THEBOLD

Hello, can someone give me advice. I applied for a visitor extension whilst travelling around canada. I did this online and opened up a CIC account assuming any immediate contact would be put through that. They did contact me through this (3 times) to let me know it had been passed to vancouver, then victoria where at the time we were staying. Last communication was february. I applied december as my expiry was the 30th january.

My extension has been refused (letter sent june to previous address). The immigration person assumed I had gone home so did not need an extension as she could not contact me by my cell which i no longer have. They assumed i had gone home as we have made an outland application. In the outland application we told them we were on holiday in canada but reside in the UK.

The immigration officer has told me because she has refused it she cannot now restore that decision. I either have to pay $200 for restoration of status or go to the states, which i dont want to do for other reasons.

That's the background. Now the question. The decision made we are assuming is the date on the letter the 15th june. We have 90 days to restore that decision. We are going to mexico and directly back to the UK. Are we within our rights just to stay and not bother to pay the $200. We were going in october to mexico but will go earlier. We don't want to break any rules. In her letter she has stated this decision would not affect our immigration application.

Also why don't then contact you by email. A simple email which we have been waiting for since december could have avoided all of this. She said she had to get permission through CIC to contact us through email. Why do they bother asking you to open a CIC account when they dont contact you directly through that. Seems crazy. Because of this it has caused us so much worry and further expenditure if we choose to restore the status. Take note it is telephone that they contact you through not email if it goes to a local office.

We could challenge them but dont want to rock the boat. Advice please.

BrennaBoo

As far as I know you have 90 days to apply for restoration of your status...those 90 days start when your original status expires. So - 90 days from the 30th of January....April 30th?

I am currently waiting the response of a restoration application, my husbands visa was up in febraury we had till around the end of may to get the restoration filed. We applied via the paper route so as not to mess anything up, so we are still waiting on that decision.

BrennaBoo

We were never contacted directly by phone or anything during our visitor extension application that was refused - just a letter stating it had been denied and our options to either leave the country or apply for restoration.

Have they managed to get any paperwork to you??

PMM

Hi

1. It is actually 90 days from the date of the refusal letter to apply to restore status.

Siouxie

According to the regulations:

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/r...7/page-60.html

Extension of period authorized for stay

(5) If a temporary resident has applied for an extension of the period authorized for their stay and a decision is not made on the application by the end of the period authorized for their stay, the period is extended until

(a) the day on which a decision is made, if the application is refused; or

(b) the end of the new period authorized for their stay, if the application is allowed.

Continuation of status and conditions

(6) If the period authorized for the stay of a temporary resident is extended by operation of paragraph (5)(a) or extended under paragraph (5)(b), the temporary resident retains their status, subject to any other conditions imposed, during the extended period

and http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/r...e-60.html#h-84

Restoration of Temporary Resident Status
Restoration

182. On application made by a visitor, worker or student within 90 days after losing temporary resident status as a result of failing to comply with a condition imposed under paragraph 185(a), any of subparagraphs 185(b)(i) to (iii) or paragraph 185(c), an officer shall restore that status if, following an examination, it is established that the visitor, worker or student meets the initial requirements for their stay and has not failed to comply with any other conditions imposed.

So, if I am reading correctly, your 90 days begins on the date stamped on the refusal letter.

BrennaBoo

Yes, what we read on our refusal of visitor extension letter, it had clearly stated we had 90 days from the expiry of his status to apply to restore his status.


Here is what the CIC website says about restoration


"You may seek restoration within 90 days after your status as a visitor, student or worker has been lost, if you have only failed to comply with one or more of the following conditions:
•You lost status because you remained in Canada longer than the period authorized for your stay (but not longer than 90 days)
•You changed employers, type of work, or location of work without applying to change these conditions if they were specified on your visitor record. (Applicable to those workers not requiring a work permit).
•You changed the type of studies, educational institution, location of studies, or times and periods of studies without applying to change these conditions on your study permit if they were specified on your study permit
•You continue to meet the initial requirements for your stay and have not failed to comply with any other conditions imposed.

