Maintained status (formerly "implied status"): where you stand while a decision is pending

Implied status is now maintained status, and the Regulations use neither

IRCC used to call this period implied status. In April 2021 the department announced it was replacing "implied" with "maintained" across its public pages and program delivery instructions, and its glossary entry is now maintained status. The reason IRCC gave is the point this page turns on: implied was a carry-over term from the previous legislation, whereas under the current Act and Regulations the status is extended by operation of law, so calling it "implied" caused confusion. What it describes has not changed.

IRPR s.183(5) reads:

Subject to subsection (5.1), if a temporary resident has applied for an extension of the period authorized for their stay and a decision is not made on the application by the end of the period authorized for their stay, the period is extended until (a) the day on which a decision is made, if the application is refused; or (b) the end of the new period authorized for their stay, if the application is allowed.

No new status appears anywhere in that sentence. What is extended is the period, the one that already existed.

So where does that leave your status? The next subsection answers it directly. IRPR s.183(6) says that where the period is extended under (5)(a) or (5)(b), the temporary resident retains their status, subject to any other conditions imposed, during the extended period.

The distinction is not pedantry. Treat it as a new status and you will assume it comes with its own set of rights, so that whether you can work, or leave and return, follows from that "status". In fact none of the original conditions have loosened, and whether you can work is governed separately.

IRCC's glossary still carries implied status, but only as a cross-reference pointing to maintained status; the definition that used to sit under it has been taken down. So the old phrase will still find you the right entry. Just do not read it as a status of its own.

The trigger: filed before expiry, undecided on that date

There are two points in time in the provision, and both must line up. The application has to have been filed before the authorized period ends, and no decision can have been made by the time it does. File after expiry and s.183(5) does not apply at all; that situation is covered in the 90-day restoration window.

One category is excluded. The opening words of s.183(5) are "Subject to subsection (5.1)", which refers to a person subject to a declaration under IRPA s.22.1(1). That is a declaration the Minister makes on their own initiative, on public policy grounds, that a foreign national may not become a temporary resident; it lasts for a period the Minister sets, up to 36 months. It is an uncommon situation.

There is also a date that is not in the Regulations but printed on the permit. IRCC states that where a work permit carries a "Must leave Canada by" line, status expires on that date, even where it is later than the permit's own expiry date. When you are working out whether you filed "before expiry", that is the date to read, not just the permit validity field.

How long the extension runs

Two branches. If the application is refused, the period runs to the day the decision is made. If it is allowed, it runs to the end of the new authorized period.

How long that is depends on when the decision comes. For current processing times, use IRCC's processing times tool.

Whether you can keep working

This is the part most often assumed rather than checked. It has its own provision, IRPR s.186(u), which authorizes work:

until a decision is made on an application made by them under subsection 201(1), if they have remained in Canada after the expiry of their work permit and they have continued to comply with the conditions set out on the expired work permit, other than the expiry date

Two requirements, and neither is optional: you have remained in Canada, and you have kept complying with every condition on the expired permit apart from the expiry date itself. Change employer, occupation or work location and this provision no longer applies, whatever is happening to the period.

The renewal application it refers to, under s.201(1), itself has two requirements: it must be made before the work permit expires, and the applicant must have complied with all conditions imposed on their entry into Canada.

This provision covers work permit renewals. Other permit types are not within it.

How the authorized period is set, and when it ends

The default is six months, or another period an officer sets based on three things: the temporary resident's means of support in Canada, the period they applied to stay for, and the expiry of their passport or travel document.

It begins, for someone authorized to enter and remain temporarily, on the day they first enter Canada after that authorization.

It ends on the earliest of: the day they leave Canada without having obtained prior authorization to re-enter; the day a work or study permit becomes invalid (where someone holds both, the day the second one becomes invalid); the day a temporary resident permit ceases to be valid under s.63; where biometrics are required, the day ten years after they were last provided; or the day the period set under s.183(2) ends, where none of the others apply.

Note the qualifier on the first of those. It is not that any departure ends the period; it is departure without prior authorization to re-enter.

Things worth settling before expiry

Three separate calculations sit behind this, each with its own rule: which date your status actually expires on, whether the extension provision is engaged at all, and whether work authorization continues.

They also interact. Leaving Canada without authorization to re-enter affects both the period and the work authorization. Changing employer leaves the period alone but ends the work authorization under s.186(u).

Getting any of them wrong produces no immediate signal. By the time it surfaces, the rules that apply are the other set.

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