On this episode, Steve and Deanna discuss the effect of cross-border travel on the validity of a visitor record. The question is: do they become invalidated by travel outside Canada? The topic was raised by Tamara Mosher Kuczer in episode 140, in which she reported an uptick in visitor record extension refusals due to prior invalidation of the original visitor record.

After that episode several listeners asked us to expand on the topic.

The scenario, and what is occuring, is this.

A family enters Canada, with the parents receiving three-year work permits and the children granted three-year visitor records.

After one year, the family travels abroad for a month. Upon their return, the Canada Border Services Agency stamps the children’s passports but does not issue new visitor records or indicate an extended stay.

Before the parents’ work permits and the children’s visitor records expire, the family applies to extend their status.

IRCC approves the parents’ work permit extensions but informs the family that the children’s visitor records were automatically canceled when they left Canada. IRCC explains that upon re-entry, the children were only granted a six-month stay because CBSA did not issue new visitor records or mark an extended date in their passports.

While the parents’ new work permits are approved, the children are ordered to leave Canada.

Tamara Mosher Kuczer is the Founder & Principal Lawyer of Lighthouse Immigration Law Professional Corporation. She can be found on Twitter @ttrrmk.

Deanna and Steve discuss some practice tips and resolutions for 2025, including going back to a world of online applications with the end of flagpoling, focusing on practice areas that one likes, using artifical intelligence, client interactions and getting out of one’s shell and embracing the broader community.

Shezan Muhammedi is an Acting Assistant Director at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and an Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Carleton. He is the author of Gifts from Amin – Ugandan Asian Refugees in Canada.

In 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of nearly 80,000 Asians, predominantly of Indian descent, giving them just 90 days to leave the country. Many of these individuals, whose families had lived in Uganda for generations, were stripped of their assets and forced to flee. Canada, under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was one of the countries that responded by welcoming approximately 7,000 Ugandan Asians.

Meera Thakrar is a Partner at Larlee Rosenberg, Barristers & Solicitors. Her father was one of the Asian Ugandans expelled by Idi Amin.

Shezan is continuing to collect the oral histories of Ugandan Asian expellees as part of a study. If you would like to share your story with him please contact ShezanMuhammedi@cunet.carleton.ca