Hi, as the title suggests, I overstayed therefore I have an illegal status here in Canada. I have no plans to put any efforts to better my situation. So therefore I'm turning myself in to the Immigration office. I wanna go home. But my question is, what will happen to my bank account? Will they freeze it or will they not ask about it? Thank you.
Overstayed in Canada
- Thread starter bradae
- Start date
You can simply leave Canada. There is no requirement to turn yourself in to anyone.
As said above, I would simply withdraw your money and close the bank account.
You have probably been in Canada 8-10 years now and have not been able to renew your home country passport as you have been living without status. If this is the case, apply for an emergency travel document/passport by reaching out to the embassy of your country, book a flight, withdraw all your money and go home.
If you want to turn yourself in, you can just flagpole or approach CBSA at airport. They may or may not put you in detention depending on your passport situation. If CBSA deports you, they will pay for your flight but if you ever were to come back, you will have to pay it back. Good luck.
Thank you for the response. But is that as simple as it is? My guess is my embassy would not give me a travel document, They will instead turn me over to the immigration office. And I think the airport would report me once they found out that I don't have legal papers instead even if I'm able to get a emergency travel document. They won't let me board the plane and would have to get in touch with the CBSA first and then they will call my embassy and ask to get me a travel document. Don't you think?
About my bank account, I can't cash it all out. It's too many. I can still access it when I get home and once I get there I will transfer the money to my local bank account. My only concern is, will the immigration communicate with my canadian bank account and ask to freeze my account since I earned it without having no record of employment. I did a cash-based work and I just deposited it to my bank. Or will they ask if I have any bank accounts at all? Is it non of their concern? Thank you.
Note; My passport is expired.
Sorry I couldn't find the right forum to post my situation. Since I am a former foreign worker, I posted it here. My passport is expired. To answer your question as to why I think I should turn myself in, I believe I can't just board the plane without being asked for any valid IDs even if I'm able to get an emergency travel document from my embassy. Since all my IDs are expired, they will probably hand me over to the immigration first and go on from there and let the situation take its course..
Get your passport updated and just leave. Canada doesn’t check your id on the way out. Just need valid passport to board the plane.
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You are way overthinking this.
Canada has no exit controls.
Go to your embassy / consulate, explain your situation, and get a temporary / emergency travel document. Once you have a temporary / emergency travel document, you will be able to board a plane.
CBSA does not freeze bank accounts. You need to go talk to your bank and find out if you will still be able to withdraw money once you are outside of Canada.
I hope you're right. I guess it's different now. Because the last time I travelled by plane within Canada they asked me for my ID, work permit and passport.
Sorry I didn't tell y'all that I can't access my money in the bank because my debit card is expired I couldn't renew it coz I couldn't present a valid id and I don't have enough money to buy a plane ticket so I was thinking if I turn myself over to immigration they might give me a free flight but I'm also worried that they might detain me first. And who knows how long will they detain me. I heard you can be detained for months.
The others are right. Reach out to your embassy or consulate—they can help you with travel documents and updating your passport. If you have the funds, it’s a good idea to take care of everything you can now. If you trust someone back home, see if they can help you with transferring money, but do this right before you leave. Either way, talk to your bank. You don’t need to share too much; just let them know you’re moving and ask how to access your money from home and so they know there's no fraudulent activity if you try to transfer funds. Make sure to withdraw some cash and load some onto a prepaid debit card for your travels. The airport wouldn't let me pay my bag fees with cash last time, just a heads up.
You should talk to your embassy and let them know all of this. You should at least contact them to update your passport so you can have a valid ID to access funds in your bank. But, if you don't have enough funds regardless of being able to access it or not, you should call your embassy and tell them this maybe they or they know of some organizations who can assist you.
Well that's a problem. Renewing my passport will take time cos it has to be processed back home and have to be shipped to Canada. The shipping time will take atleast a month. I already informed my landlord that I'm leaving coz I don't have enough money anymore to pay a monthly rent. But I will certainly talk to my embassy eventually.