Restoration of Status in Canada: What to Do If Your Permit Expired

If your temporary status in Canada has already ended, restoration is the application that asks IRCC to give it back. IRCC must receive it no more than 90 days after your status expired. Miss that window and the official instruction is to leave Canada and apply again from outside.

There is one thing to be clear about before anything else, because it is the point people most often get wrong.

Restoration is not maintained status, and the difference decides whether you can work

These two are constantly confused, and the consequence is serious.

Maintained status applies when you apply to extend or change your permit before it expires. IRCC states you are legally allowed to stay in Canada while it processes that application, and you may keep working or studying under the conditions of your old permit.

Restoration applies when you apply after your status has already ended. IRCC is explicit here: you may stay in Canada while a decision is made, but you are not allowed to work until your status has been restored and a new permit issued. The guide for this application says the same about studying.

So someone who keeps working during restoration because a friend on maintained status kept working is working without authorisation. That is a separate problem on top of the expired status.

How the 90 days is actually counted

IRCC sets out the mechanics, and they differ by how you file:

• Online. The application must be submitted before midnight UTC, no more than 90 days after your status and permit expired. IRCC notes that its system runs on coordinated universal time, so the deadline in Edmonton is not midnight local.
• On paper. Applications are stamped the day they arrive at the case processing centre. If one arrives after the 90 day period, IRCC counts back 7 days and uses that as the date received.

What IRCC asks of a restoration applicant

Its published conditions are that you apply within the 90 days, that you met the requirements of your stay, that you met the conditions on the permit that expired, and that you are not a temporary resident permit holder. The application guide also asks you to give full details of the circumstances that led to the loss of status, and evidence of how you will support yourself.

There is a named exception. A foreign worker applying for an open work permit who holds an open work permit support letter from a participating province or territory, confirming placement in that province's Provincial Nominee Program pool or inventory, is exempt from the 90 day limit and from the requirement to have met the conditions of the expired permit.

Points that catch people out

• Each person applies separately. If family members in Canada have also lost status, each files their own application and pays their own fee. IRCC states there is no group or family rate.
• Order matters. If your permit and status have both expired, you restore the original status first, then apply for a different permit. IRCC gives the example of a former student who wants a post-graduation work permit: restore student status first.
• There is no guarantee. IRCC states plainly that if the application is refused, you will have to leave Canada.
• Maintained status has its own gaps. While on it you cannot renew a provincial driver licence or health card, or get a social insurance number card.

One warning about searching this topic yourself: a 2020 pandemic-era notice on canada.ca is still online and still indexed. It allowed work while restoration was pending and extended the deadline. It expired at the end of 2020 and contradicts the current rules. Check the date on any page you land on.

Restoration is time-limited and unforgiving about the date. If your status has ended, the useful question is how many days ago, and it is worth answering today rather than next week. Our help inside Canada page covers the routes that exist from within the country.