Perpetual

Hello, hoping someone can point me in the right direction for some desperately needed advice.

I have been on a study permit for six years doing my PhD here in Canada and just successfully defended my thesis about a month ago so I have essentially finished. My husband is on an Open work permit associated with my study permit and works full time. The last renewal application I sent was back in May for our permits which were due to expire end of July. We have still not received the renewals so we’re on implied status. The renewed permit is due to expire December 31st anyway (that’s the date I put on the application). I planned to immediately apply for a PGWP, thinking I’d apply for my husband’s OWP extension at the same time, as I’d done in the past for the study permit. I’d begun the application and emailed my university to check what info is on the letter they provide to confirm I’ve completed my degree. The immigration consultant there emailed me back with list of questions and we had a meeting today which gave me a rude shock: apparently my husband cannot get a work permit until I a) have my PGWP in hand, and b) have a job offer! I can’t believe I missed this. This is a huge problem for us as hubby needs to keep working as the main breadwinner, yet there’s no way I could have both my work visa and a job by six weeks time (end of December, when his OWP expires, providing we even get the renewal through!) I can’t get a job until I have my PGWP, and judging by how long they’re taking to process our simple renewals, it’s going to be months before I have it.

I have absolutely no idea what to do. We are both in a state of shock. We have a life here, we have two kids in school, we can’t just leave before the end of the year (ie in six weeks!). But what choice do we have? Should we speak to a lawyer? Or a consultant? Is there something we can do to extend the open work permit or some other way to allow us to stay and for my husband to continue working? Any advice would be most welcome.

TIA

christmasoompa

I'm confused, it sounded like you'd already done that? They will have given you all the options I'm afraid.

Only thing I can think of is would your husband's employer be prepared to 'sponsor' him to keep him i.e. do a LMIA application so he can switch to a normal work permit, or a PNP app.

Is your plan/hope to be able to stay permanently? I assume not as you haven't applied for PR at any point in the 6 years, so when did you actually want to stay until - just enough time to get yourself together to leave Canada?

Perpetual

Thanks for replying. Well I spoke to the immigration person at my university who was helpful but I still don’t know what to do next. They only have a limited amount of time to speak and basically suggested we try to flagpole. That feels like a huge risk, and I’d still need a job offer which is kind of hard to get when I don’t have an actual work permit!

Yes we’d love to have PR, we do want to stay, but it hasn’t been an option for us unfortunately. My husband has no degree and therefore doesn’t score well enough for EE. I have all the degrees but my work on campus isn’t recognised as Canadian work experience (because I’m a student) so I don’t score much better. We can’t even get to 400, last time I checked, and that’s far below what people are scoring to be invited via EE. We submitted a Provincial Nominee EoI for my husband but haven’t heard a peep and that was over a year ago.

My husband’s work would likely sponsor him and do an LMIA, yes, but I’m now worried there’s not enough time for something like that. The complicating factor there is that his company is based in the UK and he is employed through the Canadian office, so it’s a relatively small company here and I don’t know if they’ve ever done anything like an LMIA.

I had essentially put all my eggs in one basket and was assuming I’d simply submit my PGWP application with my husand’s OWP attached and while we’d have to wait for processing, we’d remain on maintained status and eventually be okay when it came through. I had no idea I’d need a job offer.

christmasoompa

Ah, ok, so not a lawyer or licensed consultant then?

Are you sure your work on campus isn't recognised? It won't be for CEC, but may for FSW points - https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpc...=855&top=6

400 is not below what people are invited for. Draws have been much lower in the past, are you actually both in the pool? What is your husband's job and how long has he been doing it? What are your EE scores today? And what do you do (closest code for your PhD work??)

What stream of the OINP did your husband apply under?

Do either of you speak French?

There may be, depending on his occupation.

Sorry for all the questions, but we'll try and help if we can, and the more info you can give the better. Whatever your husband does, make sure he doesn't work if you get a refusal for your study permit renewal, or past 31st December if you do get it approved. Even a day's unauthorised work may cause huge problems down the line.

Snowy560

The International Student Advisors at SFU will be licensed Immigration Consultants.

Snowy560

Hi I don't know why I thought you were at SFU... my mistake!
But essentially, most Canadian universities will have licensed immigration consultants among their international student advisors.

Perpetual

Thanks, yes that's who I spoke to last week who alerted me to the fact that I need a job offer in order for my husband to qualify for an OWP.

Perpetual

Well I think the person I spoke to was a licensed consultant - I didn't double check her credentials but there is a whole team of them who provide consultations at the University. They're just called "international student immigration advisors". She certainly seemed to know her stuff. she is the one who suggested flagpoling as a way of getting our status sorted out quickly because being on implied status at the moment is causing huge issues for us - we can't renew our SINs, we can't renew our OHIP, we can't leave Canada until a decision is made. Not that we want to, but it would be a lot less stressful not to be in this position and to be able to visit our parents in the UK and Australia (I haven't been home in the whole six years we've been here!).

Well I've never held a work permit, I have only ever had a study permit with working rights - like a co-op work permit, where I was restricted to working 20 hours or less per week and only on campus. The way that these Course Instructor and Teaching Assistant positions work doesn't seem to satisfy the requirements for FSW because each position is only for a short term (either Sept-Dec, Jan-April, or the longest is Sept-Apr) and they're never full time. Not only is the job itself not full time (it's teaching one course), I'm not allowed to work full time on my study permit. I guess if you added up my 20 hours per week between Sept and April each year for six years, it might add up to being a whole year full time... but it stipulates 'worked continuously', which it never has been, as I've always had a break during the summer. So I don't think it's recognised for FSW.

