IRCC contacts the expired-COPR holders for permanent residence

There are many Canadian PR candidates who received the COPR (Confirmation of Permanent Residence) before the lockdown was implemented in Canada and in the most of the countries in March 2020. Due to closed borders and travel restrictions, those candidates could not travel to Canada and the travel restrictions were extended from time to time in order to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Hence, there are many candidates whose COPR is expired and they cannot enter to Canada anymore.

Immigration candidate gets a Confirmation of Permanent Residence or COPR when they have almost completed all the steps and formalities for the PR process for Canada and now they can land in Canada and apply for the PR card.

COPR are usually valid for up to one year where the people who are moving to Canada can fulfil the obligations or complete the formalities at the country of residence which can be resigning from job, sell the property, pull out the kids from school and bid goodbye to near and dear ones and completing the other arrangements for and before moving to Canada.

Foreign national with expired COPR and PRV are not allowed to board plane to immigrate to Canada even if they are exempted from the travel restrictions. If they wish to travel to Canada, they are supposed to have an authorization letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Therefore IRCC launched a webform in July 2020 where candidates can fill the required details to submit request for an authorization letter to immigrant to Canada. According to IRCC’s assistant deputy minister, there were about 10,000 candidates with expired-COPR; authority started to contact the candidates from September 2020 and they had contacted 6000 candidates and issued 500 authorizations letter by November 2020.

In a recent update, the candidates are advised not to use webforms for the applications. The latest update from IRCC suggests that expired-COPR candidates who are ready to travel to Canada should not contact the department through webform or processing office email. IRCC will contact the clients once they are approved to come to Canada.

Many candidates with expire-COPR says that they have filled webform multiple times stating they are ready to travel to Canada. But they have received a generic response that states their file is processing. IRCC will contact them once the decision on the applicant’s file is made, but they do not give them timeline on how long it will take or when they can travel.

According to IRCC spokesperson, the department has decided to issue authorization letter individually rather than en masse given the health and safety risk. They also need to confirm that passports and medical exams are still valid, since the validity of the COPR is tied to these documents.

At this point we can hope for the quick response from IRCC but we cannot be assured as the process is slow in the current situation. Till then, wait and watch!

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For more information about immigration to Canada, contact us at inquiry@winnyimmigration.com or call us at 1800-419-3242.