Permit Expiring — or Already Expired?
Two clocks decide what you can still do: the one before your expiry date, and the 90-day one after it. Here is exactly where you stand on each.
If your permit has not expired yet
Apply to extend before the expiry date and you get what IRCC calls maintained status: you may stay, and keep working or studying under your existing conditions, while the decision is pending — even if that takes months. Your acknowledgment of receipt is the proof you carry.
Two caveats people learn the hard way. Maintained status only covers the conditions of the application you submitted — a worker who applied to extend a work permit keeps working, but a worker who applied for a study permit does not keep working while waiting. And leaving Canada ends your ability to work or study under maintained status, even if you are allowed back in as a visitor.
If your expiry date is weeks away, this is the cheap, calm version of the problem. Every option is still open. That is the moment to get the extension right — not after the date passes.
If it has expired: the 90-day restoration window
Losing status is not the end of the road — for 90 days. Restoration of status lets a visitor, student or worker apply to get their status back, counted from the day status ended, or from the refusal notice if an on-time extension was later refused.
The rules during that window are strict: you may stay in Canada while the application is processed, but you may not work or study until status is actually restored. Restoration is also discretionary — the officer must be satisfied that you meet the requirements of the status you are asking for and see an honest account of how you fell out of it. A clear, well-documented explanation is most of the application.
The government charges a restoration fee for each person on top of the new permit fee. We deliberately do not print the amounts — IRCC adjusts them — but they are on IRCC's public fee list, paid directly to the government as always.
Book a free 15-minute callThe situations we see most
PGWP expired while waiting on Express Entry
The work permit ran out before an invitation arrived. What you can do next depends on exactly when it expired and what you have applied for since — the options in week 2 are not the options in week 11.
Laid off on an employer-specific permit
Your permit is tied to a job you no longer have. Working anywhere else on it is a breach, but you may still have status — what you need is a plan before the permit itself expires.
Changed school or program
Study permit conditions no longer match what you are actually doing, or the permit expired mid-program. Fixing this late is much harder than fixing it early.
Extension refused
If you applied before your permit expired, you kept status while waiting — and the 90-day restoration clock started the day the refusal arrived, not the day the permit expired.
Visitor who stayed past the authorized date
Family visits run long. A visitor who overstayed can apply to restore visitor status within 90 days — waiting and hoping is the one choice that closes doors.
Spousal applicant with status running out
Sponsorship is in progress but your own permit is expiring. Depending on the stream and timing, an open work permit application may carry you — this is worth a call before the expiry date, not after.
Past the 90 days?
The options narrow sharply, but doing nothing is the only choice with no upside. What remains — leaving Canada and applying from outside, a Temporary Resident Permit, in narrow cases humanitarian and compassionate grounds — depends entirely on your history, your family situation and what you are trying to preserve.
One warning that belongs in writing: working after your status has ended, without maintained status, is a serious breach that follows your file into every future application. If that has already happened, the answer is honest disclosure handled carefully — never concealment, which turns a fixable problem into misrepresentation.
If your situation involves a refusal, our refused application guides cover what the refusal letter actually means and what reopening a path looks like.
Why speed — and honesty — matter here
Status problems are the corner of immigration where bad advice does the most damage, because every week spent on the wrong plan burns the one resource that cannot be recovered. It is also where unlicensed "agents" are most active, selling certainty nobody can honestly sell.
We will tell you within one free call whether your window is still open and what realistically fits — and if the answer is that your case is simple enough to file yourself, we will say that too. Verify any consultant, including us, on the CICC Public Register.
Common questions
The 90-day clock does not pause
Fifteen minutes, free, no obligation. Bring your expiry date — or your refusal letter — and leave knowing exactly which window you are in and what fits.
Book a free 15-minute callRequest a callback
Tell us the essentials and a licensed RCIC will call you back. No cost, no obligation.