moko86

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum and Canada. I came to Canada with my girlfriend on two years working visa which expires the end of June. We got the visa with our British passports (Canada gives every year 5000 working visas to British people on first come first serve basis). After traveling for several months we decided to stay and work here for a while but now we want to extend the visa for at least 1 more year. I am working two jobs (main as a server in a restaurant and second part time Banqueting staff for Sheraton). My girlfriend is working in a retail boutique shop.
I read a lot online trying to find how to extend our visas but I couldn't really figure it out so I was hoping to get some input from anyone that has experience in that or more knowledge. We live in Calgary AB so if anyone knows a lawyer or a company that can help and it will be easier to do everything through them please let me know.
I have a lead using the form "IMM5710 - Application for work permit inside Canada" but I am not sure if it will work at all due to the fact We are not skilled workers.
Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Best Regards,
Momchil Ivanov

christmasoompa

Hi and welcome to BE.

I'm sorry, but no you cannot extend your IEC visa - they're not extendable, unlike a normal work permit.

You'll need to look at other options if you want to stay, such as applying for PR, or asking your employer to apply for a LMIA so you can switch to a normal work permit.

Either way, you'll need to get things moving very urgently if you want to be able to keep working once your current visa expires in June! Realistically, you won't have a new visa by then so do be prepared and have some savings put aside to support yourself for a bit.

HTH, best of luck.

moko86

Thank you very much for the reply.
Another question- Can I apply for working visa separately from the one i have due to the fact i can not extend it. Even if i need to go back to England for a while and apply from there. What are my best options and what work permit I can apply for ?

Thank you

Former Lancastrian

Yes you can if you can find an employer willing to apply and pay $1000 for a LMIA and they can show that there are no qualified Canadians to do the job and have advertised the job as per ESDC regulations.
Do you have 12 months Canadian experience and apply for PR under the CEC or do you qualify under the PNP for PR?
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...try/works.html