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Soft-landing on a COPR during COVID: what IRCC expected and how to handle an expired COPR

Canada • Express Entry • immigration 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Documents Needed

  • Confirmation of PR (COPR)

    Central document; extensions during COVID required showing genuine settlement intent.

  • Detailed travel plan

    IRCC asked applicants to submit a concrete travel plan when requesting a COPR extension.

Step-by-Step

Context: during the COVID period IRCC actively discouraged "soft landing" (entering briefly just to activate PR, then leaving). This guide summarizes how the group navigated it.

  1. Expect to justify your trip. If you wrote to IRCC to extend an expiring COPR, they wanted details of a confirmed travel plan and evidence you intended to travel to Canada to settle permanently, not just soft-land.

  2. Expired COPR holders should write to IRCC with a detailed travel plan and then wait for instructions before booking.

  3. At the border, members reported that CBSA officers were wary of travelers who appeared to be staying only a short time — the intent to settle needed to be credible.

  4. If you weren't ready to settle, several applicants chose to wait and request an extension once conditions improved rather than force a soft landing.


Note: this reflects COVID-era IRCC guidance and is best read as a historical account of how applicants handled COPR extensions during travel restrictions.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Do: Write to IRCC with a specific, confirmed travel plan when asking to extend a COPR.
  • Don't: Don't present a short in-and-out trip — IRCC discouraged soft landing and CBSA looked for genuine settlement intent.
  • Tip: If you're not ready to settle, waiting and requesting an extension can be safer than forcing a landing.

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