Maintained status in Canada: how it works
Apply to extend before your permit expires and you can stay, and usually keep working, until IRCC decides. That rule is maintained status, formerly called implied status, and it carries every temporary resident through the gap between an old permit and a new one. It also has sharp edges: the wrong application type, or a trip across the border, can end it without warning. This guide sets out exactly what it allows.
Key takeaways
Maintained status (formerly implied status) lets a temporary resident stay legally after expiry if they applied to extend before the expiry date. Work rights continue only for a like-for-like work permit application. It ends on departure from Canada and on refusal, after which restoration must be sought within 90 days.
- Apply before the expiry date: even one day late means no maintained status.
- You keep the same conditions: same employer, same job, same hours, for a work permit extension or a BOWP.
- Applying for a different kind of status (study to work, worker to visitor) means you cannot work while you wait.
- Leaving Canada ends it. At the border you are a new entrant with whatever status the officer grants.
- If refused, status ends on the refusal date; apply for restoration within 90 days or leave.
What maintained status is, in law
Section 183(5) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations provides that if a temporary resident applies to extend their period of authorised stay before it ends, the period is extended until a decision is made. Section 183(6) adds that a worker who applies for a new work permit before the old one expires may continue working under the conditions of the old permit, and section 189 does the same for students. IRCC called this implied status for years and renamed it maintained status in 2022, without changing the substance. The permit in your passport has expired; your status has not.
Two things follow. Maintained status is automatic: there is no application for it and no document confirming it, only the evidence that you applied in time. And it only exists inside Canada; it is a feature of staying, not of entering.
Who gets maintained status, and what they can do while waiting
| You hold | You applied (before expiry) for | Can you stay? | Can you work or study? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work permit | New work permit (extension, new employer, or BOWP) | Yes | Work: yes, under the old permit's conditions (same employer and job) until decided |
| Work permit | Study permit | Yes | No work, no study, until the study permit is issued |
| Work permit | Visitor record | Yes | No work |
| Study permit | Study permit extension | Yes | Study: yes, under the old conditions; work under the old off-campus rules |
| Study permit | Post-graduation work permit | Yes | Work full-time if you were eligible to work off campus when you applied |
| Study permit | Work permit (other than PGWP) | Yes | Work only if the old study permit allowed it; not under the new permit until issued |
| Visitor (TRV or eTA, or visitor record) | Visitor record extension | Yes | No work, no study |
| Visitor | Work permit from inside Canada (where eligible) | Yes | No work until the permit is issued |
| Any status | Anything, but filed after expiry | No: out of status | No; seek restoration within 90 days |
Same conditions means same conditions
The travel trap: leaving Canada on maintained status
Maintained status ends the moment you leave Canada. You can return, but you return as a new entrant: the officer at the border decides what status to grant, and your pending application does not give you the right to resume work. Three scenarios cover most people.
- You are from a visa-exempt country and your old permit was employer-specific. The officer may admit you as a visitor. You cannot work until the new permit is approved; if it is approved while you are inside, you may be able to have it issued at that point, but the weeks in between are unpaid.
- You need a visa (TRV) and it has expired. You cannot board a flight back until a new TRV is issued, which can take months. People have been stranded abroad this way.
- Your new permit is approved while you are away. You can present the approval letter at the port of entry and have the permit issued on arrival. Time the trip after approval, not before.
The practical rule is simple: while an extension is pending, treat the border as closed unless a licensed representative has looked at your specific situation. Flagpoling, the old practice of driving to the US border and turning around to get a permit issued, has not been available for work and study permits since December 2024, so it is not a way around this.
How to protect your maintained status
- 01
Diarise the expiry date and apply at least 30 days before
IRCC recommends 30 days; we prefer 60. The application must be received, not just started, before the expiry date. An online submission timestamp is your proof.
- 02
Apply for the right thing
If you need to keep working, apply for a work permit, not a visitor record 'to buy time'. The type of application you file determines what you can do while waiting.
- 03
Keep the proof together
Acknowledgement of receipt showing the submission date, fee receipt, a copy of the application, and your expired permit. Employers, health plans and licensing bodies will ask.
