is USA visa a travel document?

[sriramprani]

for Question 14 a
"have you held travel documents and or passports during your eligibility period"

1. Do we need to list the USA visa that we held during the eligibility period along with our Passport number?
2. Do we need to ist the landing document number which we used to travel to Canada?
3. Do we need to list the PR card number that we used to travel in and outside Canada during our eligibility period?

 

[Stef.]

No to all three- at least in the old forms. None of the above are per se travel documents. You cannot use them on their own to travel but you are required to combine them with a valid passport. Yes you can enter Canada with the PR card alone but yu are required to have the passport on you just in case they want to see it.

 

[kateg]

A travel document is something that you can use as a basis to come to Canada. There are a few things that count.

By law, the PR Card and PR Travel Documents are considered travel documents. Refugees also get travel documents, and Canada issues them to Stateless people. Emergency Travel Documents are issued when a Canadian loses their passport.

For Canadian Citizens, NEXUS is a travel document (if you are coming from the US) - it's proof of citizenship and identity. The same is true for FAST cards for Canadian truckers. For Permanent Residents, NEXUS is not a travel document - you are supposed to have a travel document with you, since you can have NEXUS without having a lawful status.

Work and Study permits are travel documents - they can serve as the basis for travel to Canada without an eTA, if they are issued after August 1, 2015, and are accompanied by another travel document.

Temporary Resident Visas, like the PR Travel Document, attach to your Passport, and are considered travel documents.

IRPA R52 sets out what Temporary Residents can use as travel documents:

• Passport issued by a country you are a citizen or national of
• Travel document issued by same
• Any document issued by a country issued to non-citizens, refugees, or stateless people
• A UN laissez-passer
• A Palestinian Authority Passport/Travel Document
• Organization of American States travel document
  
• UK British Overseas passport
• UK British National or Hong Kong passport
• UK British Subject passport

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2002-227/section-52.html

 

[Stef.]

A travel document is something that you can use as a basis to come to Canada. There are a few things that count.

By law, the PR Card and PR Travel Documents are considered travel documents. Refugees also get travel documents, and Canada issues them to Stateless people. Emergency Travel Documents are issued when a Canadian loses their passport.

For Canadian Citizens, NEXUS is a travel document (if you are coming from the US) - it's proof of citizenship and identity. The same is true for FAST cards for Canadian truckers. For Permanent Residents, NEXUS is not a travel document - you are supposed to have a travel document with you, since you can have NEXUS without having a lawful status.

Work and Study permits are travel documents - they can serve as the basis for travel to Canada without an eTA, if they are issued after August 1, 2015, and are accompanied by another travel document.

Temporary Resident Visas, like the PR Travel Document, attach to your Passport, and are considered travel documents.

IRPA R52 sets out what Temporary Residents can use as travel documents:

• Passport issued by a country you are a citizen or national of
• Travel document issued by same
• Any document issued by a country issued to non-citizens, refugees, or stateless people
• A UN laissez-passer
• A Palestinian Authority Passport/Travel Document
• Organization of American States travel document
  
• UK British Overseas passport
• UK British National or Hong Kong passport
• UK British Subject passport

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2002-227/section-52.html

Purely out of interest: where does it say that a permanent resident card is a travel document on its own without a passport?

My understanding was that you need to use the residence card with a passport, at least carry one with you when you cross the border?

Thanks for the links.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Purely out of interest: where does it say that a permanent resident card is a travel document on its own without a passport?

My understanding was that you need to use the residence card with a passport, at least carry one with you when you cross the border?

Thanks for the links.

1. You are correct, a PR card and PRTD are not travel documents, they are just evidence of status.

 

[dpenabill]

You are correct, a PR card and PRTD are not travel documents, they are just evidence of status.

See Section 31(3) IRPA which specifically refers to the PR Travel Document as a "travel document" (to be issued to PRs without a "status document" if specified conditions are met).
see http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-2.5/page-8.html#h-20

The PR TD is also referred to specifically as a "travel document" in IRPA Regulation 259 (a) (referring in turn to Section 31(3) in the Act).

Notwithstanding this, my sense is not referencing a previously issued PR TD in response to item 14 should be NO problem. (See further observations about "travel documents" below.)

By law, the PR Card and PR Travel Documents are considered travel documents.

In contrast, the PR card is not referred to as a "travel document," even though it is listed as one of the "prescribed documents" which can be used by a PR, in conjunction with a valid passport or other travel document, to obtain permission to board a flight destined for Canada.

IRPA refers to the PR card as a "status document." IRCC also refers to the PR card variously, including "Permanent residence document" and "immigration document." While it is a "prescribed document" for purposes of boarding a flight to Canada, that does not make it a travel document, particularly since it only suffices as a prescribed document for this purpose when presented with a valid travel document.



Otherwise:

"Travel document" is a term itself used variably. Sometimes as a specific term in reference to certain documents with specified legal characteristics, in both statutes and regulations, as well as in formal government information. Oft times it is employed pursuant to a more general usage.

For purposes of the discussion here, the crux of the issue is what sort of documents does IRCC consider a "travel document" in the context of how this term is employed in the form and instructions for making a citizenship application.

Most visas (perhaps excluding temporary visitor visas) must be disclosed in Item 13, or at least the "status" conferred by the visa; certainly this is so for any visas giving an individual status for permanent residence, or to study or work in a country, all of which must be disclosed.

My sense is that item 14 is not asking for visas of this sort, unless they are stand alone documents which one could use in traveling from one country to another. And as long as all visas (other than visitor visas) are disclosed in response to item 13, it should especially be OK to not include those in response to item 14.

 

[JSPCAN]

Hi Seniors,

On current passport (valid from 2014 till 2024) I have a Canada Visitor Visa which is valid till expiry of the passport (till 2024)
Should I mention it in Question 14 (Passport and Travel Documents) of CIT 0002 (10-2020) E

Best Regards
JSPCAN

 

[nerd]

A visa is NOT a travel document.
A passport is.