Bill C-21, An Act to amend the Customs Act, received Royal Assent on December 13, 2018. It is expected to be fully implemented during the summer of 2020. One key result of this is the recording of a traveller’s date, time, and place of departure from Canada.
Relevant amendments came into force on June 20, 2019 at Canadian land crossings. The amendments will be implemented by June 20, 2021 at airports. Thus, by June 2026, IRCC can fully rely on the exit and entry record given that five years will have accumulated in relation to the permanent resident obligation described in Section 28 of the Immigration Refugee Protection Act.
Such records are obviously of utility for permanent resident card and citizenship applications, as well as for identifying temporary resident overstays. Thus, IRCC shall use this information for application processing purposes, and the CBSA will use these records for enforcement procedures. The phenomenon of a visitor or worker overstaying the validity of their permit and then quietly leaving Canada unannounced may give way to Canada Border Services Agency officials taking someone off a plane departing Canada to issue a Section 44 report.
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