Extending the Validity of Visas

[shariq123]

I have heard from everyone here that CoPR deadlines cannot be extended at any cost. However I was reading the Operational Manuals of CIC and this is what's written in Section 5.28 of the CIC Operational Manual:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op01-eng.pdf

5.28 Extending the validity of visas
The validity of a permanent resident visa may not be extended. Nor can replacement visas be issued with a new validity date. If foreign nationals do not use their visas, they must make a new application for a permanent residence visa.

They must also pay a new application processing fee. If they have paid a right of permanent resident fee (RPRF), they do not need to pay it again. The RPRF may be collected only once.

Sometimes, due to factors beyond their control, applicants receive visas that are valid for less than two months. If they cannot travel before their visas expire, officers should update whichever requirement (e.g., medical) was used to set the visa validity. When a new validity date has been obtained, a new visa will be issued.

The most important bit is the last paragraph. So if we have a case where the medical expiry is less than 2 months away from the receipt of the CoPR document, there is a case for the applicant to extend his visa by undergoing another medical. Am I right in deducing this?

 

[shariq123]

That seems like a correct assumption.

However, note the phrase "beyond their control". If, for example, an applicant chooses to do their medical way before receiving an ITA and submitting an application, and this results in a visa validity of less than two months, it could be argued that this was not beyond their control.

I think the above situation only applies if CIC is responsible for the delay. E.g., a candidate obtained the medical shortly before submitting an application, and then CIC took 10 months to process the application. In this case, it was beyond the applicant's control, and the visa could be extended.

Note that in the few cases that I have seen, the applicants were actually asked by CIC to re-do the medical before a visa was even issued.

I think if all my documents are correct, I might be one of those who would be asked by CIC to undergo another medical before a visa is issued. This is because of my timelines. My medical expires on 15th May 2017 and I submitted my e-APR on 13th November 2016. So let's say CIC takes exactly 6 months to reach a decision on my application. That would mean the date would be 13th May 2017. It's daft to assume (I think) that CIC would tell me to travel in the next 2 days (i.e. before the expiry of my medical). If that happened, I would definitely be appealing the decision based on clause 5.28 of the CIC Operational Manual.

 

[shariq123]

Of course they wouldn't ask you to land within 2 days. In this case, you will have to re-do the medical, and as I mentioned above, they wouldn't even issue a visa, but ask you to re-do the medical before a visa is issued.

What could happen, however, is that CIC takes only 4 months to process your application, which means you would have 2 months to land in Canada. I don't think you will have a good chance to appeal this, because CIC exceeded their processing time and it was you who chose to obtain the medical way before you received an ITA, despite CIC's instruction to the contrary. That was not outside of your control.

If this happened, I wouldn't muck around with appeals and legal avenues which is very risky and can be expensive. If you're not yet ready to move, bite the bullet and travel to Canada for a couple of days to activate the visa and then return to your home country. This guarantees you won't lose your visa, whereas taking a chance on your interpretation of an operational manual is very risky.

I get what you're saying. However my case is unique. I couldn't undergo another medical after receiving my ITA in November because of 2 reasons:

1) My existing medical was valid for more than 6 months at the time of e-APR submission, albeit only by a couple of days, so my medical center wasn't allowing me to take another medical because the medical in the system was valid. They said they can't upload another medical in the system when the previous one is still valid.

2) When I got my ITA, my wife was only 5 weeks pregnant. So there is no chance we could've done a medical as the OB-GYN did not allow us to undergo a chest x-ray. So I had no option but to use my previous existing medical in this case.

So I think I have a just case under clause 5.28.

 

[shariq123]

And you're absolutely right. I would politely ask if they could consider extending my visa validity due to my unique situation, however if they don't I will definitely go for a couple of days, do my landing and then come back.