Study & Work Permits
PERMIT RENEWALS
Every conversation, meeting, and email with clients focuses on one topic: the pursuit of status.
The Pursuit of Status
Every day, we witness and celebrate individuals moving their status from:
• foreign national
• to temporary status (visitor, student, worker)
• to permanent resident
• to Canadian citizenship
We specialize in helping foreign students and workers renew their permits to remain in Canada while their permanent residence plan takes shape. When that plan is ready, we assist with applying in the category that will take you from temporary status to permanent resident status.
Renewing and maintaining status with study permits and work permits are necessary for achieving permanent Canadian residency if the applicant is in Canada. If your study or work permit expires while you are in Canada, this can prevent you from achieving your end goal.
Throughout your immigration journey, we will stay connected to remind each other of deadlines and upcoming expiry dates to strategize the best way and time to apply to renew your status.
STUDY PERMITS
How To Leverage Extensions & Restoration of Status to Gain Residency
Foreign students are one of the largest groups targeted by IRCC for permanent residence programs. Why? Because they are already here, are integrated and familiar with Canadian society, have already gained some work experience, and there is no language barrier. For these reasons, they make prime candidates for becoming successful permanent residents!
Accordingly, if you are currently studying in Canada, you have options available to move from your temporary status to permanent residence. We suggest that, even while going to school in Canada, you start weaving a plan for how you will get to permanent residency—don't wait until the last minute. Be sure to stay in school, study full-time, do not take unauthorized breaks, graduate, and apply for the all-important post-graduate work permit.
We have experience with federal and SINP programs that cater to post-graduate work permit holders for you to use to make your journey to PR status as smooth as possible.
Eligibility Criteria
Apply for a study permit extension before your current study permit expires.
Check that your passport isn’t expiring soon—you will not be given a permit longer than your passport expiry date. We can help those whose study permits have expired and who still have time to apply to renew and restore their status.
If you apply after your study permit expires, you can stay in Canada, but you may not continue to study until your status has been restored and you have received a new study permit.
We can advise how best to restore your status so you can continue or resume studies, and we can discuss any possible consequences for your post-graduate work permit later.
FAQs
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First, wait to receive your completion letter and transcript. Your application must be submitted within 180 days of receiving these items. You should know that if you have a valid study permit at the time of applying for the PGWP, you can start working full-time immediately after applying.
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We receive several calls daily from recent graduates in other provinces who realize their options for getting permanent resident status are limited if they stay in that province, so they want to know their chances of getting PR status through the SINP. The three most common SINP categories we see targeted by these graduates who have applied for, or already received, their post-graduate work permits are:
-SINP Student category
-SINP Hard-to-Fill Skills Pilot
-SINP International Skilled Worker: Employment Offer
TEMPORARY WORKER PERMITS
How To Best Use This Valuable Permit to Plan Your Future
Most common permanent residence categories are based on having Canadian work experience, so having a work permit is a critical factor in your planning. The most common types of work permits we see are:
Post-graduate work permits
Open work permits held by spouses of students or spouses of high-skilled workers
Closed work permits issued to provincial nominees
LMIA-based work permits
Bridging open work permits
Work permits issued through the francophone mobility program
Post-doctoral fellow work permits
Just having one of these work permits, by itself, does not make you eligible for permanent residence—it depends on how you use it. For example, eligibility can depend on what kind of occupation you were in, how much time you worked in that job, when you worked that job (e.g. before coming to Canada, while on a study permit, or on a PGWP), and where in Canada you worked.
The expiry date of your work permit is something to always be aware of. Do you have a way to renew it? If it has already expired, do you have the ability to renew and restore it? You may have a window of 90 days after the expiry date or 90 days from the date of a refusal letter to apply to renew and restore—are you still in that window of time?
FAQs
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We understand that a refusal is distressing because it impacts your future plans in Canada and affects your immediate goals of working or continuing studies. Together with you, we'll assess the reason for the refusal, review the original submission, and then make a repair plan to get you back on track. This might mean another application, contacting IRCC to point out an error they made, or directing you to contact a lawyer to make an application for judicial review.
Working Holiday Work Permits
How To Apply for Working Holiday Work Permit or Young Professionals Work Permit
Canada has reciprocal agreements with at least 36 countries where 18-30-year-olds or 18-35-year-olds from those countries can apply for either a Working Holiday Work Permit (open) or Young Professionals Work Permit (based on a job offer). In addition, there are recognized organizations through which young persons from these 36 countries (and a few others) can apply for these same work permits.
The International Experience Canada (IEC) program issues these types of work permits.
Little known fact: the advantage of having this kind of work permit, particularly if working in Saskatchewan, is that it can lead you to be easily eligible for a SINP program, such as the Existing Work Permit or Hard to Fill Skills Pilot categories, where an applicant must:
have a valid "eligible" work permit (IEC work permits are eligible);
have worked at least six months in Saskatchewan in a high-skilled job or designated trade (for Existing Work Permit) or one of the 23 occupations listed in the Hard to Fill Skills Pilot;
have at least CLB4 language test results in either IELTS-General or CELPIP or TEF (only needed if your occupation is NOC C or D); and
have the Job Approval Letter that the employer obtains from SINP.
Upon being nominated, the applicant can then apply for permanent residence. We meet many people who have held this Working Holiday Work Permit or Young Professionals Work Permit and never realized they had this SINP opportunity until it was too late—missing a chance for a simple way to apply for permanent residence.
FAQs
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Yes and no. First, there is a quota of work permits allotted for each country each year, and if a country's quota is filled, you have to wait until next year. Secondly, IRCC refers to it as the "IEC Season"—this is not well-defined and implies that the season in which these types of work permits will be issued has an end date.