Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will now accept inland work permit, study permit and visitor record extension applications more than 90 days from expiration. This is due to swift and significant increases in the typical processing time for extension applications.

CIC’s informal policy in the past has been to advise against foreign nationals filing inland extension applications outside of 90 days from the date of expiry. However, CIC has confirmed to Fragomen that it now has no objection to inland extension applications being submitted earlier to account for the current processing times.

The processing time for an extension application filed online at CIC’s Case Processing Centre in Vegreville, Alberta (CPC-V) is currently 114 days – more than double the processing time in April of this year.

What this means for Foreign Nationals

Employers and foreign nationals should begin reaching out to their immigration professionals to begin extension cases at least 180 days prior to the expiration of current work permits or other temporary resident status documents, particularly those who have work permits based on Labour Market Impact Assessments.