- 04
Do not change the conditions
Same employer, same job, same location, same hours, until the new permit is in your hand.
- 05
Do not leave Canada
Or take advice first. A funeral abroad is a real dilemma; a holiday is not worth your status.
- 06
Watch the decision
Check your account and the tracker. A refusal ends maintained status on the date of the letter, and the 90-day restoration clock starts then.
What happens if the application is refused?
Maintained status ends on the date of the refusal. From that day you are out of status and must either leave Canada or apply for restoration of status within 90 days. Restoration is a new application: you pay the restoration fee in addition to the permit fee, you must show you still meet the requirements of the status you seek, and, critically, you cannot work or study while it is processed. Refusals are often for fixable reasons: a missing document, an expired LMIA, a job that no longer matches the permit. A representative who reads the refusal letter and your GCMS notes can usually tell whether restoration is realistic or whether leaving and reapplying from abroad is the cleaner route.
Maintained status and the road to permanent residence
Most people who ask about maintained status are somewhere on the temporary resident to permanent resident path, and the same rule protects them at each step. A worker whose PR application is in process uses a bridging open work permit, filed before the current permit expires, to stay on maintained status and keep working. A graduate applies for the PGWP before the study permit ends and works full-time while it is processed. A sponsored spouse files the spousal open work permit with the inland application. In every case the only unforgivable error is the date. Days in Canada on maintained status count as authorised stay for the Canadian Experience Class, provided the work was under the conditions of the old permit, and they count as temporary resident days toward citizenship.
Compliance note. Wild Mountain Immigration is a licensed RCIC practice (CICC R706497). This page explains the general rules in IRPR sections 183 and 189 as of August 2026. Individual situations turn on the exact permit conditions and dates; get advice on yours before acting.
Frequently asked questions
What is maintained status in Canada?
Maintained status, called implied status until 2022, is the rule in section 183(5) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations that lets a temporary resident stay in Canada legally after their permit or visitor status expires, provided they applied to extend or change it before the expiry date. Your status, and the conditions attached to it, continue until IRCC decides the new application.
Can I keep working on maintained status?
Yes, if you applied for a new work permit before your old one expired and you keep working for the same employer under the same conditions as your old permit. If you applied for a different kind of permit, for example a study permit, you cannot work while you wait. If you applied for a visitor record, you cannot work at all.
Can I travel outside Canada on maintained status?
You can leave, but maintained status ends the moment you do, and you cannot rely on it to re-enter or resume working. You will be assessed as a new entrant at the border and, if you need a visa or your permit application has not been decided, you may not be allowed to work, or to enter, until it is. In practice: do not leave Canada while an extension is pending unless you have taken advice.
How long does maintained status last?
Until IRCC makes a decision on the application you filed before expiry, however long that takes. If the application is approved, the new permit takes over. If it is refused, your maintained status ends on the date of the refusal, and you normally have 90 days to apply for restoration, without the right to work, or to leave Canada.
What if I applied after my permit expired?
Then you never had maintained status. Applying after expiry means you are out of status from the day after the expiry date. You may be able to apply for restoration of status within 90 days, paying the restoration fee on top of the permit fee, but you cannot work or study while restoration is processed.
Does maintained status apply to study permits?
Yes. A student who applies to extend a study permit before it expires can continue studying under the old conditions. A student who applies for a post-graduation work permit before the study permit expires can work full-time while waiting, provided they were eligible to work off campus at the time of application. That transition is covered on our PGWP page.
Can I work while my bridging open work permit is processed?
Yes, if you applied for the BOWP before your current work permit expired. Maintained status keeps your existing conditions in force, so you continue with the same employer until the BOWP is issued, at which point you can work for any employer.
How do I prove maintained status to an employer or a province?
Your expired permit plus proof that the extension was submitted before the expiry date: the acknowledgement of receipt with its date, the fee receipt and a copy of the application. Employers can also ask IRCC to confirm. Keep these together, because provincial health plans, driver licensing and banks may ask too.
Expiry date closer than you would like?
A licensed RCIC can file the right application in time and tell you exactly what you may do while IRCC decides.