Yes these people are refugees and shouldn't use their home's passport. They should also NEVER renew or request a new passport from their country until they get their citizenship or they can risk losing everything and be deported.
Refugee Travel Document - Questions and Answers
- Thread starter rainbowbee
- Start date
I did a Google search and found the answer. Are you sure you called the embassy? It makes ZERO sense that they don't know the answer and can't get you an answer! Maybe call them back and give them their official site's URL so they can be educated
Croatia - No VISA - http://www.mvep.hr/files/file/2015/uredba-o-viznom-nn-55-2015-en.pdf
Montenegro - No VISA - http://www.visit-montenegro.com/montenegro-visa-regimes/
"Holders of travel documents issued by the EU Member-States, or the United States of America, or the Kingdom of Norway, or the Republic of Iceland, or the Swiss Confederation, or Canada, or the Commonwealth of Australia, or New Zealand, or Japan, or on the basis of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, or the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, and holders of travel documents for foreigners – may enter the country, cross the territory, and reside in Montenegro up to 30 days without a visa."
Bosnia and Herze: No VISA - http://mfa.ba/konzularne_informacije/sta_konzul_moze_uciniti_za_vas/DECISION ON VISAS - 18.12.2014.pdf
Hi everyone,
Here's my two cents - from my personal experience with RTD:
The most appropriate country for me to visit was Georgia - a beautiful place located in Caucuses. I checked their embassy web-site and found that it also can be visited by RTD without visa. I bought a ticket and was ready to go and meet with my family. And this day, when it was going to happen I was refused to fly by Turkish Airlines and my non-refundable ticket was thrown away. It occurred that I still need a visa to visit there, because I have no PR. The Georgian MFA system where I checked did not provide me this important detail. I did get lost, the right next day I was already in Ottawa, in Georgian Embassy, applied for a visa, got it and realized my desired trip 10 days later.
My main lesson learned, 1) DOUBLE check the relevant embassy about necessity of a visa for your current status, keep in mind that refugees with PR and without usually have rather different attitude 2) Avoid unsafe and less democratic countries, even for transit.
Here's my two cents - from my personal experience with RTD:
The most appropriate country for me to visit was Georgia - a beautiful place located in Caucuses. I checked their embassy web-site and found that it also can be visited by RTD without visa. I bought a ticket and was ready to go and meet with my family. And this day, when it was going to happen I was refused to fly by Turkish Airlines and my non-refundable ticket was thrown away. It occurred that I still need a visa to visit there, because I have no PR. The Georgian MFA system where I checked did not provide me this important detail. I did get lost, the right next day I was already in Ottawa, in Georgian Embassy, applied for a visa, got it and realized my desired trip 10 days later.
My main lesson learned, 1) DOUBLE check the relevant embassy about necessity of a visa for your current status, keep in mind that refugees with PR and without usually have rather different attitude 2) Avoid unsafe and less democratic countries, even for transit.
@Bakhadur - You mentioned Turkish Airline. I assume you had a transfer in Turkey as I doubt there is any direct flight from Canada to Georgia. Maybe you got refused because you didn't have proper entry documents for Turkey. I just checked Georgian web site (https://geoconsul.gov.ge/en/visaInformation) and it clearly says the below. I checked based on my nationality which requires a visa to Georgia and put Travel Document for a Short Stay obtained by Canada.
Type of Travel Document: Travel Document For Stateless Person
Duration/Purpose of visit: Short Stay
Holder of valid visa/residence permit of following country: Canada
*
VISA NOT REQUIRED
Citizens of MY COUNTRY and stateless persons permanently residing in this country (Canada) who are holders of valid visas or/and residence permits determined by the Ordinance № 256 of the Government of Georgia, may enter and stay in Georgia for 90 days in any 180 day period. To calculate the legal days left to stay in Georgia, please visit the days calculator. To enter and stay in Georgia, appropriate visa or/and residence permit should be valid at the moment of crossing the Georgian border. This should be verified with the travel document or/and other relevant document.
As you see, it does indeed say holders of Valid visas or Residence permits. To Turkish airline, that means VISA or PR card. I am sure the Georgian border would have let you in if you could get boarded.
What I always do when no visa is required: 1. Send email to the embassy and get confirmation, 2. Call the airline and ask for conformation and I record the phone call.
I once had to show the counter person the email from the embassy confirming I don't need a visa. Then she called the supervisor and all went well. You can also print out the notes from the website indicating the visa policy and bring it with you to the airport.
