Can I start a new job right away under maintained status, or must I wait for the new permit?

It depends on what you already hold. If you currently have a valid open work permit and applied to extend or replace it before it expired, maintained status generally lets you continue working under the same open conditions while the new application is processed, since maintained status simply continues your existing authorization on the same terms.

If your existing permit is employer-specific, or if you do not yet hold any work permit and are applying for one for the first time, maintained status does not create new work authorization you did not already have. In that situation, you generally cannot start a different job, or start working at all, until the new work permit is actually issued — maintained status preserves what you already had; it does not grant something new.

Because the distinction between continuing existing conditions and gaining new authorization is easy to get wrong, and starting work without proper authorization can create serious compliance problems, confirming exactly what your current permit allows, and whether that specific authorization is what maintained status is continuing, is worth checking before starting any new position.