country for our wedding and we won't have to live separately... The biggest thing is we obviously want him to keep working - not just for money but it's a good job and they've recently started talking about moving him to management and he'd like that experience to take back to England with him.

Any advice or suggestions would be helpful, I'm at my wits end with the CIC website.

You guys can solve all these dilemma by simly getting married. Get marriage certificate and file sponsorship right now based on him being your spouse. Explain your wedding plan for next year and provide proof of wedding preparation. He will be able to stay after you file sponsorship and open work permit application.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

You guys can solve all these dilemma by simly getting married. Get marriage certificate and file sponsorship right now based on him being your spouse. Explain your wedding plan for next year and provide proof of wedding preparation. He will be able to stay after you file sponsorship and open work permit application.

This does not solve their problems. He will still be unable to work once his IEC visa expires, even if he has applied for an OWP. Those who were on an IEC visa are NOT allowed to work while on Implied Status.

 

[Avadava]

This does not solve their problems. He will still be unable to work once his IEC visa expires, even if he has applied for an OWP. Those who were on an IEC visa are NOT allowed to work while on Implied Status.

I agree. I'm afraid your fiance won't be able to work once his current work visa expires. He can extend his stay as a visitor, but I'm not sure he'll be able to keep extending till after the wedding in 2015 and during the PR process which is another year or so (depending if outland or inland).

 

[taffy7]

Are you saying you want to go back to the U.k ?? He is unable to stay here and work even if you get married now or become common law . The best thing to do is for him to return to the U.k and you follow him . Come back next year for the wedding , or marry him now in a small civic wedding and have the big one next year . You don't have much of a choice if he wants to continue working . Its very hard to get LMO from an employer. They have to prove that they have offered this job to a Canadian and they haven't had any response or no one was suitable for the position. You could continue working on your book their. If he applied outland it would be the same about of time he has to wait for his Pr as first stage approval to get his owp is about 9 months if he applied inland.

 

[kcastronaro]

This was what I was worried about. Basically were SOL in terms of him keeping his job in Canada and our best bet is for us to just go back to the uk where he can work and I stay on the visitors visa, leave in six months to say visit home and then return on a fiancé visa which gives us 6 months to prove our marriage and I can switch to the spousal one. Yeah?

 

[kcastronaro]

This does not solve their problems. He will still be unable to work once his IEC visa expires, even if he has applied for an OWP. Those who were on an IEC visa are NOT allowed to work while on Implied Status.

Could he do an OWP? Is that an option for a UK citizen we were under the impression that it wasn't an option for him considering his job skills/education. Even if he has to wait for the reply we MIGHT be able to get a temporary leave from work long enough to excuse him to get the OWP approve (assuming of course it would be).

 

[rhcohen2014]

Could he do an OWP? Is that an option for a UK citizen we were under the impression that it wasn't an option for him considering his job skills/education. Even if he has to wait for the reply we MIGHT be able to get a temporary leave from work long enough to excuse him to get the OWP approve (assuming of course it would be).

OWP permit only applies to inland applications. Even then, it's not even considered until AFTER stage 1 approval... so that's essentially 8 mo. and you're not even married yet, so you can't even send in the actual application for the OWP to be considered. I don't think CIC just approves OWP without it being connected to some sort of PR application.

 

[scylla]

Could he do an OWP? Is that an option for a UK citizen we were under the impression that it wasn't an option for him considering his job skills/education. Even if he has to wait for the reply we MIGHT be able to get a temporary leave from work long enough to excuse him to get the OWP approve (assuming of course it would be).

No - he doesn't qualify for an OWP.

The only option right now is to obtain an approved LMO from an employer and then apply for a closed work permit.

All other options are still many months (6+) away.

 

[kcastronaro]

OWP permit only applies to inland applications. Even then, it's not even considered until AFTER stage 1 approval... so that's essentially 8 mo. and you're not even married yet, so you can't even send in the actual application for the OWP to be considered. I don't think CIC just approves OWP without it being connected to some sort of PR application.

Oh so you'd need to have a PR app on the table for an OWP? Okay... Well that takes it off the table. And Sponsorship approval takes 8 months? CIC quoted 34 days on the website. Or is there a different stage one?

Sorry I feel so stupid about this stuff... Me going into the UK was so much easier :/

As for the LMO his job won't do it. It's a corporation so it would have to go through head office and they don't care about joe blow the immigrant....

 

[scylla]

This was what I was worried about. Basically were SOL in terms of him keeping his job in Canada and our best bet is for us to just go back to the uk where he can work and I stay on the visitors visa, leave in six months to say visit home and then return on a fiancé visa which gives us 6 months to prove our marriage and I can switch to the spousal one. Yeah?

Just to be clear - Canada doesn't have a fiance visa. (I'm not sure if you were referring to the UK or Canada when you mentioned the fiance visa.)

 

[scylla]

Oh so you'd need to have a PR app on the table for an OWP? Okay... Well that takes it off the table. And Sponsorship approval takes 8 months? CIC quoted 34 days on the website. Or is there a different stage one?

Sorry I feel so stupid about this stuff... Me going into the UK was so much easier :/

As for the LMO his job won't do it. It's a corporation so it would have to go through head office and they don't care about joe blow the immigrant....

There are two different spousal processes: Inland and Outland. The OWP is ONLY granted if you apply Inland and ONLY after the application has first stage approval. First stage approval for inland applications is currently taking 6-8 months. The 34 days you saw was for Outland.

 

[SenoritaBella]

If they are thinking about moving him to a management position, they may be willing to apply for a Labor Market Opinion(LMO) for him. I suggest he discuss this with his boss. All the information about a LMO can be found online.