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Refugee Travel Document - Questions and Answers

LoveCanada10

Star Member
Jan 3, 2015
103
41
noba el king said:
But what was written in the post that I should't make any contact with my national embassy so how can I renew it?
Sorry, I am confused. I thought you were asking about the Travel Document.

If you decided to renew your passport, you can do so but you have to return the RTD even if it is expired.
 

LoveCanada10

Star Member
Jan 3, 2015
103
41
Ahmed.Canada said:
Hi all..
I have one question..
I have been applied for a refugee ravel documents.. my application received in 5 Feb 2016...
and I still waiting it.. and I can see from CIC website ,that the processing time for RTD is 20 days.

Please advice me what should I do?

Thanks.
Call them. Make sure everything is OK.
 

LoveCanada10

Star Member
Jan 3, 2015
103
41
Cuba is GOOD to GO with RTD - NO VISA REQUIRED

Someone's Experience going to Cuba:

Mar 22, 2016

Yes, I made it. I was going to Santa Clara, Cuba. I had a ticket from Airtransat, their employees at the airport told me that they let me go out from Canada but I must have Canada visa from Havana when I am back to Canada. The Airtransat asked me to sign a paper to confirm that all responsibility is on myself. I signed that paper and went Cuba.

When I arrived in Cuba, another employee of Airtransat at Cuba airport called me and showed me the paper I had signed in Toronto and said you do not need to go to anywhere for Canada visa, your travel document is your passport. Everyone was respecting me as a Canadian. I happily finished my vacation in Cuba and became back to Toronto.

There was not any problem when I came back. The immigration officer at Pearson airport said welcome home.

A trave document is your passport. Enjoy your vacation anywhere you want.

Thanks
 

Ottawa-applicant

Hero Member
Apr 16, 2015
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The immigration officer at Pearson airport said welcome home.

A trave document is your passport. Enjoy your vacation anywhere you want.

Thanks
[/quote]

Good to know. thanks for sharing your experience. hopefully everyone will do the same

cheers
 

artin2015

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Oct 4, 2015
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LoveCanada10 said:
Cuba is GOOD to GO with RTD - NO VISA REQUIRED

Someone's Experience going to Cuba:

Mar 22, 2016

Yes, I made it. I was going to Santa Clara, Cuba. I had a ticket from Airtransat, their employees at the airport told me that they let me go out from Canada but I must have Canada visa from Havana when I am back to Canada. The Airtransat asked me to sign a paper to confirm that all responsibility is on myself. I signed that paper and went Cuba.

When I arrived in Cuba, another employee of Airtransat at Cuba airport called me and showed me the paper I had signed in Toronto and said you do not need to go to anywhere for Canada visa, your travel document is your passport. Everyone was respecting me as a Canadian. I happily finished my vacation in Cuba and became back to Toronto.

There was not any problem when I came back. The immigration officer at Pearson airport said welcome home.

A trave document is your passport. Enjoy your vacation anywhere you want.

Thanks
good news
did u get visa foe cuba or just ticket? i wanna go in dec this year
 

dj996633

Full Member
Jun 3, 2013
21
2
thanks for all the updates -
I have Certificate of Identity since I could not get passport. I take it works same way RTD when travelling to Cuba or Bahamas? no visa required just confirm from the airline?

Also has anyone applied for the US Visa to travel by land or air? any experiences?

thanks
 

Miura

Newbie
Apr 21, 2016
1
0
Need help! My friend PR card's category is DR which means "dependent of REF-CDA residing aboard and in canada and who have not been deemed to be convention refugee in his/her own rights" can someone explain what that'd mean? And also could my friend go back to her original country?
Thanks
 

Amoon

Member
Jul 5, 2013
19
1
Re: Refugee Travel Document -FACTS

refugee travel document is unuseful . you can't go anywhere with it . every embassy of the world will be asking you for a visa before traveling and an invitation letter from someone you know in that country !! and some countries they don't allow you to inter with Canadian travel document they don't accept it as passport ! so I want to tell anyone who becomes PR through Refugees or protected person class you can't use your national passport to travel anywhere in this earth until you become a citizen !! how come ? I don't know ! but live with it . no vacations for refugees ! . I'm in canada since 2008 I got my PR 2014 I'll able to apply for citizen in 2018 with couple years of waiting or maybe more. I'll be able to go on vacation 2020 or 2021 wow
 