You have committed an offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act if you have not abided by the conditions that were imposed when your entry was authorized.You may voluntarily leave Canada or you may be subject to an admissibility hearing that could lead to removal from Canada. Your temporary resident status in Canada will have been lost.

You may wish to complete an application to apply for restoration of temporary resident status but there is no guarantee that your application will be accepted. On your application you must provide full details of all the facts and circumstances that resulted in you committing the offence.

There is a fee for extension of temporary resident status. However, the regular fee for temporary resident status is not required if applying for restoration. Restoration applies to each member who has lost his or her status.

An officer will evaluate your request for restoration of status and you will be advised of any further action to be taken."

THEBOLD

hi thanks for replying. we just got a letter stating why they had refused it. this was sent to our previous victoria address and also to the uk address. they have not asked us to leave by a certain date. just said it had been refused as we dont need it as we are in the UK. which is all wrong. we spoke to the officer and she said she tried her best to contact us. well she didnt contact either victoria or the uk address. she just made a decision assuming we had left because the cell was dead and we had made an outland application. she then sent us this letter. so we are really cheesed off. sheer common sense is all it needed.

PMM

Hi


CIC isn't your mother. You didn't keep CIC informed of your addresses or whereabouts. At least they tried to contact you at more that one source. Usually, one chance then it is on to the next application.

parker14

Like you said in your post, they thought you had left! That tells you they have no idea where you are, in or out of Canada. Just stay, they will never know and you'll be fine.

THEBOLD

hi, i know CIC isn't my mother. They had our address in victoria at a friends where we stayed for 3 months when we applied for the extension. They never at any time sent correspondence there to ask us did we still want the extension, as they assumed we had left because of the outland application. They never at any time tried to contact us anywhere. They just made a decision based on our cell phone not answering. We also informed them to communicate with us by email as a preferable contact method as we were travelling around Canada. Since December we have had 6 addresses. Should we have changed this each time we moved for a few days or a month. They had our email through the CIC initial application for extension. They bothered to communicate through that to let us know they had received it and where it had been forwarded to. We assumed if they wanted information they would contact us through that. That would make more sense than the snail mail and the postal strike to boot. There is no direct phone line to Victoria either you can only fax. We did contact central CIC as it was taking a long time. They just said wait till you are contacted and assume you can stay till then. So even they knew from their records in May that we were still in Canada.
I know it's a busy office, we appreciate that. Just an email or a letter to our last address in Victoria would have saved this headache for them and us. Let's face it they made a decision on no facts at all

THEBOLD

hi thanks for your reply. They now know we are still here. We are going to fight this decision based on their incompetence. They will not get a further $200. It is not our fault. cheers

THEBOLD

hi this has been really helpful. I have just cut and paste into a return letter to them and will fight this. thank you.

THEBOLD

hi thanks for your advice.

BrennaBoo

No problem that information is located on the cic website,you may want to go there instead of printing it off of a message board.

I don't how you will be able to fight if you aren't within 90 days of the expiry of your preliminary 6mos stamp. I would be careful if you are applying outland and you are in the country out of status... We were denied our extension all over a silly stamp...we were told even though they had our tickets, enough funds and proof of ongoing applicaiton without a clear copy of the stamp in his passport they couldn't do anything to fix it, and even though they knew that was our story...THE ONLY WAY TO RESTORE my hubbies status is to pay the 200 bucks and suck it up.


Needless to say, I hope things work out for you, but be careful if you are going through any kind of PR application, don't want to mess that up just over a miscommunication.

BrennaBoo

Yes PMM!

to be honest with you thebold, you were lucky they even contacted you - we just got a rejection letter.

I still dont understand when your visitor stamp ran out...if it was in January, you way late on the whole 90 days for restoration.