Refugee Travel Document - Questions and Answers
- Thread starter rainbowbee
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Recently travelled to Bermuda on RTD and PR card with no issues. Coming back to Canada had to wait in a separate room and the immigration officer just asked me if I returned to my home land and obviously I had not then I was free to go. Will this happen every time I travel out and return?
Depends on how close your home country is to Bermuda.I Believe they do that randomly as some people do go back to their home countries through neighbouring countries.
Thanks for your response, I’m from Africa and this was my first time using RTD.
If your home country is close to where you traveled to, yes they’ll keep asking and probing. They can go as far as checking your phones and bags.
Looking for some help... trying to complete the application form and want to clarify with you all successful applicants:
1. The form asked for if I visited another country since my entry to Canada. I came and gone a few times but I never travelled after putting in my refugee request - so should I answer no or are they asking for my complete travel history even before I applied for refugee status and the many times I entered Canada?
2. Did you all have a guarantor in the listed occupations that you know for more than 6 months or did you have to use the PPTC 326 Statutory Declaration in Lieu of a Guarantor? If so, what ID did you provide? I only have BC driver's licence and the Refugee Claimant Document as my ID. Is that okay? Has anyone tried?
Please help!! Thanks in advance!
1. The form asked for if I visited another country since my entry to Canada. I came and gone a few times but I never travelled after putting in my refugee request - so should I answer no or are they asking for my complete travel history even before I applied for refugee status and the many times I entered Canada?
2. Did you all have a guarantor in the listed occupations that you know for more than 6 months or did you have to use the PPTC 326 Statutory Declaration in Lieu of a Guarantor? If so, what ID did you provide? I only have BC driver's licence and the Refugee Claimant Document as my ID. Is that okay? Has anyone tried?
Please help!! Thanks in advance!
From my experience, yes the 'secondary screening'/going to the separate room at the airport will happen every time- but the questions they ask you will depend on the officer and it may not be the same questions every time.
I have an RTD since 2022, I have traveled outside of canada 5 times all of the locations are very far from my home country and only 1 officer asked me if I had been back to my home country. The others asked where I'm coming from, how long I went for and some other variation of that question.
1. In the application they ask for your date of entry to Canada- so this question would be based on the timeline since you declared entering Canada. I dont think it is related to when you applied for refugee status or that is not how I understand it
2. I had a guarantor, the firs one was my immigration lawyer and the second one was my family doctor
I had same issue in August, but you should understand one important thing, when you call and ask to IRCC the give you answer based on what they see in system. Remember, your application is paper, so only Ottawa Ircc knows the real stage. Be patient!
This is my 2nd Travel Document that i applied, No PR yet. I applied for my RTD on the 31st Oct 2025, it was received in Ottawa on the 5th Nov 2025, showed up in the system on the 7th Nov 2025 and today i just called them to ask for the status and they gave me a tracking number for Canada Post and said that the RTD was approved on the 3rd December.
Nice. Very interesting and informativeI created this topic to share my knowledge and experience with all of you. I will try to answer some important questions and concerns regarding travel as a Convention Refugee or a Protected Person living in Canada.
I’m not a lawyer, just a person who likes clarity. I am very proud to call Canada my new home. I want continue traveling and explore the world, but at the same time stay I want to stay mindful, and avoid doing anything wrong that would compromise my PR or Refugee status here. Some terms are below being simplified.
As most of you know, when you make your refugee claim, your passport is being seized by CIC or CBSA.
When my refugee claim was accepted I discovered that there are certain things we are not advised to do:
• Do not travel back to your home country
• Do not renew your home country’s passport.
• Do not travel on your home country’s passport, even to a third country, such as USA for example
• Just simply don’t have any contact with embassy of your home country.
All those things could put you at risk of losing your refugee status, because CBSA may interpret those actions as you no longer fear your home country, so you no longer need Canada’s protection.
I am not able to specify which law applies here and so on, but I know for sure that there are legal cases in which government took action and stripped or tried to strip person’s protection because they did one of above mentioned things.
Also it’s a matter of interpreting the law, so I think we should take those warnings seriously, it’s our lives and protection we are talking about.
If you want to get more information, I would suggest checking out Canadian Council for Refugees and other websites.
After I received a positive decision on my refugee claim, soon I applied for RTD and was able to get it. It says that the RTD validity period is determined by the issuing office. In my case it was issued for 2 years. I personally know at least four other cases, where people applied for RTD before becoming PRs and received it also for 2 years. So I guess it’s safe to assume that majority of people, before PR will get it for 2 years.
When I was applied for it, I noticed that on application form it says: “I understand that if I am issued a Canadian travel document and later obtain a passport issued by my country of citizenship, I am obliged to return the Canadian travel document to Passport Program, Citizenship and Immigration Canada.”
Obviously I started to get worried, because once I become a PR, CIC will return my national passport and in theory I must return RTD. I will have no choice, but to use my national passport to travel, but I don’t want to do that! What should I do?!
After more than two years, I got my PR interview, I got my passport back, at the end of my interview I decided to ask officer in person about my RTD dilemma.
So I did, I called them and I talked with call center agent at first, and explained my situation:
So finally after several minutes of back and forth, agent agreed to put a special call back request directly from “Certificate of Identity Section - Passport Program” located in Gatineau, QC.
Next day I received a call and talked with a senior officer from that department, I explained my situation to him and finally I got the missing peace of a puzzle.
Some important points and additional information:
• As a Convention Refugee or a Protected Person in Canada we do have a right to travel.
• In order to be able to travel internationally, we must have a valid Travel Document.
• The only Travel Document we entitled to is a Refugee Travel Document, forget about Certificate of Identity
• In order to apply for RTD you need to use an application form “[PPTC 190] Adult travel document application form”, form is universal and is used to apply for both – RTD and COI.
• After becoming a Permanent Resident, you are still considered to have a refugee status in Canada
• RTD issued for 2 years before PR and after becoming PR for 5 years
• If you got your national passport back when you became PR, do not use it, instead send it to “Certificate of Identity Section - Passport Program” along with your explanation letter
Travel Document - is an identity document issued by a government and allowing us to travel internationally. Generally, Travel Documents look like a passport-like booklets. The most common Travel Document is a Passport.
Government of Canada has a special department responsible for issuing Travel Documents for Refugees and Stateless Persons, and it’s called: “Certificate of Identity Section - Passport Program”, located in Gatineau, QC
That department is issuing two types of a Travel Documents:
1. Refugee Travel Document (light blue) (United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 and its Protocol of 1967): issued to persons in Canada with protected person status, including Convention refugees and persons in need of protection
2. Certificate of identity (grey or formerly brown): issued to permanent residents of Canada who are not yet Canadian citizens, who are stateless or who are unable to obtain a national passport.
Personally I would advise everyone including myself, travel only using RTD, we shouldn’t put ourselves at risk. Getting RTD for 5 years is a great solution and hopefully by the time we need to renew it, we will have our Canadian Citizenship
I will mention it again, I am not a lawyer, just sharing summary of my findings with you. If you have additional questions or information, you are welcome to ask and contribute.
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