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The topics in the Dial-A-Law series provide general information on a wide variety of legal issues in the Province of Alberta. This service is provided by Calgary Legal Guidance funded in part by the Alberta Law Foundation.
This topic discusses how temporary residency status expires after certain duration and what to do if individuals wish to stay and or extend their stay.
Persons in Canada with work, study and visitor visas have temporary residence status. Persons from countries whose citizens require a visa to visit Canada have an expiry date for their visitor status in Canada. For those persons who are citizens of countries not requiring a visitor visa to come to Canada, their temporary resident status expires six months from the time of entry.
All temporary residents with work or study permits have expiry dates on their permits.
For any temporary resident wishing to stay beyond the expiry date, an Application to Change Conditions, available on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website, is required to extend status. This application must be filed in advance of the expiry date. As long as this is done, regulations then allow for the prior status to be extended in law until response, even beyond the expiry date.
For temporary residents who have allowed their status to expire, there is a restoration application available. The restoration application must be made no later than 90 days from expiry of status and carries a $200.00 fee.
There is no guarantee of success for either an application for extension or the restoration application. Much depends on the circumstances and history of dealings between the applicant and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. There are times when the result of a restoration application may be a relatively brief period of visitor status, even if the original status was work or study.
If the temporary resident has stayed in Canada more than 90 days from expiry of status, there is no restoration application available. In most cases, this will result in the temporary resident having to leave Canada, to avoid any further prejudice that could cloud the success of future immigration applications from outside of Canada.
Further information may be obtained from the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website, www.cic.gc.ca, and specifically http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/extend-worker.asp .