Type of Travel Document: Travel Document For Stateless Person
Duration/Purpose of visit: Short Stay
Holder of valid visa/residence permit of following country: Canada
*
VISA NOT REQUIRED
Citizens of MY COUNTRY and stateless persons permanently residing in this country (Canada) who are holders of valid visas or/and residence permits determined by the Ordinance № 256 of the Government of Georgia, may enter and stay in Georgia for 90 days in any 180 day period. To calculate the legal days left to stay in Georgia, please visit the days calculator. To enter and stay in Georgia, appropriate visa or/and residence permit should be valid at the moment of crossing the Georgian border. This should be verified with the travel document or/and other relevant document.
As you see, it does indeed say holders of Valid visas or Residence permits. To Turkish airline, that means VISA or PR card. I am sure the Georgian border would have let you in if you could get boarded.
What I always do when no visa is required: 1. Send email to the embassy and get confirmation, 2. Call the airline and ask for conformation and I record the phone call.
I once had to show the counter person the email from the embassy confirming I don't need a visa. Then she called the supervisor and all went well. You can also print out the notes from the website indicating the visa policy and bring it with you to the airport.
That was my mistake, I went through the web-site information only. After this refusal happened I checked directly through calling the Georgian Embassy and to their MFA. I thought that I can visit Georgia WITHOUT visa, which is possible, but only if person has PR. I have no PR yet, then I had to have a visa from the Georgian Embassy. Turkish Airlines was completely right. Anyway, I was angry on them and took my second ticket to Georgia from LOT Airlines
. Btw it was significantly cheaper than Turkish.
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.
Hi, I have Question
I am refugee claimant in Canada and waiting for a decision of hearing, my hearing date has been postponed recently because of limitation of operations, as u see in my username I missed my love , can i take Refugee Travel Document and go to a country near my home country to see my wife for a while and come back to Canada again with that document ?
1- I asked some people like my council, and he said you can take RTD but it's risky until you are not PR don't do that, you easily can go out but you can't get in easy they will prevent you to enter, or some issues like that...
is this advice is correct?
2- where I can take this RTD from ? when I call to passport Canada they said we don't provide RTD please call immigration of Canada,
I really confused??!!!
3- can i take RTD for Turkey do I need visa after that for entering to TURKEY? how long do i have permit to stay there with this kind of paper ?
thanks for any advice brothers
Last edited:
Sorry to tell you that without a notice of decision you can’t do nothing ,
About the refugee travel document here you can see everything you want
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/travel-documents-non-canadians/apply.html
@Bakhadur Thanks for sharing your experience. It always help to know about other's first hand experience. So didn't you need Turkey visa? How did Turkey handle the Travel Document? Also. you mentioned LOT, could you book directly from Canada or transit? If transit, what country and did you need a transit visa?That was my mistake, I went through the web-site information only. After this refusal happened I checked directly through calling the Georgian Embassy and to their MFA. I thought that I can visit Georgia WITHOUT visa, which is possible, but only if person has PR. I have no PR yet, then I had to have a visa from the Georgian Embassy. Turkish Airlines was completely right. Anyway, I was angry on them and took my second ticket to Georgia from LOT Airlines
Sorry you had to buy ticket twice. I hope you could get your money back.
@imissmylove I am sorry but as mentioned, you need to be accepted as a refugee first. Without that letter of acceptance, you can't apply for Travel Document. I am sure you knew this might have happened. I have been in Canada for 8 years now and haven't been back home yet. Yes I miss everyone. I even miss those who passed away including my grandmother, 2 uncles, and my 17 years old brother. This is part of the journey. Be patient.
Hi guys, I just applied for a Refugee Travel Document and planning to see my sister after years in Netherlands. I am a protected person and I don't have my pr card yet. Do I need a visa to visit Netherlands or are there any Europe countries which do not require a visa ? Some people say Germany does not require a visa if you have a Canada Refugee travel document if so, Other schengen countries souldn not require either there is no border between countries in Europe . Basically My sister said If I can go to Germany without visa they can come and pick me up by a car and drive to Netherlands.It's just 2 hours and no borders between countries, that's the whole meaning of schengen zone. I am quite confused Thanks for all the replies in advance.
1. You need a Schengen visa to visit or transit through any country in Schengen zone (Except Germany).
2. If you travel directly to Germany (Without any transit anywhere else like Iceland), you do NOT need a visa.
2. If you travel directly to Germany (Without any transit anywhere else like Iceland), you do NOT need a visa.
Thanks for your kind words.
No visa is needed for transit countries, unless a person wants to go beyond the transit area. I did not go through Turkey, I did it through Warsaw. Then, could not tell you how RTD is accepted by Turkey. As for Warsaw airport's transit area it was fine and safe.
And yes, I lost my first ticket as it was non-refundable. Back to LOT, it has a direct flight to Warsaw, which they are using as a hub. It was easy and comparatively cheap way to get that part of the world.