Guided Pathway for applying for an open work permit

CLEO’s Guided Pathway for applying for an open work permit can help you fill out the draft forms you need to apply for an open work permit from within Canada. An open work permit allows you to work for any employer in Canada. You may only be eligible for an open work permit under specific circumstances.

You can use the pathways to:

complete a draft of the IMM 5710 E: Application to change conditions, extend my stay or remain in Canada as a worker
complete drafts of other documents you may need as part of your work permit application:
- IMM 5409 E: Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union
- IMM 5476 E: Use of a Representative Form
- IMM 5475 E: Authority to Release Personal Information to a Designated Individual

The pathways ask you questions about your situation, give you information to help answer them, and creates documents based on your answers.

Then you can enter the information from your draft application and documents into Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) online forms. IRCC requires you to submit your work permit application online (with a few exceptions).

You can use this pathway if:	What you need to get started:
you’re in Canada you’re a full-time graduate student and you meet a number of other criteria you’re married to someone or in a relationship with someone who is a student or worker in Canada, and you meet a number of other criteria or you’re a refugee, refugee claimant, or failed refugee claimant, and meet a number of other criteria or you’ve applied for a pre-removal risk assessment and meet a number of other criteria or you are in Canada without status but subject to an unenforceable removal order and meet a number of other criteria or you have made an application for permanent resident status in Canada, based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, and you meet a number of other criteria	copies of all the applications and documents submitted to IRCC in the past copies of all your immigration documents copy of the biodata page of your passport a digital photo information about the times you’ve entered and left Canada information about your work or education history information about any crimes you’ve been accused of information about any past military service copies of a number of other documents, depending on your situation (like diplomas, marriage certificates refugee ID, bank statements, cheque stubs)

You can use this pathway if:

What you need to get started:

you’re in Canada
you’re a full-time graduate student and you meet a number of other criteria
you’re married to someone or in a relationship with someone who is a student or worker in Canada, and you meet a number of other criteria or
you’re a refugee, refugee claimant, or failed refugee claimant, and meet a number of other criteria or
you’ve applied for a pre-removal risk assessment and meet a number of other criteria or
you are in Canada without status but subject to an unenforceable removal order and meet a number of other criteria or
you have made an application for permanent resident status in Canada, based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, and you meet a number of other criteria

copies of all the applications and documents submitted to IRCC in the past
copies of all your immigration documents
copy of the biodata page of your passport
a digital photo
information about the times you’ve entered and left Canada
information about your work or education history
information about any crimes you’ve been accused of
information about any past military service
copies of a number of other documents, depending on your situation (like diplomas, marriage certificates refugee ID, bank statements, cheque stubs)

Using the pathway

You can sign up to create an account or use the pathway as a guest. If you choose not to create an account, the system will time out after 4 hours. You must create an account if you want to save your work on the system or use the other pathways.

Any personal information that you enter into the pathways is confidential. CLEO will not give your personal information to anyone unless you ask us to do this. Read more in the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Need help?

If you need technical help using the Guided Pathways, or have questions contact support@cleo.on.ca.

CLEO’s Guided Pathways don’t give you legal advice. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer.