WORk - OPEN WORK PERMIT

OPEN WORK PERMIT

Under Canadian immigration regulations, foreign spouses and common-law partners of temporary foreign workers and foreign students, who themselves want to work in Canada, are eligible to apply for an open work permit.
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An open work permit is neither employer nor job-specific, therefore it allows the holder to work for almost any Canadian employer, without first having to obtain a confirmed offer of employment.
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Further, in accordance with the general policy, spouses or common law partners of skilled workers, foreign students, and international students who have graduated from a Canadian post-secondary institution, may apply for an open work permit if the principal applicant meets certain requirements.

Spousal/Common Law Sponsorship

Under Canadian immigration regulations, foreign spouses and common-law partners of temporary foreign workers and foreign students, who themselves want to work in Canada, are eligible to apply for an open work permit.
‍
An open work permit is neither employer nor job-specific, therefore it allows the holder to work for almost any Canadian employer, without first having to obtain a confirmed offer of employment.
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Further, in accordance with the general policy, spouses or common law partners of skilled workers, foreign students, and international students who have graduated from a Canadian post-secondary institution, may apply for an open work permit if the principal applicant meets certain requirements.

Spouses or common law partners of skilled workers, may be eligible if the skilled worker:

• Holds a work permit valid for a period of at least six (6) months.
• Is employed in a job corresponding to Skill Level 0, A or B of the National Occupational Classification (NOC).
• Actually resides or expects to reside in Canada while employed.

Spouses or common-law partners of an international student cannot themselves be full-time students and the international student must:

• have a valid study permit and be a full-time student at one of these types of schools:

• a public post-secondary school, such as a college or university, or CEGEP in Quebec.
• a private college-level school in Quebec.
• A Canadian private school that can legally award degrees under provincial law (for example, Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate degree);

• If the foreign student has graduated and is the holder of a valid post-graduation work permit for a job related to their field of studies:

• To be eligible for an open work permit, graduating international students must meet the requirements under the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program.

For spouses and common-law partners, open work permits are generally issued with a validity date that coincides with the period of time that their spouse is permitted to work or study in Canada, as the case may be.

Post Graduate Work Permit

A PGWP is an open work permit available to international graduates from eligible Canadian educational institutions. It allows the holder to work for any employer anywhere in Canada.

To be eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit, an international student must:

• Be 18 or older.
• have continuously studied full-time in Canada in a study program at least eight months long.
• Have a document from your school (transcript, official letter, certificate, etc.) that confirms you completed and passed all your program requirements.
• Have graduated from a:

• Public post-secondary school, such as a college, trade/technical school or university, or CEGEP in Quebec.
• Private post-secondary school that operates under the same rules as public schools (currently applies only to certain private post-secondary institutions in Quebec).
• Private secondary or post-secondary school (in Quebec) that offers qualifying programs of 900 hours or longer, leading to a diplôme d’études professionnelles (DEP) or an attestation de spécialisation professionnelle (ASP).
• Canadian private school that can legally award degrees under provincial law (for example, Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate degree) but only if you are enrolled in a study programs leading to a degree as authorized by the province..
• Apply for a work permit within 180 days of when it was confirmed that you completed your program.
• Have held a valid study permit at some point during the 180 days before applying.

Bridging Open Work Permit

The bridging open work permit (BOWP) is a way to keep a worker in Canada working while his or her application for permanent residence is being processed.
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In-Canada applicants who have made an application to immigrate to Canada under either the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Class, the Federal Skilled Trades (FST) Class, the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or one of the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) may be considered for a bridging open work permit if their current work permit is due to expire within four months.

Spouse or Common-law Partner and Dependents

Certain conditions are required to be met by the holder of a bridging work permit in order for his or her spouse to also be eligible for an open work permit:

• In all cases, the bridging work permit must be valid for longer than six months.
• For spouses of FSW applicants, the bridging work permit holder must be performing work that is at a level that falls within National Occupational Classification (NOC) Skill Levels 0, A or B.
• For spouses of PNP applicants, the spouse is eligible for an open work permit for the duration of the work permit held by the principal PNP applicant, irrespective of the skill level of the principal PNP applicant’s occupation.
• For spouses of FST applicants, the bridging work permit holder must be performing work that is within one of the qualifying occupations in NOC Skill Level B.
• For spouses of CEC applicants, there are no set preconditions to be met by the principal CEC applicant.

Dependent children of an applicant in any of these economic classes must obtain an LMIA or have LMIA exemption based on their specific situation in order to apply for a work permit.