Refugee Travel Document - Questions and Answers

[champion92_pls]

Can I apply for an eTA with a Refugee Travel Document?
Most people using a Refugee Travel Document to travel to Canada will need a visitor visa.

Exceptions:

• If you have a valid Canadian Refugee Travel document, you are exempt from both the visa and eTA requirements.
• If you are a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. and don’t have a passport, you can apply for an eTA with a valid U.S. Refugee Travel Document (I-571).

 

[Sana-umar]

Hello friends I am planning to go malaysia in January 2018 with RTD which airline is good not getting any trouble with transit give me advice thanks

 

[PeppapigUK]

Thanks Ranbowbee. You did a great job providing this very important and accurate information. I'll try to translate it to Arabic so the Arab community can benefit from it too (after your permission).

Now, I'd suggest we use this post to share our travel experience using our Travel Document. I'll be the first to share hoping others jump on board too.

I got mine last year for 2 years too. I am still not a PR. I applied for Schengen Visa and had to travel to Ottawa for the finger print to get my visa. I received the visa by mail in 2 weeks.

I traveled by air to Germany and cleared Schengen Zone with no issue. Then I traveled all around Germany using different transportation methods. I flew to Czech Republic. Rode a bus to Poland. Mini bus to Slovenia. Another bus to Hungary. Slovenia-Hungary border was the only border, they came on the bus and checked passports. Speed train from Hungary to Austria. Train from Austria to Switzerland. Train to the Netherlands. Bus to Belgium. Fly back to Canada. All went very smooth with no issue.

I might be able to try different European countries again this year. However, I am thinking of going without Schengen Visa this time to save $ but don't think the risk/reward worth it specially with all the Migration issues in Europe.

Let's hear from the others.

Dear Sir
I have very important question my son born in Turkey and we recently leaving in Canada and she has certificate of identity and we are planing to travel to Germany does she need schengen or she can travel by free?
Every people says different things I want to be sure. Please could you inform me? Thank you very much. Milana

 

[Iuliia_Canada]

Personal Background:

I am a PR in Canada, who is also a protected person. I came to Canada in 2007 as a student, went through a lot of mess, and ended up with this status. I am living alone in Canada from past 10 years and haven't been able to go back home since 2008. I was granted my residency in 2015. I have completed my undergraduate from University of Waterloo and doing my second degree from University of Western Ontario now. I have successfully established an online business and paying approximately $60k taxes every year (not joking or exaggerating).

When I chose the path to become a refugee, I was unaware of all the hardships and harsh realities associated with it. I am not a political refugee and have no serious issues back in my country. My protected person status is due to my marriage with my EX-WIFE. We are divorced now and things are slightly in my favor back home. It’s not like I do not need Canadian protection anymore. I still have fears that I might be subjected to the harsh treatment by my society due to my past marriage. Since I came this far, I decided to reach the finish line and put an end to this immigration matter once and for all.

Since becoming the protected person in early 2011, I am following up on this cessation law. Day and Night, again and again, I googled the term "refugee cessation Canada 201X". Reading articles, case laws at Canlii, recommendations by lawyers, talk of politicians and discussing it with my family and friends. Sometimes reading the same information three or four times to figure out something, which might help me see my family.

When I see other PRs, who have all the rights in Canada, I feel myself as a second-class permanent resident here. So many times, I thought to set aside my Canadian life and identity, transfer my well saved fortune back to my home country, pack my bags, renew my home country passport and say bye to this country. This doesn’t mean I came here to take unfair advantage of this country, but it’s because my mother's health.

My mom in 2014 suffered severe heart issues. When I talk to her she pretends that everything is fine, but I can feel the pain in her voice. I can imagine how badly she wants to see me before any unfortunate event happens. She knows that I cannot come back so she doesn’t try to make it a big deal that her health is a problem. This makes me cry sometimes and force me to think that does this protection and life in Canada worth it? What good is a Canadian passport if I ever lose my mom and cannot even see her face one last time. I got the Canadian refugee travel document and planned to meet my family in a third country. My mother was not able to travel so I invited my brother to meet me. I travelled to a third country in 2016 and met him there. I saw him after 8 years and it felt like a dream. After living apart for so long, for a moment it felt like I was meeting with some stranger. I asked myself, does this struggle worth it when your relationship with your own family is in jeopardy. I missed my sister’s wedding and birth of my beloved niece. She is now 4 years old and barely knows me. I missed all my family events and all the love and comfort of my home. Every night when I try to sleep, I ask myself: IS THIS A PROTECTION OR A JAIL?

