- Restoration requires that you have not breached other conditions. Working without authorisation is such a breach.
- Work has a broad definition and does not depend on being paid.
- Employers face their own consequences, which is why most would rather you paused.
- Unauthorised work can support a finding of inadmissibility for non compliance.
- If it has already happened, disclose it and address it rather than hoping it is not noticed.
What counts as work
The definition is broader than most people expect. Work generally means an activity for which wages are paid or commission is earned, or that competes directly with the activities of Canadians or permanent residents in the labour market. Being unpaid does not automatically place an activity outside it.
Helping at a family business, taking freelance contracts, continuing to run a company you own, or carrying on remotely for an overseas employer can all raise questions depending on the circumstances. Some of these are permissible and some are not, and the distinctions are not obvious from outside.
If you are uncertain whether something you are doing counts, that uncertainty is itself a reason to ask rather than to proceed.
Why it is so damaging
The restoration provision requires an applicant not to have failed to comply with any other conditions imposed. Working without authorisation is precisely such a failure, so it does not merely sit alongside the status problem. It undermines the remedy for it.
It can also support a finding of inadmissibility for non compliance with the Act, which reaches beyond the current application into applications you have not yet made. A short period of work taken to cover rent can appear in a file years later.
Employers are exposed too. Employing a foreign national without authorisation carries penalties and compliance consequences, which is why most Canadian employers, once they understand the position, prefer to pause someone rather than continue.
If it has already happened
The instinct is to say nothing. That instinct is understandable and it is usually wrong. Officers have access to a great deal of information, and a discrepancy discovered by an officer is treated very differently from one disclosed by an applicant.
Disclosure with an explanation is a materially better position than concealment discovered later, which can become an allegation of misrepresentation. Misrepresentation is among the most serious findings in immigration law and its consequences run for years.
What the explanation should say, and how the application should be framed around it, is exactly the kind of question worth putting to a lawyer before anything is submitted.
The practical advice
Stop. Whatever the financial pressure, continuing compounds the problem faster than almost anything else you could do.
Tell your employer clearly and in writing that you are pausing pending your status being resolved. This protects them as well as you, and it creates a record of when the activity stopped.
Then deal with the status question on its own terms. The sequence matters: stabilise the breach, then apply. Applying while the breach continues is applying with a defect built in.
Does unpaid work count?
It can. The definition is broader than payment and includes activity that competes with Canadians and permanent residents in the labour market. Being unpaid does not automatically make an activity permissible.
Can I keep working remotely for an employer outside Canada?
It depends on the circumstances and it is not automatically permitted. This is a specific question that should be asked before continuing rather than after.
Should I tell them I worked without authorisation?
Generally disclosure with an explanation is a far better position than concealment discovered later, which can become an allegation of misrepresentation. Take advice on how it is presented.
What happens to my employer?
Employing a foreign national without authorisation carries penalties and compliance consequences for the employer. Most prefer to pause an employee once they understand the position.
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