This covers visitor visas for tourism or family visits, the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa, and restoration of status if a temporary stay has lapsed. Each has its own document and eligibility requirements set by IRCC.
Time-limited status in Canada for visiting. Studying and working have their own pages.
This covers visitor visas for tourism or family visits, the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa, and restoration of status if a temporary stay has lapsed. Each has its own document and eligibility requirements set by IRCC.
Temporary residence is permission to be in Canada for a defined period and a defined purpose. Visiting is the most common form: a visitor visa (formally a temporary resident visa) is a document placed in your passport that lets you travel to a Canadian port of entry and ask to be admitted.
One point causes more confusion than any other: a visa is not permission to enter. It lets you board a plane and present yourself. A border services officer makes the actual admission decision, and they decide how long you may stay. If nothing is stamped in your passport, the default is usually six months.
The Super Visa is a separate thing from a normal visitor visa, and worth knowing about specifically if you are inviting parents or grandparents — it is designed for much longer stays per visit, with its own requirements around insurance and the inviting family member's finances.
This is what an application on this route usually involves. It is not a checklist that guarantees anything, and IRCC sets the actual requirements, which change.
Whether it fits you specifically is exactly what a consultation is for. This page cannot answer that, and does not try to.
Each route below is run by the Government of Canada, and its official page is the authoritative source for current requirements. Links go directly there.
For tourism, visiting family, or short business trips, where a temporary resident visa is required.
A long-validity visa for parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, with its own separate requirements.
Where a temporary stay has lapsed, there is a limited route to restore status. It is time-sensitive, which is the main reason to raise it early.
Patterns that cause avoidable problems. None of this is advice about your own case, and avoiding all of it still does not decide an application.
The visa lets you travel and ask to be admitted. The officer at the port of entry decides admission and duration. People regularly plan around a visa's expiry date, which is not the same thing as their authorised stay.
Applications are not decided on your schedule, and an application is not a decision. Paying for flights and accommodation in advance creates pressure that does not improve the outcome.
Visitor applications are assessed partly on whether you are likely to leave at the end of the stay. Employment, studies, family and property at home are the evidence for that, and a bare application with none of it is a common refusal pattern.
Restoration of status exists but is time-limited and not guaranteed. The window is short, so a lapse is a reason to get advice immediately rather than to wait and see.
It depends on your nationality and how you are travelling. Some passport holders need a temporary resident visa, others an electronic travel authorisation, and the rules differ for air travel versus arriving by land or sea. IRCC publishes the current requirement by country.
A border services officer decides this at the port of entry. Six months is the usual default for visitors when nothing else is stamped or written in your passport, but the officer can set a shorter or longer period.
There is a process to apply to extend as a visitor, and it should be started before your current authorised stay ends. Applying after it has ended is a different and more difficult situation.
No. Visiting is its own status. Working or studying requires the appropriate permit, and doing either without one is a status breach that affects future applications.
Official Government of Canada sources for everything described above. These are the authoritative statements of the requirements; this page is a plain-language summary of how the route works.
A few minutes of general questions, reviewed before you speak with the RCIC-IRB directly.
Start Your AssessmentThe assessment form is general information only. It does not give you an eligibility conclusion.
This page is general information. It is not an assessment of your eligibility, and nothing on it is immigration advice for consideration. Temporary Residence matters at ZIMMR are advised on directly by Irshad Osman, RCIC-IRB.
Verify on the CICC public register