10 Years passed by asking the same question to myself, and yet here I am, still in Canada writing this little story for you. I chose to write all this so that I can tell all other PR + Refugees, who are in this spiral of madness, that they are not alone. We all are going through this pain together. Some have slightly better circumstances, since they have families in Canada, and some like me suffer bit more because they are alone. However, pain is the same regardless.


I apologize for taking your time and making you read my boring story, but this might help calm down someone who is in same shoes as me.


Law and Its Implications:


I will now talk about the real stuff.

Cessation of refugee status means that a person is found to no longer need protection as a refugee. Although the possibility of a cessation application is not new, however changes in the Canadian immigration law by conservative government have made the consequences much more drastic for people who were granted refugee status and are now permanent residents of Canada. Changes to the IRPA adopted in 2012 mean that a person automatically loses their permanent residence if the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) decides that they are no longer a refugee. I strongly believe that this Draconian immigration rule was a major step backwards in Canadian immigration policy, and have increased insecurity and mental health issues in refugees.

Since 2012, CBSA has made cessation applications a significantly higher priority. In their enthusiasm to identify cessation cases, CBSA is casting an inappropriately wide net and interpreting almost any contact with the country of origin as re-availment. CBSA has been arguing that cessation should apply in cases where individuals have done no more than applying for a passport, or have made short visits to the country of origin, for compelling reasons.

By the automatic operation of the law, a decision by the IRB to cessate refugee status results in the person losing permanent residence and becoming inadmissible to Canada. There is no H & C option available to refugees for at least one year and this maybe is harsher punishment than the treatment for other grounds of loss of permanent residence. A permanent resident who does not respect the residency requirements or even commits crime has the right to an appeal before the IAD, however no such appeal is available to a permanent resident who faces the loss of their status due to cessation. The impact of a cessation decision is that a person goes immediately from being a permanent resident to being inadmissible, without any rights in Canada. They are immediately removable.


What to do:


1) Admit to yourself that you are in a luxurious Jail. Do not renew your home country passport and use it to go back home until the law in Bill C-31 is revoked or you become a CANADIAN CITIZEN.

2) Get a Canadian Travel Document and use it to see your family in some third country.

3) If you have no choice but to renew your passport to see your family (since some countries do not accept Canadian Travel Document), do not travel on it to your home country. Only use it to travel to the nearest third country to your home country (i.e. UAE, Dubai etc.). See the case law Bashir 2015.

4) If you absolutely must go back home, try getting married in Canada first. Since you can re-apply for PR using spousal sponsorship. This option is still dangerous because IRCC may argue that this is a “marriage of convenience”.

5) If you are not in a hurry, apply for your citizenship (thanks to passage of Bill C-6 in the senate) and then go back home. Your travel details in the application won’t show any visit to your home country. IRCC will not know from your application that you are a potential candidate for the cessation. When you come back and, are lucky enough, to not get clutched at the airport based CBSA screening, you will be fine. One less risk! Sometimes if you find a nice CBSA officer, he may let you go without reporting you to the IRCC.

6) If you cannot find a wife here, cannot wait to submit your citizenship application and have a real emergency, then just go back home. Family is more important than money and Canadian life. Remember, not every refugee who goes back home is caught. Some are caught at the airport, some get caught when they submit their PR Card renewal/Citizenship applications and some are not caught at all. It’s like stealing, not every thief is caught.

7) If you encounter cessation application, immediately contact the best Canadian immigrations lawyers such as Mario Bellissimo (Toronto), Erin Roth [Edelmann] (Vancouver), etc. It takes immigration approximately 2-3 years to get you out (given you go to federal courts etc.). Meanwhile, make as much money as you can and transfer it back home.

Option 5 above is my favorite. All experienced members, please comment.

Please also sign this petition I have started on the change.org.

https://www.change.org/p/honourable-john-mccallum-stop-refugees-deportation-from-canada-say-no-to-cbsa-refugee-cessation-applications

I hope, one day we will all go back home and see our families. Until then, let’s stay strong.

As I understood, you understand a lot about rules and how the system works.

I just got a PR and I got back a valid foreign passport after the interview (I am a protected refugee). I am not going to travel or renew my home country’s passport. But I need to create a power of attorney for my father to close a bank account.

Is it a risk to go to my home country's embassy and create a power of attorney? A lot of my friends did that but I am afraid to put myself at risk, but as I understood CBSA doesn't check this info

Thanks,
Iuliia

 

[knsa71]

I traveled using RTD but when I returned from Nairobi airport they stopped me from going to the plane and they said that I do not have a PR or a Canadian visa. I stayed in Nairobi airport for two days until I called the Canadian Embassy.

 

[champion92_pls]

I traveled using RTD but when I returned from Nairobi airport they stopped me from going to the plane and they said that I do not have a PR or a Canadian visa. I stayed in Nairobi airport for two days until I called the Canadian Embassy.

