Passport Validity expiring soon, PR/Temp Status in Canada

[iamhayer]

Trying to help if you are in same situation as me with Indian passport validity less than 6 months. Confirmed with Canadian and Indian officials, If anyone have Indian passport expiring in few days or months, Indian immigration will not stop you from departing India as long as your passport isnt expired and destination country dont need 3 or 6 months validity. Airlines may need 3 or 6 months if its not a direct flight. Best way to check is using IATA website. Airlines such as Lufthansa and KLM needs 3 months for your transit and Virgin Atlantic needs 6 months.

Couple of days ago I asked this question to few folks in forum and other than some snowflakes, got no real answer.

Link for IATA website

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/?_gl=1*clolpi*_gcl_au*MTc3NTIwMzEzMC4xNzQwMTA4Njkx*_ga*ODA2NjIyNzkwLjE3NDAxMDg2OTE.*_ga_PLLG1EY0X0*MTc0MDEwODY5MS4xLjAuMTc0MDEwODY5MS42MC4wLjA.

Canada entry response from IRCC

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) “Contact Us” service is available for the public to ask general questions about the programs and services offered by the CBSA. For privacy and security reasons, this service does not answer enquiries regarding personal or business customs cases or immigration-related situations, or third party requests. Information is provided in a general context only.

All decisions with regards to entry into Canada ultimately rest with the CBSA Border Services Officer (BSO) at the port of entry (POE). This service does not provide decisions on persons entering Canada.

The requirement of Section 16(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) states that a person who makes an application to enter Canada must produce all relevant evidence and documents that satisfies the BSO of their identity and nationality. This is facilitated by providing the BSO with a passport or other document that clearly denotes identity and nationality. The burden of proof to establish that they are admissible to Canada rests, with the person seeking entry.

A valid permanent resident (PR) card is the only proof of permanent residence status in Canada.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is the organization responsible for determining admissibility to Canada. For IRCC purposes, “passport” is defined as “an official travel document that identifies the person who holds it and shows their citizenship. A passport gives the holder the right to leave and return to the country that issued it. A passport is the only reliable travel document that all countries accept.”

As well, “valid” is defined as “legal, not expired”.

Please note that international transportation companies such as airlines, may require travellers to present a valid passport and a Canadian PR card. Canadian residents who present other documents may face delays or may not be allowed to board the plane or other conveyance.
Thank you,

Canada Border Services Agency / Agence des services frontaliers du Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0L8

Website : www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca / Site web: www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
Toll free (Canada and the U.S.A) : 1-800-461-9999 / Sans frais (Canada et États-Unis) : 1-800-461-9999
International (charges apply) : 1-204-983-3500 / 1-506-636-5064 / International (frais applicables) : 1-204-983-3500 / 1-506-636-5064
TTY (for hearing impaired) : 1-866-335-3237 / ATS (pour les malentendants) : 1-866-335-3237

 

[armoured]

Answer is as before: if you have a valid PR card and get to a port of entry via plane, you WILL be admitted. Validity remaining on your Indian passport remaining does not matter for CBSA.

The only remaining question is whether the airline will let you board the plane. We can tell you that you SHOULD be let on plane, because Canada WILL admit you.

But only you can check this with the airlines. Sometimes the question comes up of intermediate/transfer airports - the airline should know this information, same above. Most major hub airports will allow travellers transferring who remain in the international zone of the airport to transfer without a visa (usually regardless of nationality, and for the exceptions, PR card usually serves)- but we cannot tell you that for certain and we can't tell you that your airline will know this.

Contact your airline. That's the best anyone can tell you. Canada doesn't care about your passport's short validity. India doesn't. That only leaves the airlines to check with.

The only other option than that is to renew your passport.

 

[Copingwithlife]

Trying to help if you are in same situation as me with Indian passport validity less than 6 months. Confirmed with Canadian and Indian officials, If anyone have Indian passport expiring in few days or months, Indian immigration will not stop you from departing India as long as your passport isnt expired and destination country dont need 3 or 6 months validity. Airlines may need 3 or 6 months if its not a direct flight. Best way to check is using IATA website. Airlines such as Lufthansa and KLM needs 3 months for your transit and Virgin Atlantic needs 6 months.

Couple of days ago I asked this question to few folks in forum and other than some snowflakes, got no real answer.

Link for IATA website

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/?_gl=1*clolpi*_gcl_au*MTc3NTIwMzEzMC4xNzQwMTA4Njkx*_ga*ODA2NjIyNzkwLjE3NDAxMDg2OTE.*_ga_PLLG1EY0X0*MTc0MDEwODY5MS4xLjAuMTc0MDEwODY5MS42MC4wLjA.

Canada entry response from IRCC

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) “Contact Us” service is available for the public to ask general questions about the programs and services offered by the CBSA. For privacy and security reasons, this service does not answer enquiries regarding personal or business customs cases or immigration-related situations, or third party requests. Information is provided in a general context only.

All decisions with regards to entry into Canada ultimately rest with the CBSA Border Services Officer (BSO) at the port of entry (POE). This service does not provide decisions on persons entering Canada.

