Denied Canadian work permit extension based on "labour impact requirements" - what next?

El Fantastico

This is based on Canadian immigration and work permit laws, so hopefully someone has some advice?

My roommate applied for an extension with an open-work permit back in March. He finally got a letter of denial today with the vague reason of failure to meet labour impact requirements. Some quick research shows that labour impact means things like his job could be done by anyone with Canadian citizenship, unless he is the only qualified worker for the job and the employer needed to hire him from a foreign country (Scotland).

When he first came to Canada, it was on a work permit, he had nothing, and lived with his aunt, who has permanent residency.

The HR department at his work is looking into things with their immigration lawyers (they're a pretty big software company, foreign employees are fairly common) to see what can be done because they really like him. Some other options we're looking into is trying to get a hold of his aunt, but ever since he left her to move in with us, she's kind of disappeared off the radar, otherwise she could try to sponsor him for permanent residency, too.

The last option that I can see for him is to apply for permanent residency on humanitarian and compassion grounds, but this honestly sounds like it's more of an option for refugees who've been ordered to leave Canada. I see some indication that it could be for anyone with such an order, such as an expired/denied extension for a work permit, but I can't tell.

We're considering getting advice from an immigration lawyer for him, but I figure I'd check up on here first if anyone had any insight who might've dealt with this before.

ceres

The best advice is "get advice from an immigration lawyer."

El Fantastico

I figured as much. I was just wondering if anyone else had any personal experience with this sort of thing. The reason for denial for my roommate feels flimsy at best, considering the amount of other work permits that get approved or extended.

Darkewolfe

His company is required to file the necessary paperwork to sponsor him to remain, if I'm understanding the permit you're talking about. It's fairly easy to do for a company if they want to jump through the hoops, but it does require them to do things like post the job and demonstrate they couldn't fill it with citizens. That said, talk to an immigration lawyer independent from the company if it's important to be able to stay, because you don't want to suffer from someone else's screw up.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

im on a work visa in a different country but this advice applies
generally your employer fills out some forms that demonstrate the job couldn't be easily filled by a resident of the country and/or the immigrant worker has specialized skills that the company needs
his employer definitely messed something up

Aridhol

It's more likely the job can be fulfilled by a Canadian and the company has not filed for this reason. Companies, in my experience, do not "forget" to keep sponsored employee's.

I would apply for whatever option allows him to stay regardless of the reason or what he feels is applicable. The goal is to stay and to stay employed. Fill out every form he can.

El Fantastico

In my roommate's case, he came with nothing, and started working as a barista in this company's cafe (it's one of those software development companies where 2-3 local buildings all have a central cafe that serves only those employees, with the benefits of lower cost for food/coffee/breakfast/lunch, etc.)

So the company's he's working for now picked him up as a barista and turned him into an IT guy. He had no prior experience, but is one of their best new hires. His job could easily be done by a Canadian, or anyone with any capacity to learn and have common sense, as he demonstrated because he had never been to school for IT and was shown everything he needed to do on the job.

The company has at least agreed to keep a position open for him if he can file the paperwork and get approval to remain in the country via whatever method he gets the extension, or permanent residency. They've provided him with a letter too, so that's a nice document to have in pocket when he appeals to stay.

dispatch.o

Probably going to have to find his aunt.

In just my previous looking through options to move to Canada, it actually seems rather difficult without having family, marriage to a citizen, a million dollars as an investment or a specialized degree that is in demand.

His only real connection seems to be family that's a legal permanent resident.

Blarghy

What kind of work permit did he initially arrive on? If he needs a LMIA, that likely means that the company did the impact assessment for the barista position. Work permits like that are not transferable between positions, so when they moved him to another position, your roommate violated the terms of his work permit. If they want him in the IT position, they need to do the LMIA for that position too. Otherwise, the barista position might still be open for him.