Refugee Travel Document - Questions and Answers
- Thread starter rainbowbee
- Start date
I called Ircc for urgent RTD they said i need proof. I told my mom remains sick she wants to meet us. She said give hospital letter. How i can proof it she has sickness but we also want to meet her as last year we had many deaths in family we are also scared. If we dont do urgent Rtd we dont know when things will be normal and we can apply and travel. Really upset its been 4 years. Even i had bad accident and her visa was rejected .Please guide
Get a hospital note and apply for RTD on urgent basis . Write a note and explain your urgency with RTD application..
I believe you will get RTD but keep it in ur mind that dnt travel back home because due to that you may lose your protected status ..
Ya i cant travel back we will apply Turkey and my Mom will also travel there.
Thanks
Fee is paid online or certified cheque or money order. How people saying their credit card was charged on certain date.
Where to send application Ottawa or Gatineau?
Fee is paid online or certified cheque or money order. How people saying their credit card was charged on certain date.
Where to send application Ottawa or Gatineau?
thanks for your information!I created this topic to share my knowledge and experience with all of you. I will try to answer some important questions and concerns regarding travel as a Convention Refugee or a Protected Person living in Canada.
I’m not a lawyer, just a person who likes clarity. I am very proud to call Canada my new home. I want continue traveling and explore the world, but at the same time stay I want to stay mindful, and avoid doing anything wrong that would compromise my PR or Refugee status here. Some terms are below being simplified.
As most of you know, when you make your refugee claim, your passport is being seized by CIC or CBSA.
When my refugee claim was accepted I discovered that there are certain things we are not advised to do:
• Do not travel back to your home country
• Do not renew your home country’s passport.
• Do not travel on your home country’s passport, even to a third country, such as USA for example
• Just simply don’t have any contact with embassy of your home country.
All those things could put you at risk of losing your refugee status, because CBSA may interpret those actions as you no longer fear your home country, so you no longer need Canada’s protection.
I am not able to specify which law applies here and so on, but I know for sure that there are legal cases in which government took action and stripped or tried to strip person’s protection because they did one of above mentioned things.
Also it’s a matter of interpreting the law, so I think we should take those warnings seriously, it’s our lives and protection we are talking about.
If you want to get more information, I would suggest checking out Canadian Council for Refugees and other websites.
After I received a positive decision on my refugee claim, soon I applied for RTD and was able to get it. It says that the RTD validity period is determined by the issuing office. In my case it was issued for 2 years. I personally know at least four other cases, where people applied for RTD before becoming PRs and received it also for 2 years. So I guess it’s safe to assume that majority of people, before PR will get it for 2 years.
When I was applied for it, I noticed that on application form it says: “I understand that if I am issued a Canadian travel document and later obtain a passport issued by my country of citizenship, I am obliged to return the Canadian travel document to Passport Program, Citizenship and Immigration Canada.”
Obviously I started to get worried, because once I become a PR, CIC will return my national passport and in theory I must return RTD. I will have no choice, but to use my national passport to travel, but I don’t want to do that! What should I do?!
After more than two years, I got my PR interview, I got my passport back, at the end of my interview I decided to ask officer in person about my RTD dilemma.
So I did, I called them and I talked with call center agent at first, and explained my situation:
So finally after several minutes of back and forth, agent agreed to put a special call back request directly from “Certificate of Identity Section - Passport Program” located in Gatineau, QC.
Next day I received a call and talked with a senior officer from that department, I explained my situation to him and finally I got the missing peace of a puzzle.
Some important points and additional information:
• As a Convention Refugee or a Protected Person in Canada we do have a right to travel.
• In order to be able to travel internationally, we must have a valid Travel Document.
• The only Travel Document we entitled to is a Refugee Travel Document, forget about Certificate of Identity
• In order to apply for RTD you need to use an application form “[PPTC 190] Adult travel document application form”, form is universal and is used to apply for both – RTD and COI.
