Limit to total period or # of extensions of visitor visa?

[joricm]

Friends, my parents are in Canada on temporary resident visa. All 3 of my brothers are already living there and I'm about to land by Oct 2011 so we are applying for family sponsorship for our parents so we can all reunite there. My parents plan to request for extension of their temporary resident visa for as long as it takes to see the family sponsorship application approved (hopefully).

Can anyone tell me if there is a maximum period or no. of extensions for temporary resident visa?  I've heard conflicting information: 1 yr, 2 yrs, etc but I can't see anything in the official guidelines of cic.gov.ca that indicates any specific limit.

Appreciate your advise.  Thanks!

[chelley]

Not sure, I know some inland applications have taken up to 2 years or more... But CIC is a little more concerned with keeping spouses together... I'm thinking it's highly unlikely that you will get the extension to last as long as the parental track is currently taking, upwards of 5-7 years and increasing...

I could be wrong, but I think that is a major flaw in your plan...

Sorry

[scylla]

There is no official "maximum number of extensions" and this is why you haven't been able to find anything officially documented.

You can keep trying to extend their stay. Given that the sponsorship process for parents takes 5+ years and this is expected increase, chances are that their extension will be rejected sooner or later and they will have to return home. However you can certainly try to extend their visit as many times as you can.

Good luck.

[CrazyLucy]

I've extended about 4-5 times. Mostly due to bad lack of time. I didnt take into conderation how long the extention process would be and how long I asked to extend, so that made me extend quite a few times. I've been in Canada under Visitor status for 3 years now while I apply for Common-Law status. I have yet to get some kind of letter to tell me not to do it again.

[joricm]

Thanks for the replies. Sobering but, at least, good to know what we're up against.