Hi everyone. My name is Jade Calver. I own and operate Calver and Associates
Canadian Immigration Services. We're a full-service immigration firm located in
the heart of Oshawa, Ontario. It's the end of April of 2020 and we're right in the
midst of covid 19 - so it's the global virus pandemic and we're getting lots
of questions from our clients about how their immigration applications are being
affected by the covid 19 nineteen related restrictions and what they should do about it. about it
So we're here today to kind of talk about the various scenarios in terms of
travel restrictions and what that means for you and your family. So to start we're
going to kind of talk about general restrictions that have been imposed by
the Canadian government for travel to Canada. So all of the borders are
closed to travelers who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents of
Canada. It's close to all non-essential travellers and of course the government
has banned anyone showing symptoms from boarding planes to Canada and we only
have four major Canadian airports operating at this time so we
have to keep that into consideration as well.
So more importantly what my clients are most interested in is are they
affected by these travel restrictions? So there are certain exemptions to these
travel restrictions as of today's date. So I'll go through the exemptions for
temporary residents first. So those working - all temporary workers who have
an approved work permit or a letter of entry so that's the letter from
Immigration Canada saying that you're approved for the work permit - you're
actually able to fly to Canada and enter. You are actually subject to a mandatory
14-day quarantine which the government is actually following up on so you have
to follow that mandatory quarantine period but at the moment they're letting
all foreign workers with the approved work permit or POE letter in Canada.
Similarily international students who hold a valid study permit or whose study
permit was approved prior to March 18th 2020 are also able to enter Canada. So
that means most international students who have an approval will be able to
travel to Canada. There is - there are some restrictions if it was after March
18th and your permit wasn't yet approved we may have to double-check that for you
but for the most part, most international students with an approved study permit
are able to fly to Canada as well. Then lastly so permanent resident applicants
so those who have applied for permanent residency in Canada and who have not yet
completed their landing in Canada - so if you have an approval letter from
Immigration Canada you're actually able to fly to Canada now to be approved as a
resident. If for whatever reason there is an expiration date that you can't meet
on your confirmation of permanent residency document then you have to show
proof of what you can't fly to Canada maybe you can't get a flight before then
and then you have to contact your local visa office who issued your COPR in
order to extend the validity of that visa.
So that kind of covers the immigration side of things. So temporary residents
and approved permanent residency applicants and then the third part of it
so the exemptions for people who are related to Canadians.
So Immigration Canada - there are a list of exemptions of those people and it is
quite broad for family members.
So if you have a Canadian spouse or common-law partner you can travel to
Canada regardless of your immigration status for the most part in Canada.
If you are a child of a Canadian but again you have to be under the age of 22 in
order to be able to enter that's the definition of a dependent child. If you
are the parent or step parent of a Canadian or of that person's spouse or
common-law partner and lastly if you are the Guardian - legal guardian of a
Canadian you're also able to enter Canada. So again, these family member
definitions are quite broad and it's nice because it allows a lot of people
who are on super visas for example to travel to Canada and to enter the
country. So that's pretty much sums up where we're at as of the end of April
2020 in terms of travel restrictions that have been imposed by the Canadian
government due to covid 19 issues. For more updates again these things are
continually changing please get in contact with us we're online at
Calverimmigrationservices.com