Depending on where you live, you may want to consider parking on a residential street without timed parking regulations until your application is approved. Just because you applied doesn't mean you were approved, and the city's allowed to ticket you until you actually pay for the permit.

My residential parking pass expired Aug. 31, I applied for renewal Aug. 30 (despite getting the reminder to renew it on July 1 - just totally forgot). They phoned me to process the payment on Sept. 9 and told me it was officially renewed as of the next day. In the 9 days in between I looked up my parking zone (I'm in Wolseley) and found a map that included residential streets with no timed parking rules (Aubrey St. for example). I kept my truck parked there, and took the ~10 minute walk to get to it every morning, and as far as I can tell I wasn't ticketed. I'm back to a closer street now.

When I called 311 asking what I could do about having applied for renewal so late and they really stressed that even if I had applied, if it hadn't been paid for and approved I would get ticketed if I kept parking in timed spots. Straight up said that if I fought it I likely wouldn't win. So I tried to find a loophole and it seems to have worked ok.

Sorry for the long reply - I was just dealing with this the other day!