DannyCane

Okay, prospective employer applied for LMO in December. We now know that it can take quite a few months to get any sort of decision.

So, in the meantime we want to go on holiday to Canada, and my son should hopefully get a study visa to start school in Canada in late August.

What happens if we were to go on holiday once a study visa has been granted (so my son and I can stay when my husband goes back to work in the UK - I will stay with my son for 6 months at a time), but the LMO comes through whilst we are on holiday?

I assume my husband would have to apply for a TWP in London, and wait for that before he can move to and work in Canada.

Would my son and I have to leave Canada once my husbands TWP has been (hopefully) approved, so that we can all enter Canada again as a family?

Does any of this make sense to you? I hope so.
I'd really appreciate your help here.
Sabine

bazzz

You should just be able to cross the border into the US, then turn back to Canada with the LMO and all relevant paperwork and obtain a WP at the port of entry.

DannyCane

Not sure I understand this correctly...

Being in posession of an LMO means that they will give me (my husband) a TWP at the PoE? No need to send passports to CIC in London, like you would have to for PR visa???

And what documents/relevant paperwork would you need at that point (LMO in hand)??

bazzz

Bingo. You'd need anything that you'd need to provide to get the work permit if you were submitting your application for it in London. So, a copy of the LMO confirmation, a copy of the offer letter for the job, your CV and any relevant certificates. However, if the job requires police checks and/or a medical, then I think you'd have to apply to the Canadian High Commission in London.

There have been other threads on this, so it's worth doing a search of the forum.

PMM

Hi

You should note that without the WP your son will probably be international rates for school.

DannyCane

I know, and that's all sorted already. That was the easy thing.

DannyCane

Sorry to bring this thread up again, but I'm confused - again.

Just looked through some older emails I received from our immigration lawyer, and wanted your advice.

They told us that, if we were to go thr PNP/LMO route and it was approved, we can file our Application for a Work Permit at a visa post outside of Canada.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that you can get a TWP at the PoE, as long as you have all other necessary docs with you?!

DannyCane

Any thoughts on this?

mandymoochops

You can do either / or. It would have depended upon your circumstance at the time of asking your lawyer as to what his answer would have been.

Maybe at that time you were going to apply from UK, either way it doesn't matter. hth.

DannyCane

At the time - in England, having applied for PR.

Does that mean, if my husband is still in the UK he would have to apply for TWP over here? Or can he book flight, go to Canada, and apply at PoE?

bazzz

Should be fine. I think live-to-ski did something similar; just make sure you've got all your PNP paperwork with you - it's not the usual route to take, so more junior staff might need to talk to someone more senior.

Judy in Calgary

No, that's not what live-to-ski did, according to my recollection. I believe live-to-ski came to Canada on a working holiday visa through BUNAC. Then, once she was here, she applied for PNP. She had to do a trip around the flagpole to activate the PR visa that she got through PNP.

DannyCane, I would have liked to have answered your questions, but did not, because one of them confused me, and I didn't know the answer to another one.

There are quite a few members of this forum who have obtained their temporary work permits at their port of entry (POE). In fact, except for work permits that are issued by the Case Processing Centre in Vegreville, Alberta (e.g., renewals of previous work permits), ALL temporary work permits are issued at the POE. Foreign visa posts do not have authorization to issue work permits. They only have authorization to approve the work permit applications, but the work permits themselves are issued at the POE.

There also are some circumstances in which you can APPLY for the work permit at the POE. According to the CIC website, these are the circumstances in which you can apply for a TWP at your POE:

• You are from the United States, Greenland or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon,
• You do not need a medical examination,
• You do not need a temporary resident visa to visit Canada, and
• Your job does not need an LMO from HRSDC

The catch, as far as I can see, is that, in order to be eligible to apply for your TWP at your POE, you would have to be going to a job that hadn't needed a labour market opinion. This would be the case if you were getting a spousal open work permit (SOWP), for example. It's also applicable to certain people in the IT industry (software developers and the like), who are in such short supply in Canada that they don't need LMOs.

Another thing that confuses me is the bit about being from the United States, Greenland or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. There are plenty of British members of this forum who have applied for the TWPs at their POE.

But, quite aside from that issue about the United States, it looks to me from CIC's website -- but I don't consider myself an expert on this at all -- that a primary TWP applicant usually would not be allowed to apply for his/her TWP at the POE. In most cases the primary applicant would need an LMO, and so would not be eligible to apply at the POE -- according to my reading of CIC's website.

Another thing that confused me is that, in one of your posts, you said "PNP/LMO." That is extremely confusing because the PNP ordinarily does not involve an LMO. PNP is a type of permanent residence application, but it operates somewhat differently from the way in which a permanent residence visa application via the skilled worker route operates. In many provinces, once your PNP application has passed the provincial hurdle and is forwarded to the federal government for their approval, the provincial government issues an endorsement letter. This endorsement letter is enough for you to get a TWP that will allow you to start your job in Canada while you wait for the rest of the PR application process to be completed. This releases you from the need for an LMO. So your mentioning PNP and LMO in the same sentence just does not make sense to me.

An LMO is something that you need for a stand-alone TWP. (And a stand-alone TWP is something that can be upgraded to a PR visa if you get a permanent job offer once you're in Canada, working under the terms of your TWP.)

An LMO is not something you need for the TWP that you get when you've reached a certain point in your PNP application process.

It may help you to understand how the PNP process differs from the TWP + upgrading to PR process if you read the Wiki article called Work Permit versus PNP.

Hope that helps.
x

DannyCane

Thank you so much for replying. I think I have been confusing myself these past few weeks/months...

Because of what we read, and were told by prospective employers, and were not told by immigration lawyers (I guess I didn't ask exactly the right question), I actually assumed that PNP and LMO were part of the same process (should have found this site a long time ago).

Seeing that they are not part of the same thing, actually makes a lot more sense now.

thank you all.
Sabine