From: airon@edm.isac.ca (Airon Yan Sung Yiu)
Subject: Re : Visa Question.  Work Temporarily in Canada
Organization: ISA Corporation, Edmonton, AB
Distribution: can
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 17:02:05 GMT

I was sponsored by Esso Chemicals 3 years ago to work in Canada.  The
previous two replies that were posted explained most of the case.  I
would like to summarize the previous replies and add some of my
experience here :

(1) You can start working under "WORK VISA", not "STUDENT VISA" after
you have completed all the requirements for your degree.  All you have
to do is to get a letter from the graduate faculty (or equivalent) to
prove that you have completed all your degree requirement.  The degree
may not be conferred to you yet.  (This is what happened to me.) You'll
have some problems if not all your requirements have been completed.
(2) The "work permit" you obtain from (1) is for one year only.  Now we
have two cases if you want to stay longer in Cananda :
     (a) If your employer can prove to Canana Employment that he can't
find a suitable Canadian (i.e. qualification, experience,etc) to fill
that position now, he can set up an appointment with a counsellor at Cananda
Employment.  If the proof is considered sufficient, the counsellor will
help your employer to obtain a permenant work permit for you.  With this
work permit, you can apply for immigration status (I'll talk about it later).
     (b) Suppose your employer cannot give you a permanent job now
(actually, he can only offer you permanent job under the situation in
(a) above), your work permit expires next year.  Now, when your work
visa expires, your employer decides to extent your contract.  This is
not allowed unless your employer can prove that he can't find a person
to fill your place (I am not too sure about whether a certain recruiting
period is needed or not), you can go to re-new your work visa for
another year.  You have to do it again the next year.  Once you have
worked more than 2 years in work permit, you can apply for immigration
yourself.  This happened to my classmate 4 years ago in Toronto.

NOTE : any time your employer can prove that he spend 3 months and
cannot find a suitable employee, he can ask Canada Employment to issue a
permanent work permit to you.

Regarding applying for immigration, you can submit your application to
any Canadian Counsulate in the U.S.  You don't have to go to the U.S.
until the interview date. Im my case, I went to Minneaplois and got my
permanent resident visa in one day (interview in the morning, visa
issued in the afternoon).  It took me almost a year even though I went
thru Minneapolis's Canadian Counsulate.  If you don't want to wait too
long, avoid New York, LA, etc.  Try Phoneix, Florida, etc. Also, Esso
hired a lawyer to get my visa but I didn't think it was necessary.  I
knew more about the immigration rules than the lawyer that Esso hired.
A lot of campuses have International Student Centre (or equivalent) and
they are the best place to ask.  If you phone Immigration, I suggest you
to call seveal times (and make sure you talk to different people on the
other side of the phone) to make sure you get the correct information.
You may be surprised by the different answers that you get.

ONE THING TO REMEMBER : Emmployement and Immigration are "separate"
sections of a EIC, so always make sure you follow the immigration rules
because Employement visa is NOT equal to the right to stay in Cananda.

Good Luck.
-- 
Airon Y.S. Yiu 		         mail: airon@edm.isac.ca
ISA Corp.			 uucp: !{uunet, alberta}!isagate!airon
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada       phone: (403) 420-8081