Bridging Open Work Permit Canada: $255, Who Qualifies

A bridging open work permit costs CAN$255 in IRCC fees, because IRCC's official fee list at ircc.canada.ca sets the work permit fee at CAN$155.00 and the open work permit holder fee at CAN$100.00, and canada.ca instructs BOWP applicants to pay both. Restoring your status as a worker instead is listed on the same page at CAN$401.25, and canada.ca is blunt about what happens in the meantime: if you lose your status, you must stop working.

That gap is the whole point of this permit. According to canada.ca, a bridging open work permit, or BOWP, lets you keep working while you wait for the results of your permanent residence application. It exists so that the months between filing your PR application and receiving a decision do not cost you your job.

What is a bridging open work permit in Canada?

A bridging open work permit lets you keep working while you wait for the results of your permanent residence application, in canada.ca's own words. It is an open permit, so it is not tied to one employer, and it is applied for as an extension or change of conditions on the work permit you already hold.

Canada.ca lists the permanent residence programs it covers: permanent residence using Express Entry, the Provincial Nominee Program, the Home Child Care Provider Pilot or Home Support Worker Pilot that was open from 2019 to 2024, the caring for children class or the caring for people with high medical needs class, and the Agri-Food Pilot.

One line on canada.ca does more damage than any other when people misread it: submitting a profile to the pool is not the same as applying for permanent residence. A BOWP is not something you can apply for while you are sitting in the Express Entry pool waiting for an invitation.

Who qualifies for a bridging open work permit?

To qualify through Express Entry, canada.ca states that you must live in Canada and intend to live outside Quebec at the time you apply for your BOWP, be the principal applicant on your permanent residence application, have submitted a complete permanent residence application that passed the completeness check, and have your acknowledgement of receipt letter, which canada.ca says IRCC sends to your account after it receives your application.

You also need to be in one of three status positions, per canada.ca: you have valid temporary resident status and a valid work permit, or you have an expired work permit but maintained your status as a worker, or you are eligible to restore your status and get a work permit. The Express Entry instructions on canada.ca apply to permanent residence applications under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

Canada.ca also gives direct advice to people who are not there yet: do not let your work permit expire while you wait for an invitation to apply, and maintain your status in Canada by extending your work permit. It adds that your employer may need to get a new Labour Market Impact Assessment or submit a new offer of employment for you to do that. If your permit is the employer specific kind, that is a conversation to start with your employer weeks ahead, not days.

Is the BOWP different if I applied through a provincial nominee program?

Yes, and there are three branches, not two. Canada.ca splits provincial nominees by how they applied. If you applied for the Provincial Nominee Program online through Express Entry, canada.ca requires that you submitted a complete permanent residence application that passed the completeness check, the same gate as the federal Express Entry programs, and that you have no employment restrictions as a condition of your nomination. If you applied for the Provincial Nominee Program outside Express Entry, canada.ca requires that you submitted a complete permanent residence application that has also passed the eligibility assessment, plus the same rule about employment restrictions.

In my experience the eligibility assessment sits later in processing than a completeness check, so nominees who applied outside Express Entry typically wait longer before the door opens. That is my own read of the sequence rather than something canada.ca states, but it is a planning fact, not a technicality, and it is the reason some Ontario and Alberta nominees find their work permit expiring while they are still short of the stage that makes them eligible.

Two further differences apply to both provincial branches. Canada.ca asks for a copy of your nomination letter among the supporting documents, which the federal Express Entry branch does not. And on the nomination route through Express Entry, canada.ca words the second status option as having an expired work permit but having maintained your status and the authority to work without a work permit, rather than maintained your status as a worker. On the route outside Express Entry only, canada.ca adds a warning worth reading twice: IRCC will not start processing your BOWP until it reviews your permanent residence application and confirms that you meet the basic eligibility requirements for permanent residence under the PNP.

What does a bridging open work permit cost in 2026?

The amounts below are taken from the Work Permits section of IRCC's fee list at ircc.canada.ca. A BOWP is charged as a work permit plus the open work permit holder fee, because canada.ca instructs you to select "Open work permit" as the type of work permit and to pay the work permit processing fee and the open work permit holder fee.

