What should we do???

[cjanssen]

Hello, I am hoping to get some advice on the next steps we should take to ensure my girlfriend from Denmark is able to stay and work in Canada. I will outline the timeline of events below:

-She arrived here on an International Experience Class and received a one year open work permit from August 4th 2014-2015
-During this time she started some part time work and joined an organization at a supervisory role full time
-Before her open work permit expired her employer submitted a LMIA and she submitted a work permit extension at the same time to allow her to be able to continue working (advice given by a lawyer)
-It has been almost 4 months and we have not heard back about the LMIA so her employer had to extend job postings to ensure there was no down time
-We have been together for about 2.5 years and she has lived in Ontario for 1.2 years but has traveled home a few times for family emergencies and visits (totalling about 7 weeks combined)
-During her time here so far she has reached the working hours to apply to CEC but has not completed language tests yet

Questions
-Should we wait to hear back about the LMIA or apply to another route beforehand to potentially allow her to continue working?
-Should we pursue another route before hearing back about the LMIA? Or if it is denied what is the best route to take?
-Should we do a common-law sponsorship or CEC application?
-Is there any other option that may allow her to continue working and living here without disruption?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[scylla]

IECs are a unique type of work permit that cannot be extended and don't benefit from implied status. She should have stopped working as soon as her IEC expired. Any work since then has been illegal and cannot be counted towards CEC (or any other economic immigration program). Unfortunately too many lawyers don't understand this rule and get this wrong.

CEC is only an option if she has obtained the required number of hours while her IEC was valid (note that if she has any weeks where she accumulated more than 30 hours of work, she cannot carry over the extra hours into weeks where she is lacking hours to make them full time).

Common law is an option provided you have physically lived together for at least one full year and have never been separated for more than 2-3 weeks in one stretch. If you have been separated for a longer period, CIC will most likely see this as a break in continuous cohabitation and expect you to start counting again from scratch.

 

[Banff2015]

She's should not have stayed working iec visa does not allow that so technically she broke the law.. And could be banned from Canada... I would seek proper legal advice asap..

 

[purplesnow]

Guys, she didn't break the law. IEC's themselves cannot be extended. You get implied status from them
Though when you submit an application for a different type of permit. In this case an LMIA backed, closed work permit was applied for so a bridging permit application could be made and she got implied from that. It's a loophole but I promise you it's there. people need to stop confusing extension applications with bridging permit applications, although that'd be much easier if you don't use the same form for them.
Same goes for people on IEC's who have submitted PR applications. If you submit a BOWP application before your visa runs out you do benefit from implied status coming off from an IEC.
the only time you don't and can't benefit from implied status on an IEC is if you're going from one IEC visa to another IEC visa. Going from an IEC to a different type of permit, you definitely can benefit from implied status.

 

[Banff2015]

Show us some proof to back up your statement please???

 

[scylla]

Guys, she didn't break the law. IEC's themselves cannot be extended. You get implied status from them

No - you don't. This is a common misconception. In order to continue working when an IEC expires, you must have a new and approved work permit in hand. No implied status.

We've had a few instances in the Family class section of the forum where people have been caught by CIC for working illegally after their IEC expired (in every case that person had applied for a new work permit before the IEC expired and through they had implied status - CIC clarified they don't). One was denied landing due to the illegal work after being issued a PR visa (that person never came back to the forum after reporting their problem - so we don't know if she ended up getting PR status or was ultimately refused). Another's application is stuck in extra reviews at the Etobicoke office due to the illegal work. That's probably going to add a year to the processing time of the application.

For this case, I would certainly not apply for CEC or Express Entry using any of the work experience gained after the expiry of the IEC. That's playing with fire.

 

[ozlis]

I can confirm this too, friend of mine kept working on an IEC visa thinking she had implied status and was given an awful time at the border.

The only grey area would be if they applied for the actual visa instead of the extension, not just the LMIA (two separate things). They are still waiting on the LMIA, not the visa so no implied status in effect?

 

[cjanssen]

We did not apply for an extension of the IEC, we applied for a separate closed work permit with the company she is working for.

I am a bit confused, is this still okay?