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Immigration, work permits, and my colleague getting fucked
Evil Multifarious
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The other coordinator at the writing centre where I work has been working here for two years, did two degrees here, even got married, and she applied for a new work permit about four months ago. It has yet to arrive, and her current permission expires on Thursday. This means she can't work, she stops getting paid, and she can't even leave her house. Her healthcare coverage expires as well; this is after she had a blood transfusion last week, to put the icing on top.
She has been calling immigration but there is an automated phone message saying "we're too busy, call back later" every time. It's not an option to visit them physically, since their office is apparently in Alberta, instead of the capital city of the country.
What is her best course of action here? By the end of the week she'll have no income, no insurance, and in general be totally fucked sideways. Immigration is not exactly an easy office to deal with. Is she going to have to wait for a work permit that maybe, maybe will arrive in two weeks or so - depending on the competence of immigration bureaucracy and the Canadian postal system? Is there any other option?
She has been calling immigration but there is an automated phone message saying "we're too busy, call back later" every time. It's not an option to visit them physically, since their office is apparently in Alberta, instead of the capital city of the country.
What is her best course of action here? By the end of the week she'll have no income, no insurance, and in general be totally fucked sideways. Immigration is not exactly an easy office to deal with. Is she going to have to wait for a work permit that maybe, maybe will arrive in two weeks or so - depending on the competence of immigration bureaucracy and the Canadian postal system? Is there any other option?
Evil Multifarious on
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Call a lawyer, seriously, do it right now. Immigration law at higher levels is designed to be hard, and if your company doesn't manage it for you you'll have a cats chance in hell.
It would seem that she has the offer of a job, is married to a canadian citizen, I'm sure she will soon be able to get a visa to be eligable to work. Although she may have to return to her home country for a bit to get it.
I know this to be true from personal experience but citing something anyways:
Edit: reread your post, if you've already filed for an extension you have implied status and should be able to keep working and whatnot till they finish processing your application.
Are these things supposed to expire? I mean she's married to a Canadian citizen! It just seems so bizarre.
She can apply for permanent residency via the family class if she's married to a Canadian -- but it'll still take 6 months to a year for it to get processed (oh god they're so slow and yes it is impossible to get a hold of official people). It won't solve her problem now, but if she plans on staying in Canada, it might be something to consider.
My understanding is that she has implied status and can continue to work and whatnot.
and as someone else said, you have to apply for permanent residence, married or not. It's a bit of a process and includes everything from a criminal background check to a medical (including an aids test) but it's good for 5 years.
Once you have permanent residence and have lived in Canada for x years you can apply for citizenship to avoid having to apply for permanent residence every 5 years.
Er? The main requirement for keeping permanent residency is showing that you've been in Canada for 2 out of the past 5 years (and, y'know, you haven't committed a felony or something). You have to renew your card every 5 years, but you just have to send in like a 4-page form and $50 to do that, not go through the whole PR application again (thank god for that).
Edit: also, searching the CIC website on implied status (since I don't know much about it) gives me this PDF, which indicates your co-worker should be okay as long as she doesn't leave the country before her new permit arrives (bolding theirs):