Waiting for Pernament Resident

Did you apply inland or outland? If you applied outland, you will be able to work once your file has been approved and you have landed in Canada. If you applied inland, you will be able to work after first stage approval (AIP) which takes 11-12 months to receive after the application has been filed. If you want to work earlier, you will have to find an employer who is willing to offer you a job and go through the Labour Market Opinion process. If the LMO is approved, you can then apply for a work permit.

If you would like to attend school, you'll need to apply for a study permit (assuming the course is six months or more).

What you are experiencing is perfectly normal so there's no point in emailing them. The first stage of the inland process (which includes the approval of your work permit) will take 11-12 months to complete. So you shouldn't expect to hear anything until August or September of this year. If you want to work before your work permit is approved in August or September - you'll have to find an employer who is willing to hire you and go through the Labour Market Opinion process.

You should be able to pay for medical care out of pocket at any of your local walk-in clinics.  You are not alone in this - Canada does not provide work/study rights for foreign nationals (even the spouses of Canadians) until they are eligible for them. With an outland PR application, that happens when the foreign national has been approved for permanent status and has finalized the process by "landing".  For inland applicants, the right to work or study - and sometimes being covered for medical (depends on the Province) - comes when the first stage of assessment of the PR application is completed.  The timeline for that is currently 11-12 months after receipt of the application.  That's why some spouses apply for PR "outland", even while staying in Canada to wait for approval.  "Outland" applications sometimes finalize faster than it takes an "inland" application to get just to first stage approval - it depends on which embassy is processing the application because they all have different timelines.  Don't know what your own situation is, or why you chose the inland process.  It's usually only really beneficial for someone who is already in Canada with a work or study permit (because it allows them to continue working or studying under the original permit while waiting for first stage approval), but now that you've applied inland, you don't have much choice but to wait until they open your application and assess you for first stage.  Once you're approved for first stage, they will issue you a work permit - but for now, you'll have to wait.

Scylla is right about the restricted work permit - but the biggest problem to that is that it has to be obtained through the overseas embassy, and that means you probably have to leave Canada at some point in order to activate it if one is actually issued to you.  As an inland PR applicant, you have to be cautious about leaving Canada because if you can't get back into the country, you forfeit your inland PR application. 

Edited by RobsLuv - 28 Jan 2012 at 4:42pm