The requirement of Section 16(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) states that a person who makes an application to enter Canada must produce all relevant evidence and documents that satisfies the BSO of their identity and nationality. This is facilitated by providing the BSO with a passport or other document that clearly denotes identity and nationality. The burden of proof to establish that they are admissible to Canada rests, with the person seeking entry.

A valid permanent resident (PR) card is the only proof of permanent residence status in Canada.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is the organization responsible for determining admissibility to Canada. For IRCC purposes, “passport” is defined as “an official travel document that identifies the person who holds it and shows their citizenship. A passport gives the holder the right to leave and return to the country that issued it. A passport is the only reliable travel document that all countries accept.”

As well, “valid” is defined as “legal, not expired”.

Please note that international transportation companies such as airlines, may require travellers to present a valid passport and a Canadian PR card. Canadian residents who present other documents may face delays or may not be allowed to board the plane or other conveyance.
Thank you,

Canada Border Services Agency / Agence des services frontaliers du Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0L8

Website : www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca / Site web: www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
Toll free (Canada and the U.S.A) : 1-800-461-9999 / Sans frais (Canada et États-Unis) : 1-800-461-9999
International (charges apply) : 1-204-983-3500 / 1-506-636-5064 / International (frais applicables) : 1-204-983-3500 / 1-506-636-5064
TTY (for hearing impaired) : 1-866-335-3237 / ATS (pour les malentendants) : 1-866-335-3237

You can go ahead and post links from God .
I worked with an airline for close to 30 years . If the system states someone needs a valid passport with xx validity that is what they go by

Passengers think they’ll convince the airline / agent . No . I’ve seen enough passengers get refused entry , penalty slapped on.

I’ve had people showing me printouts xxxxx stating whatever . But if the airlines system states they need xxxx that is what they go by .
Because if by chance the airline gets hit with a penalty by immigration the airline has to eat that , not the passenger.
Some airlines make the agent that checked in the passenger pay it , draconian, but it is , what it is

 

[armoured]

If the system states someone needs a valid passport with xx validity that is what they go by
...
I’ve had people showing me printouts xxxxx stating whatever . But if the airlines system states they need xxxx that is what they go by .

^^This.

I will say from own personal experience (and some related knowledge):
-the big reputable airlines (my experience almost entirely with eg Air Canada and their partners or the big European airlines) generally have it together and don't make mistakes that often / their systems that tell agents what is required / what is allowed are pretty good.
-They also have and use systems that can communicate with CBSA (they have to for some things like manifests and security anyway). How actively this gets used when you're switching airlines/coming from small feeder airports/airlines, I don't know.
-Oh: very, very difficulit to get straight answer over phone these days.
-This doesn't mean that errors don't occur. Has to be handled carefully by the passenger (e.g. don't get angry).
-The easiest way for these mistakes to occur is if it's a check-in desk person with less experience (for example) when there are multiple layered permissions/restrictions. Like nationality / other status/other types of ID (visa vs PR status vs refugee travel doc for example) / transfer restrictions / passport and other doc validity requirements / etc. It's an awful nested doll of contradictory information and not always clear which take precedence (it's quite hard to write instructions that specify this precedence.)

If you get an agent who's just been told to be extra careful about passport validity remaining (because they recently had a problem and some manager told them this in ambiguous language), they can get stuck in that bit and not recognize the other (small print) exception. You can sometimes explain it to them, or the airline might have a more senior person available (the check-in people are often rent-a-desk people from an entirely different company of varying quality), or maybe a print out might encourage them to check. [Piss them off at this point though and you're out of luck.]

But it still boils down to: if the airline doesn't let you board, you're still stuck. (Note to self it'll be time to renew passport soon)

 

[steaky]

Trying to help if you are in same situation as me with Indian passport validity less than 6 months. Confirmed with Canadian and Indian officials, If anyone have Indian passport expiring in few days or months, Indian immigration will not stop you from departing India as long as your passport isnt expired and destination country dont need 3 or 6 months validity. Airlines may need 3 or 6 months if its not a direct flight. Best way to check is using IATA website. Airlines such as Lufthansa and KLM needs 3 months for your transit and Virgin Atlantic needs 6 months.

Get a direct flight if you don't want to get into the uncertainty.

 

[iamhayer]

You can go ahead and post links from God .
I worked with an airline for close to 30 years . If the system states someone needs a valid passport with xx validity that is what they go by

Passengers think they’ll convince the airline / agent . No . I’ve seen enough passengers get refused entry , penalty slapped on.

I’ve had people showing me printouts xxxxx stating whatever . But if the airlines system states they need xxxx that is what they go by .
Because if by chance the airline gets hit with a penalty by immigration the airline has to eat that , not the passenger.
Some airlines make the agent that checked in the passenger pay it , draconian, but it is , what it is

Already back in Canada, The link I posted belongs to Timatic and majority of airlines uses them as their "system" and Delta staff at airport confirmed that as well that they go by Timatic.