Canada extends time to restore temporary resident status

The Canadian government has now updated its policy regarding the time to restore temporary resident status. According to the updated policy, all visitors including students and temporary workers may restore their temporary status until August 31, 2021, if it was expired or will expire between January 30, 2020, and May 31, 2021. The new policy also allows former work permit holders to continue working while their application for an employer-specific work permit is in process.

Under normal conditions, an individual gets 90 days to restore their visas but the COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions and application delays that’s why the policy has been updated. Originally, the policy was announced on July 14, 2020, and it was supposed to be valid until December 31, 2020, but in a recent update, IRCC has extended the deadline for the policy. Now temporary work permit holders whose statuses expire between January 30, 2020, and 31 May 2021 may restore it until August 31, 2021.

According to the IRCC,

This public policy, which has been in place since July 2020 but was set to expire, recognizes that many temporary residents in Canada have been affected by worldwide health- and travel-related restrictions, and may need to remain in Canada for longer than they anticipated.

IRCC statement

The policy has extended the deadline to restore temporary status for all foreign workers residing in Canada. However, only those candidates will be allowed to continue working while their restoration application is in process, who have been assessed as workers previously. This includes the candidates who had a work permit within 12 months before the application made for restoration, have a job offer and they’ve submitted an application for an employer-specific work permit application supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or an LMIA-exempt offer of employment under the International Mobility Program.

Detail eligibility requirements

According to information updated on the IRCC webpage:

1.Restore temporary resident status

In order to be eligible for restoration under the public policy, the foreign national must

A foreign national will be eligible for restoration according to this policy if they:

• Are present in Canada since their entry and their temporary resident status expired between January 30, 2020, and May 31, 2021
• Have paid the processing fee and applied for temporary resident status restoration.

 

2.Seek interim work authorization

Another part of the updated policy allows the candidates to continue working while their applications for an employer-specific work permit are in process. This is only applicable for those candidates who had their work permit 12 months before they submitted their application for temporary status restoration, they must have submitted an application for an employer-specific work permit and another to restore their temporary resident status and they must have paid all the required processing fees.

A candidate will only be eligible to work while their employer-specific work permit is in the process if they fall under the following criteria:

1. The candidate is required to have submitted an application for an employer-specific work permit which is currently in processes and another application to restore their status as temporary residents. The correct processing fee of both the applications should be paid.
2. The candidate should have possessed a valid work permit in the 12 months before they made the application to restore their temporary resident status.
3. The employer and/or occupation for which the candidate intends to work should be specified in the LMIA or LMIA-exempt offer of employment included in their work permit application described in (i);
4. The application for the public policy exemption should be made online through IRCC Webform.
5. The candidate must have requested for the public policy exemption to be applied until a decision is made on their work permit application described in (i).