Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP)

A BOWP is a special tool available to temporary residents inside Canada whose status is about to expire in 4 months or less and who are awaiting a decision on their Permanent Residence (PR) application. Once a BOWP application is submitted, the applicant gets additional time to continue working in Canada legally while Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) continues their processing of the original PR application.

Eligibility Requirements:

• The applicant must have a valid legal temporary status with authorization to work in Canada at the time of BOWP application submission or have a maintained status (previously known as implied status) with authorization to work in Canada
• Decision on one of the following types of PR application must be pending for the applicant:
o Express Entry applications (under Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, or Canadian Experience Class)
o Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) applications that don’t have any employment restrictions
o Applications under the Agri-Food Pilot (AFP) program
o Applications under the Quebec skilled worker class (QSWC) program
• The submitted PR application should have successfully completed the applicable completeness checks before submission of the BOWP application and an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) is often a good indication of this.

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