Many individuals know that people who are exempt from the requirement to obtain a Temporary Resident Visa can apply for a Work Permit at a Canadian Port of Entry. What many do not realize is that this extends to people from any country who are returning to Canada after a trip to the United States. Specifically, r. 190 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations states that: (3) A foreign national is exempt from the requirement to obtain a temporary resident visa if they are seeking to enter and remain in Canada solely (f) to re-enter Canada following a visit solely to the United States or St. Pierre and Miquelon, if they (i) held a study permit or a work permit that was issued before they left Canada on such a visit or were authorized to enter and remain in Canada as a temporary resident, and (ii) return to Canada by the end of the period initially authorized for their stay or any extension to it; We have made available for purchase on this blog an internal CBSA Memorandum from March 8, 2007, addressing this issue. The price for this document, which was obtained through an Access to Information and Privacy Act request, is $6.95. Our … Read More
Enforcement Flag Removal Policy Change
Many people entering Canada find themselves at customs being constantly referred to secondary examination. There, they are often told by the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA“) that their referral to secondary examination was the mandatory result of an enforcement flag being on their file. Referral to secondary examination is time consuming. Unnecessary referrals are a burden on both travellers and CBSA. Because of this, CBSA was traditionally quite facilitative when it came to individuals requesting that an enforcement flag on their file be removed. As a supervisor from the CBSA explained to me in an e-mail, enforcement flag removal works as follows: The flag removal process doesn’t delete information, it merely closes the connection between the immigration database and the integrated system on the primary inspection line on that specific client. The process is not visible to the naked eye – I use this analogy: You get a lamp for a wedding present from “her” mom. You hate it. It’s a motion sensor lamp and it is hardwired into the wall. You can’t get rid of it, you can’t unplug it, you can’t take the light bulb out but you want the thing to stop lighting up every time you … Read More
Removing Flags at the Port of Entry
I was recently asked where one can learn how to request that an “enforcement flag” against them be removed so that an individual does not have to go to a secondary examination every time they enter Canada. This is actually a question that comes up rather frequently, so for all those who are interested, here is the relevant section from the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Manual: There are other ways to remove enforcement flags where the procedure outlined above is not working.
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