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sopranotb

Star Member
Jul 18, 2015
96
15
LoveCanada10 said:
I don't know a single person which got their status revoked because of traveling back home. Yes, it was risky during Harper's government but I don't believe CIC will exercise that power now. However, I personally will never risk going back home till I get my citizenship. We sacrificed a lot and Canada welcomed us so we should respect the rules.
Balouch the Iranian lady that travelled back to Iran got her status revoked on 2015. also Kuoch the lady from Camobodia got her status revoked same year because travleed back home.. see links below.. Maybe you mean that these cases manged somehow to stay later? because for example for unknown reason Balouch discontinued her appeal at federal court of appeal.. also if you check Kuoch case she has like 4 or 5 kids living in Canada so she has strong H&C factors..
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/110226/index.do?r=AAAAAQAHQkFMT1VDSAE
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/111489/index.do?r=AAAAAQAPa3VvY2ggY2Vzc2F0aW9uAQ
 
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noba el king

Star Member
Jan 3, 2016
92
4
rainbowbee said:
I 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.
Thank you very much for these good information but there is issues I didn't understand
when you made landing interview the officer told you it was not forbidden to travel with your national passport but not favorable but the officer in refugee told you that PR may be stripped so who is right?
 
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noba el king

Star Member
Jan 3, 2016
92
4
sopranotb said:
Balouch the Iranian lady that travelled back to Iran got her status revoked on 2015. also Kuoch the lady from Camobodia got her status revoked same year because travleed back home.. see links below.. Maybe you mean that these cases manged somehow to stay later? because for example for unknown reason Balouch discontinued her appeal at federal court of appeal.. also if you check Kuoch case she has like 4 or 5 kids living in Canada so she has strong H&C factors..
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/110226/index.do?r=AAAAAQAHQkFMT1VDSAE
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/111489/index.do?r=AAAAAQAPa3VvY2ggY2Vzc2F0aW9uAQ
Are these people have canadian citizenship?
Because they are PR from 2010
If yes can any one revoked my case even I am canadian
 

Immigrant2016

Newbie
Jul 7, 2016
2
0
Hola a todos, antes que nada quisiera saber si alguien ha podido obtener visa para viajar a los Estados Unidos utilizando el RTD sin haber recibido aun la PR card?

Yo he tramitado el RTD y me fue otorgado en 10 dias, pero fui personalmente a Gatineau a dejar los papeles.

También he confimado que para viajar a Panama no se require visa, en otros paises, depende de la nacionalidad de la persona, puede que requiera o no visa. En el caso de Europa, efectivamente segun la hoja de excel confirme con algunas embajadas y no se require de visa para entrar, excepto los 4 paises mencionados, entre ellos españa. Sin embargo sería interesante escuchar la experiencia de alguien que haya viajado recientemente a Europa.

El unico problema que he escuchado es con algunas aerolineas que por desconocimientos exigen tener la PR card, pero hablando con Avianca, COPA y Lufthansa no hay problema, solo es necesario presenter el RTD.
 

rooryangel

Full Member
May 25, 2016
22
3
Re: Refugee Travel Document -FACTS

Amoon said:
refugee travel document is unuseful . you can't go anywhere with it . every embassy of the world will be asking you for a visa before traveling and an invitation letter from someone you know in that country !! and some countries they don't allow you to inter with Canadian travel document they don't accept it as passport ! so I want to tell anyone who becomes PR through Refugees or protected person class you can't use your national passport to travel anywhere in this earth until you become a citizen !! how come ? I don't know ! but live with it . no vacations for refugees ! . I'm in canada since 2008 I got my PR 2014 I'll able to apply for citizen in 2018 with couple years of waiting or maybe more. I'll be able to go on vacation 2020 or 2021 wow
I withdraw my refugee status just because of this, I have a kid living in the gulf and they don't accept RTD, I can't wait years until I got my citizenship to see her.
But FYI the Europeian countries do accept RTD.