Canadian permanent residents stranded abroad

This is where expired COPR holders are currently stuck. As of October 19, IRCC has responded to 2,700 principal applicants who filled out a webform. Of these, 120 have received their authorization letters.

When immigration candidates get a confirmation of permanent residence, or COPR, and a Permanent Resident Visa (PRV), it means they have completed almost every step of the Canadian immigration process. All they have to do is land in Canada and apply for their permanent residence card.
COPRs can be valid for up to one year. People use this time to resign from their jobs, sell their property, pull their kids out of school, say goodbye to their families, and complete the other arrangements they need to make before settling permanently in Canada. However, foreign nationals with expired COPRs and PRVs cannot board a plane, even if they are exempt from travel restrictions. This rule has existed before the pandemic. In order to travel to Canada, they need an authorization letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). So, IRCC launched a webform in an effort to process the sudden influx of people in this situation. The new online process was launched in July, 2020.
As of October 19, IRCC has responded to 2,700 principal applicants who filled out a webform. Of these, 120 have received their authorization letters.
In response to the completed web form applicants receive a generic Emails that say, “the responsible office” will contact you “if further information is required or if a decision is made on your application.” The email replies also include links to other online government resources, but no timeline on when he can expect to make travel arrangements.
This long process has created frustration for many who are stuck in their home countries for so long, or separated from their family in Canada , or simply for those who received the confirmation of permanent residency post March 18,2020
Prior to the pandemic, Canada regularly welcomed over 20,000 new permanent residents per month but it has not been able to reach this threshold since February. This is partially due to COPR holders exempt from the travel restrictions not being able to secure IRCC authorization letters to complete the landing process in Canada, and secondly, due to Canada imposing the travel restrictions on those who obtained their COPRs after March 18.
COPR holders who were approved after March 18 can travel to Canada if they are travelling from the U.S. to settle and live in Canada. But, if they are travelling from anywhere outside the U.S., they can only come to Canada if they are exempt from travel restrictions under another category, such as immediate family members.
This had a devastating impact in the early months of Canada’s travel restrictions with immigration levels plummeting in April to perhaps Canada’s lowest since the Second World War. Meanwhile, the number of COPRs expiring increased due to future permanent residents being stranded abroad. Since then, the number of COPRs expiring per month has declined, which could be a function of IRCC’s permanent residence processing slowing down, resulting in fewer new COPRs being issued than prior to the pandemic, hence fewer are expiring.

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