Oh, that's scary ...... but I think the people at the Nairobi Airport are not familiar with the RTD.

 

[knsa71]

Oh, that's scary ...... but I think the people at the Nairobi Airport are not familiar with the RTD.

Yes, that may be true

 

[Iyad717]

I just received my "Notice of Decision" and it says refugee status has been accepted and I am a convention refugee now !!!. I m so happy guys and I wish all claimants here to receive a positive feedback. I am filling out the RTD Form and have 2 questions:

1-Question 3: Under "Proof of Immigration Status", they ask for UCI Number, (Date of Issue), and (Date of Expiry, if applicable). What dates are they referring to here? I have issue/expiry dates mentioned in the refugee claimant doc, which is part of Question 6: "Docs to Support Identity". Any input on this ?

2-Have you, since your date of entry to Canada, applied for a passport or TD (or renewed for such docs) from your country of origin? If the answer is No, then please provide a detailed explanation of your reasons for not applying ? How to answer this question?

 

[Iuliia_Canada]

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.

+++++++++++++

Hello everyone!

I just got my PR and I am going to apply for RTD. I read a lot of posts about RTD and citizenship. So when I called RTD department and asked them about
1) are they going to send my passport back to me one day (because if you apply for RTD, they will take your passport). They told me - No, we will keep it, even when you get your citizenship, we are not going to send it back to you

2) they also told me if you are granted citizenship in the future, you still can't get back to my home country. If they find out about it, they will revoke the citizenship. I am surprised about it. Yes, I know that if you have PR, you can't renew your passport or go to your home country. But I was hoping that If I have citizenship, I will be able to go home one day and see my parents.

I don't understand why @rainbowbee experience is so different than mine.

Please, share your experience.

 

[Iuliia_Canada]

I just received my "Notice of Decision" and it says refugee status has been accepted and I am a convention refugee now !!!. I m so happy guys and I wish all claimants here to receive a positive feedback. I am filling out the RTD Form and have 2 questions:

1-Question 3: Under "Proof of Immigration Status", they ask for UCI Number, (Date of Issue), and (Date of Expiry, if applicable). What dates are they referring to here? I have issue/expiry dates mentioned in the refugee claimant doc, which is part of Question 6: "Docs to Support Identity". Any input on this ?

2-Have you, since your date of entry to Canada, applied for a passport or TD (or renewed for such docs) from your country of origin? If the answer is No, then please provide a detailed explanation of your reasons for not applying ? How to answer this question?

I haven't sent my application yet

 

[LoveCanada10]

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

There is no application fee for Schengen visa using Canadian RTD when applying via Danish embassy in Canada. They are responsible for giving visas for Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. This will save you $90 CAD.

 

[LoveCanada10]

@luliia_Canada What they told you is totally not accurate. When you are a citizen, you are a citizen. Your citizenship can't be taken away based on what they told you. They will HAVE to return your passport. You will be able to simply get a new passport as your current passport will most likely be expired by the time you get the citizenship or maybe not. Anyhow, don't worry.

I know more than 10 people who are refugees and now citizens. They traveled many times to their home countries using their 1st nationality and returned to Canada using their Canadian passport. Nobody questioned them or anything. They are citizens and can go anywhere they want. Simple as that.

Here is my last experience. I went to the south in December. When I returned (as always), we can't just pass but need to talk to the immigration officers. So they ask the typical questions, where I have been and for how long and if I visited my home country. He was a nice officer and he himself told me that this is a standard procedure (I know as it happens every time) and I WILL NOT HAVE TO GO THROUGH IT & CAN VISIT MY HOME COUNTRY AFTER GETTING THE CITIZENSHIP.

 

[Raja9692]

Hello,
I would like to ask about people who were sponsored by a party holding a sponsorship agreement holder such as group of 5 or a church. Are those people considered as refugees or no?considering that they have there PR as soon as they land in canada. If not does it mean that they can use their home country's passport??

 

[Akink]

Hello all
I got my rtd. I planned a trip to Montenegro. However after buying my tickets I saw that some information tells mento have a visa some not. I called the consulor but they don’t know it too. And I realized that there is bi Canadian consulate in Montenegro. What should I do guys?

 

[Miraclejj]

Hello,
I would like to ask about people who were sponsored by a party holding a sponsorship agreement holder such as group of 5 or a church. Are those people considered as refugees or no?considering that they have there PR as soon as they land in canada. If not does it mean that they can use their home country's passport??

The question you need to ask yourself is that on which ground that specific group of people were sponsored? As refugee? If it is yes, then no, they cannot use their home country's passport.