The way in which Canada processes applications for permanent residency continues to evolve in response to COVID-19. From virtual landing to a new permanent resident confirmation portal – the latest developments are to the end of the process in how Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship Canada (IRCC) finalise your PR status.
Virtual landings to confirm PR status
Since March 2020, IRCC have not being doing the traditional in-person landing appointments to validate Confirmation of Permanent Residency (CoPR) documents which would normally have been the final stage of the Permanent Residency (PR) process. Instead they have been completing the PR process without in-person interviews. This is sometimes referred to as virtual landing.
As of June 21st, 2021 Canada has announced that people with valid CoPRs not already in Canada will be able to travel to Canada once again to complete their immigration process. You can read more about this here.
Permanent Resident confirmation portal
IRCC now use a new online permanent residence confirmation portal to confirm permanent resident status.
This new portal should provide a better experience for people at the end of their PR application process and faster issue of new PR cards.
The PR confirmation portal is not the same at the IRCC Express Entry portal.
The PR confirmation portal is totally separate from the IRCC Express Entry portal you used to submit your application for permanent residency.
How the Permanent Resident confirmation portal works
Once IRCC approves your PR application they will send you (the principle applicant) an invitation to check if you want to use the PR confirmation portal to finalise your PR status. If you do want to use the portal, you will confirm email addresses for everyone who will need an account in the portal.
Once you’ve confirmed, IRCC will create an account in the portal for you and send you another email with a link to sign in to the portal. You can’t create an account yourself – IRCC do this for you after they’ve contacted you.
IRCC will set up profiles under the principle applicant’s account for anyone under 18 and any other dependents you chose to act on behalf of (as per the email addresses you provided on the first email).
Anyone on the application who the principle applicant isn’t acting on behalf of will have their own account created with their own username and password.
In the portal, to allow IRCC to finalise your PR application, you will need to:
- Confirm you’re in Canada.
- Provide your home address.
- Upload a photo of yourself for your PR card. This must be a digital photo or a scanned photo i.e. not a picture taken with a camera of a paper photo.
Once IRCC accepts your photo it will show in the portal and your PR card should be issued. IRCC says that you should receive your PR card within one week.
In the portal you will also be able to access your proof or permanent residency status to use before your PR card arrives.
Keep in mind that each person that you chose to have their own account earlier in the process will have their own logon for the portal so the above steps need to be done for each of them too.
When you’re invited to the portal to upload your photo and confirm your address, does this pretty much guarantee you’ve been accepted for PR status?
Hi Olivia, well whilst nothing is ever fully guaranteed in the immigration saga… if they’re asking to confirm your address and upload photos in the portal then yeah, it’s basically a done deal. Congrats! 🙂