A worker on an expiring PGWP had filed an extension application (creating maintained status) while a different employer's LMIA was still in process, and asked whether they could keep working for the current employer in the meantime.
What members worked out:
- The consensus: you can keep working until a decision. Because the original permit was open and the extension was filed before expiry, maintained status preserves the existing conditions — several members confirmed: 'until a decision comes on your application, you can work.'
- The conditions you keep are your old ones. Maintained status continues the previous permit's conditions. An open PGWP's conditions allow working for any employer — which is why the current job could continue while the LMIA for a different employer was pending.
- A refusal ends it immediately. If the extension is refused, you must stop working at once — plan for that scenario before it happens.
- A closed permit changes your employer. If the LMIA is approved and you switch to an employer-specific (closed) work permit, you can then only work for that sponsoring employer — continuing with the old one would violate the new permit.
- A caution on strategy: part of the thread involved filing an extension mainly to buy time while awaiting the LMIA. Applications made without genuine basis carry risk if IRCC judges them not bona fide — get professional advice before relying on a placeholder application, and verify current maintained-status rules, which IRCC has since tightened for second applications.