• After becoming a Permanent Resident, you are still considered to have a refugee status in Canada
• RTD issued for 2 years before PR and after becoming PR for 5 years
• If you got your national passport back when you became PR, do not use it, instead send it to “Certificate of Identity Section - Passport Program” along with your explanation letter
Travel Document - is an identity document issued by a government and allowing us to travel internationally. Generally, Travel Documents look like a passport-like booklets. The most common Travel Document is a Passport.
Government of Canada has a special department responsible for issuing Travel Documents for Refugees and Stateless Persons, and it’s called: “Certificate of Identity Section - Passport Program”, located in Gatineau, QC
That department is issuing two types of a Travel Documents:
1. Refugee Travel Document (light blue) (United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 and its Protocol of 1967): issued to persons in Canada with protected person status, including Convention refugees and persons in need of protection
2. Certificate of identity (grey or formerly brown): issued to permanent residents of Canada who are not yet Canadian citizens, who are stateless or who are unable to obtain a national passport.
Personally I would advise everyone including myself, travel only using RTD, we shouldn’t put ourselves at risk. Getting RTD for 5 years is a great solution and hopefully by the time we need to renew it, we will have our Canadian Citizenship
I will mention it again, I am not a lawyer, just sharing summary of my findings with you. If you have additional questions or information, you are welcome to ask and contribute.
A lot of people are told that travelling with your country passport ( not to your home country ) it's no risk to lose your PR status.
1- I travelled to european countries but NOT my country.
2- I never tried to renew my home country passport
3- Now the home passport is expired and it's time to ask for a PTD,( Im a PR ),
4- I applied at july 2020 for citizenship ; received AOR , background checked completed , citizenship test 20/20 completed.
5- Do you think i have problems? In having a PTD as a PR person? My passport had been expired and i don't want to have connection with my native country.
6- Do i risk my citizenship ? I never travelled to my country
never intend to renew the home passport?
7- please i do need a friendly answer
thanks for your information , very useful !Thank you RainbowBee for all the effort. someone had to come and put this together. very organized and instructive.
there is a gray area regarding the cessation rules. by cessation I mean revoking refugee and PR status.
I called every department involved in this. I called CIC, Passport Canada, CBSA and Refugee board. no one was able to give me straight answer. and call center agents are not very qualified to give insight in this matter.
amusing thing is that the CIC officer I had landing interview with answered me in a similar way yours did. she said: you could use your national passport to travel but on your own risk'' I asked what is the risk, she said: ''if something happens to you while outside Canada you won't be able to seek help from Canadian Embassy''
then I asked if CBSA or CIC will apply to revoke my refugee status if I used it. she said:'' no I never heard of that''
kind of a contradiction if you ask me. only thing left for me was to review cessation cases from federal court website.
I reviewed cases of people who got called in to a court hearing for using national passport or travelling back to their home country. only few got their refugee status stripped away from them and they were not automatically deported back. they are still in limbo so to speak.
it all depends on proving that you still have subjective fear, that you did not act voluntarily, whether you were fully aware of risks or not, and if your country of origin did actually give you protection when you traveled back or sought their embassy to renew the passport.
the refugee board also relies on other factors to determine whether the person should lose their refugee status, these include the duration of stay in home country, the number of time person used their national passport and whether they were justified to use it or not.
best thing to do I would say. is to stay clear from renewing or using national passport to stay on the legit side and guarantee citizenship. this is what I will do. and this is what all refugees should do
Do you know cases of troubles for PR protected persons that traveled abroad -
NOT to their native country
NOT to renew their home passports
ONLY traveled other countries with home passport
Is it a big risk?
Thanks
don't renew your home passport
don't travel to your home country
don't use your home passport , ask for RTD - protected travel document
do you know cases if a protected person got big troubles with CIC;
1- Not gone back to native country
2- Not renewed the home passport
3- BUT travelled in USA for vacation with not expired home passport
thanks
did you have troubles that used your national passport + PR card to travel ?
Did you became a Canadian citizen after or NOT?
I do have the same situation with you , please answer !