On April 8, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued an update confirming the change of the term implied status to maintained Status and offered additional clarification as to when you deemed to be on maintained status.

What is Maintained Status?

All temporary resident permits (visit, work, study) are issued with a condition that that holder must leave Canada at the end of their authorized period of stay. However, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, a temporary resident may apply to extend their period of authorized stay before it ends. If they have applied to extend their status before the expiry of that status, their period of authorized stay as a temporary resident is extended by law until a decision is made. This extended period of authorized stay is now referred to as maintained status and provides the applicant with legal status as a temporary resident during the processing period.

Why was it necessary to offer more clarification?

It was determined that the term implied status led to confusion amongst officers, applicants and various stakeholders.

In addition to this, in previous legislation, there was a separation between status and authorization, in that an extension of status by law did not automatically authorize a temporary resident to continue working while their application for a renewal of their work permit is in progress. To provide more clarity around the authorization to work without a permit during the processing period, IRCC offered extensive clarification to IRPR R186(u).

Section 186 (u) clarifies that for foreign nationals to continue work during the processing of their extension request, they must satisfy all of the following:

• Applied to renew their work permit before the original work permit expired;
• Remained in Canada throughout the processing (meaning they have not physically left);
• Continue to comply with the conditions set out on the expired work permit, other than the expiry date.

Why Now?

As a result of COVID 19, IRCC are working at a much-reduced capacity which in turn has led to substantial processing delays. This has led to more and more foreign nationals in Canada on Implied status. With this carried the uncertainty as to the extend they could continue their work commitments. With this additional insight from IRCC, both foreign workers and hiring companies can be sure that they are complying with the IRCC requirements.