December 20, 2014 - Eligible spouses or common-law partners will now have the opportunity to work in Canada while they wait for their application for permanent residence to be processed. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will issue open work permits to certain spouses or common-law partners who are applying for permanent residence from inside Canada, before the approval in principle decision on their application is made. Effective December 22, 2014, as part of a one-year pilot, CIC will begin issuing open work permits to eligible applicants in the current inventory. More information and instructions on this pilot program will be available on Monday December 22, 2014. Source: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/notices/2014-12-20.asp