When visitors come from uk it says maximum time is 6 months but is at discretion of point of entry, what I was wondering is how long do you have to be out of the country before you can come back in not seen anything about it on the CIC website anyone have any ideas?

Maximum of 6 months which it normal, however the IO at the POE could make it less.

You can go out for a day and try and come back, better take the luggage though, there is no guarantee or readmission, it is at the discretion of the immigration officer at the border.

Presumably they will have return air tickets?

Or put in an application to extend their visitor status

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-servi...tend-visit.asp online or http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/extend-stay.asp by mail

Its a grey area, there is no set answer Im afraid. Received wisdom here is that you can skip out and come right back in and get another 6 months, but if you do it too often they will cotton on to it and put a stop to it. There are of course taxation and heathcare issues to be resolved too...

But as far as hard and fast rules go, no one has come up with any here? Its not something I would want to gamble on long term, especially if there are other factors at play (PR, spousal application etc)

But if they put in a written (not online) application to extend their visitor status - which must be submitted and received by CIC by the day before the present one expires - then they would be on implied status until such time as they got a decision on the application, thus extending their visitor status.

Presently, processing time for written visitor extentions is running at 145 days

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/temp.asp