RRB21

Hi everyone,

My partner and I made an application for an LMIA-exempt employer-specific work permit (and open work permit for my partner) in December and are awaiting a response. Does anyone know whether we will have to send our passports to the London Visa office during the process of getting our work permits, or whether we can just have our passports stamped with the work permit at a port of entry?

We are thinking of entering Canada as visitors quite soon and then travelling to a port of entry when the work permits have been processed, however we are concerned that we may have to send our passports to London from Canada (not even sure if this is allowed?)

Thanks in advance for your help!

christmasoompa

You don't need to send your passports, the copies of it you sent with your application suffice. You don't get the actual work permits until you get to Canada anyway.

If you want to try and enter as visitors then make sure you have a plan to show (i.e. say you're just looking at areas pending your work permit, and have evidence of things like meetings with realtors etc) and proof of ties to the UK. Otherwise it might be suspected that you're trying to move before you have the right visa, and you might get refused entry. So make it clear it's only a short 'reccie trip' and have evidence of that, including proof you'll return to the UK. It would really scupper your visa application if you were refused entry!

It may have been better to have just applied for your work permit at the airport when you arrived, have you had confirmation your application is being processed yet?

RRB21

Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly! That's good to know we won't need to send our passports.

Our application status is: "We are processing your application. We will send you a message when there is an update or if we need more information from you." I'm guessing we can't apply at the port of entry now since we've already applied online?

Thanks for the advice on this and the tip to book some appointments with realtors. We will make sure to book return plane tickets. We also have a signed residential tenancy agreement for two months which we could show to prove that it's a temporary visit? Or do you think this will cause more problems since it has 'residential' in the name which makes it seem like we are more than just visitors?

Thanks again for your help!