Hello,

I'm hoping someone can help us. My boyfriend (who's Australian) and I have been together for 4 years. We have both gone back and forth on working visa's, visitors visa's, student visa's, etc. Right now we are both here in Canada and he's on his working visa (expires Jan 2007). In June 2006 we applied for Permanent Residency for him under the Common Law status. I have happily sponsored his application. He is also a teacher and has just heard word that his studies have been approved by BC Teachers Federation.

So that's our situation and here's our problem: His working visa expires in January 2007 so he applied for a work visa extension and he has been denied. He is then not able to stay in Canada but because of his residency application he's also not able to leave Canada! Yes, we are aware that he can be sponsored by a school or by an organization to extend his working permit but he is not currently working for a school (just got his teaching certification yesterday in the mail) and is only working retail right now.

So what do we do and with whom can we talk to? We just want to be able to sit down with someone and talk to them about our situation and find a resolution to this problem. It's very frustrating and stressful for us not knowing what our future looks like.

Please help! Thanks!

In the context of an inland sponsorship, an open work permit can be sought after approval-in-principle. This may taks as much as a year or more following submission of the case, however. In the interim, the only solution is a to seek or extend temporary resident status in Canada. Extension of the prior work permit is not possible, as you found out, but a new work permit may be possible if Service Canada Confirmation is granted.