I know there was a draw in the 300s during Covid (we didn't have our names in the pool ) but everything I've seen has been around the 400 mark which is what I am at if I were to get the top marks on the English test. When I was working while studying I was a course instructor - I think the NOC would either be 41200 or 41201. I was not a professor, not permanently employed in the faculty, I was a course instructor, a salaried employee on a short term contract, which means I taught my own class but worked under a professor who coordinated the course (wrote the syllabus etc). I've also been a teaching assistant, which would definitely be 41201.

Neither of us are in the pool for EE. My husband is a VP of service delivery for an online gaming company and he's been with them for about three and a half years now.

The OINP my husband put in his EOI for is the Employer Job Offer: Foreign Worker Scheme. I don't know why we've not heard anything, maybe we did something wrong, maybe I chose the wrong NOC code (had terrible trouble trying to work out what it should be!) but I've been in to have a look at the application and I can't work out what could possibly be wrong. It's a fairly simple thing at the beginning, not much information for the EOI, but we've never been invited to actually apply.

Hubby has no French, I have extremely basic French, not sure if it would be worthwhile for me to do a test. I did have to study academic French during my doctoral studies and did pass a test for that somehow!

I've calculated our scores and I was shocked to see hubby's at 506! But then I realised the question was 'a valid job offer supported by an LMIA or exempt from needing one', so the answer would be no, as he doesn't have one. But what makes someone exempt from needing one? I read about it and I'm still none the wiser. I feel like I've been totally missing the point here for a long time though. If I'm understanding this right, if hubby had just got his work to do the LMIA he'd get 200 additional points, which would be enough for EE. Anyway, without that, hubby is at 306. But he does have a job! My score comes out at 380.

Thanks so much for your help, I'm grateful for anything at this point. I'm in contact with my university to see if there any job offers going, but unfortunately most university jobs are short term contracts, so they don't satisfy the requirements for six months at least in order for hubby to get his OWP renewed anyway. I am now reaching out to contacts, friends of friends, a friend who is a recruitment consultant, to see if there are any admin positions going, as I could definitely do something like that to tide us over. We'll see how we go with me getting a job offer. But yes, as it stands, I've stopped working because my university immigration consultant explained that my working rights are contingent upon me being a registered student and technically, having successfully defended my thesis, I could be considered finished. I am still waiting for the letter from the university confirming having completed my PhD, which I will need to apply for the PGWP, and I think this letter will officially confirm I'm done and therefore no longer considered registered full time. It's so complicated!!

christmasoompa

I haven't got time to unpick all of that properly at the moment, but I wanted to respond to just say I'll look at it asap - got to get my VAT returns done today but then will have more time! Somebody else may be able to help in the meantime. But can you give us a breakdown of your CRS scores as well? Just so we have as much info as possible to go on, your scores seem low so I want to double check you're not missing any points anywhere.

Thx.

Perpetual

Thanks, that's so kind, I really appreciate it! I feel like I'm missing something with the CRS but I've done it so many times and I can't work out what could be causing the low scores. Seems like our specific case just falls through the cracks. When we went to see a private immigration consultant a few years ago, she calculated them and determined the same, so that's when we sort of gave up any hope of EE. I will copy and paste directly below. I'll put the headings in red so you can see which one is which.

This is my husband's (it includes my mistakenly putting in the valid job offer with LMIA, hence the high score!)

Core/Human capital factors

• Age = 0
• Level of education = 28
• Official Languages = 128
  • First Official Language = 128
  • Second Official Language = 0
• Canadian work experience = 70

Subtotal - Core/Human capital factors = 226

Spouse factors

• Level of education = 10
• First Official Languages = 18
• Canadian work experience = 0

Subtotal - Spouse factors = 28

Skill transferability factors

Education (to a maximum of 50 points)

• A) Official Language proficiency and education = 0
• B) Canadian work experience and education = 0

Subtotal = 0

Foreign work experience (to a maximum of 50 points)

• A) Official Language proficiency and foreign work experience = 50
• B) Canadian and foreign work experience = 50

Subtotal = 50

Certificate of qualification = 0

Subtotal Skill transferability factors = 50

Additional points (to a maximum of 600 points)

Provincial nomination = 0

Job offer = 200

Study in Canada = 0

Sibling in Canada = 0

French-language skills = 0

Subtotal Additional points = 200
Comprehensive Ranking System formula grand total = 504

And this is mine:

Core/Human capital factors

• Age = 0
• Level of education = 140
• Official Languages = 128
  • First Official Language = 128
  • Second Official Language = 0
• Canadian work experience = 0

Subtotal - Core/Human capital factors = 268

Spouse factors

• Level of education = 2
• First Official Languages = 20
• Canadian work experience = 10

Subtotal - Spouse factors = 32

Skill transferability factors

Education (to a maximum of 50 points)

• A) Official Language proficiency and education = 50
• B) Canadian work experience and education = 0

Subtotal = 50

Foreign work experience (to a maximum of 50 points)

• A) Official Language proficiency and foreign work experience = 0
• B) Canadian and foreign work experience = 0

Subtotal = 0

Certificate of qualification = 0

Subtotal Skill transferability factors = 50

Additional points (to a maximum of 600 points)

Provincial nomination = 0

Job offer = 0

Study in Canada = 30

Sibling in Canada = 0

French-language skills = 0

Subtotal Additional points = 30
Comprehensive Ranking System formula grand total = 380