July 15, 2020

Major Change! New Public Policy on Extended Time to Apply for Restoration of Status May Apply to You!

On 14 July 2020 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that it will be extending the time period within which temporary residents who fell out of immigration status may apply for its restoration.

Under normal circumstances the applicants have 90 days after their temporary immigration status expires to apply to IRCC to restore it. However, IRCC acknowledges that the pandemic has had an impact on the temporary residents’ ability to provide complete applications, and on IRCC’s ability to process them, as well as that many temporary residents have had difficulties finding flights to their home countries given the border closures and air travel limited around the world.

As a result, IRCC is implementing a new public policy that provides an extension of time to apply for restoration beyond the current 90-day timeframe for foreign nationals in Canada. Former workers, students and visitors whose status expired after 30 January 2020 and remained in Canada will now have until 31 December 2020 to apply for restoration of their status, provided they meet the requirements for the type of status and authorization they are applying to restore.

This public policy also allows former work permit holders applying for an employer-specific work permit to work while a decision on their restoration application is pending, assuming the following conditions are met: they have a job offer, have submitted a work permit application supported by an LMIA or an LMIA-exempt offer of employment and applied for and received an authorization from IRCC to work while they wait for their application to be processed.

Further information on this topic can be found here.  Contact us today to see if this Major Change Applies to You!

Wish everyone to stay well and safe during this unusual time.