The difference between the third row and the fourth row is CAN$146.25, and that is the cheap part of the mistake. The expensive part is that canada.ca says if you lose your status you must stop working, and that normally you are not allowed to work until your status has been restored and your new work permit is issued.

What happens if my work permit expires before I apply?

You must stop working, and in most cases you have 90 days. Canada.ca states that IRCC must receive your application to restore your status no more than 90 days after your status expired, and that if you apply online you must submit before midnight UTC within that window, on a system that runs on coordinated universal time rather than your local time. The one cushion canada.ca describes applies to paper applications only: if a paper application arrives after the 90 day period is over, IRCC counts back 7 days and uses that as the date received. There is no equivalent cushion online.

There is an exemption, and it lands squarely on provincial nominee candidates. Canada.ca states that a foreign worker who is applying for an open work permit and who holds an open work permit support letter from a participating province or territory is exempt from conditions that usually apply to restoration applicants: you do not have to apply within 90 days of losing your status, you can apply even if you lost it more than 90 days ago, and you do not have to meet the requirements of your stay listed on your expired permit. If a province has confirmed your place in its expression of interest pool or its nominee application inventory, check this before you assume the 90 days have run out on you.

Otherwise restoration is conditional, not automatic. Canada.ca says you can apply to restore your status if you applied within 90 days of losing it, met the requirements for your stay, for example you did not work illegally, met all the conditions listed on your expired permit before it expired, and are not a temporary resident permit holder. It states plainly that there is no guarantee IRCC will approve your restoration or your new work permit, and that if your application is refused you will have to leave Canada.

This is why filing early matters more than filing perfectly. Canada.ca says that if you apply to extend before your permit expires, you have authorization to work without a permit until IRCC makes a decision, as long as you stay in Canada, and that you must keep working under the same conditions as your current work permit. I have written separately about how maintained status works when your work permit expires in Canada. If the permit has already expired, the more urgent read is what to do when your work permit has expired in Canada.

How do I apply for a bridging open work permit?

You apply by following canada.ca's instructions for extending or changing the conditions on your work permit. When you do, canada.ca tells you to select "Open work permit" as the type of work permit, and to pay both the work permit processing fee and the open work permit holder fee. It says that in most cases you must apply online, and that you can apply on paper if you are having problems applying online.

On documents, canada.ca says to include the supporting documents listed in the document checklist along with a copy of your acknowledgement of receipt letter, and that if you apply online you should upload that letter in the "Client information" field. Both provincial nominee branches add a copy of your nomination letter to that list. That upload is the most commonly missed step in a BOWP file.

Travel is the other trap, and the branches are worded differently. On the federal Express Entry branch, canada.ca says you can leave Canada while IRCC processes your application, but that if you leave Canada after your work permit expires, you cannot work until your new application is approved. On the provincial nominee branches, canada.ca goes further: you must be in Canada with valid temporary resident status when IRCC makes a decision on your BOWP, or your application may be refused, and if your work permit expires while you are outside Canada, or if you leave after it expires, you will lose your temporary resident status.

What should I do right now?

Find two dates and put them side by side: the expiry date on your current work permit, and the date on your acknowledgement of receipt letter. If the letter came first, you are likely in BOWP territory and the job is to file before the permit expires. If the permit expires first and no letter has arrived, your file is an extension or maintained status question, not a BOWP question.

Then work backwards from canada.ca's own timing advice, which is stricter than most people assume. Canada.ca tells you to apply at least 30 days before your current work permit expires, and it publishes a live processing time for a work permit extension inside Canada that has recently been sitting at 117 days. Check the current figure on canada.ca before you plan around it, because that number moves.

If you are still in the pool rather than past an invitation, the work is on the score, and how Express Entry and the CRS actually decide who gets invited is where to start, because nothing about a BOWP becomes available until a complete permanent residence application is in.

Nothing here is advice on your specific file, and canada.ca's wording changes more often than people expect. Alisa Osipovich, RCIC-IRB R1055424, reviews the dates, confirms which branch of the rules applies to your program, and tells you plainly whether filing now protects your right to keep working.