By Nicholas Keung Toronto Star June 15, 2026

Applications for “dummy” permit extensions doomed from the start can allow for more time in Canada. They’re also further increasing processing times.

Desperation is sparking a growing phenomenon among temporary residents that’s complicating Ottawa’s plan to cap their population and reduce Canada’s nagging immigration backlogs.

Stuck in the pipeline for permanent residence, some migrants are filing what are known as “dummy applications” to extend their stay in the country, knowing that the applications are baseless and would get refused. They know they can maintain their status while a decision is pending, and current lengthy application processing helps.

According to the Immigration Department, the number of extension applications for visitor status and work permits grew significantly in the last five years, from 167,955 to 275,905 and from 442,715 to 1,039,275, respectively. That’s not surprising, given the surge of international students and foreign workers admitted to Canada after COVID.

But new data also showed the refusal rates for visitor extensions have doubled from six per cent to 12.1 per cent, with work permit extension refusals up from 6.5 per cent to 10.1 per cent.

While it’s not known how many extension applications in the system are unfounded, experts believe the soaring refusal rates can be attributed in part to the rising number of dummy extensions and in part to the tightened scrutiny by immigration officials.

These applications, with little substance or chance to succeed, are contributing to the growing immigration queue. In the first quarter of this year, there were 2.15 million immigration applications to be processed in the system; 865,000 were for temporary residence, 38 per cent of which were deemed backlogged for exceeding the service standards.

Amid job cuts at the Immigration Department, these applications further strain processing times — 312 days for visitor and 201 days for work permit extensions as of the end of May — and provide more incentive for people to file one.  

“It buys time,” said Calgary-based immigration lawyer Mark Holthe. “That’s what drives the ship.”

A change of plans

Canada issued a record number of visitor, study and work permits in 2022 and 2023, and nearly 1,940,000 of them are slated to expire by the end of this year — with another 1,039,840 in 2027.

Sherwin Dsouza is among them.

But with his job and experience in health care, the 23-year-old was confident it was just a matter of time before he would get his turn for permanent residence.

For a long time, he resisted the idea of filing a dummy application because he knew it would be rejected and he didn’t want a refusal record on his file.

In 2021, Dsouza came from India to study at Centennial College in Scarborough, got his postgraduation work permit and was hired as a pharmacy assistant. He entered the draws for skilled immigrants but his score didn’t make the cutoff and his work permit expired in early April.

“I had plans that I would get my permanent residence through the health-care category,” said the Oakville resident. “My parents are worried about what’s happening right now. I was doing so well in this country and now just because of a permit issue I would have to go back. All parents want to see their children flourish, right?”

With no invitation for permanent residence in sight, Dsouza reluctantly applied for a new work permit even though he knew he wouldn’t meet the criteria. He is also retaking the English test to improve his language proficiency score while hoping the immigration cutoff thresholds would come down.

Are dummy applications legal?

It’s technically legal but improper for people to submit dummy applications, said Toronto immigration lawyer Lou Janssen Dangzalan.

“It’s a live issue because a lot of people are doing it,” he said. “Because of the processing delays, because of a convergence of factors, this bulge of people whose permits are about to expire, that means you’re creating a perfect storm where people are going to exploit this weakness in the system.”

A year ago, Ottawa introduced new rules to stop people from perpetually benefiting from “maintained status” by filing one dummy application after another. Now, if a person applies for another extension while the first extension was pending, once the initial request is refused, their subsequent application will also be refused. 

“They’re trying to find every way possible to not allow people to benefit in a substantive way from filing a dummy permit,” Holthe said. “But there’s nothing stopping people from doing it.”

Refused applicants may still apply to restore their status, though they must stop working while waiting for the restoration decision, he added. 

While normal extension processing times remain long, Dangzalan said that in March he started noticing quicker turnarounds for refusals on applications that are incomplete and not supported, within three months of filing.

“I suspect because of advanced analytics, they’re able to identify which applications are incomplete,” he said. “They are relentlessly processing it faster than the normal process.”

Families left in tough positions

Udara Wahalathanthri, a temporary foreign worker from Sri Lanka, applied to extend his work authorization in February after waiting over a year for the processing of his family’s permanent residence application under the home care worker program. He knew the chance of getting a new work permit was slim because he lacked the required paperwork. 

The extension was refused this month, and the couple had to stop working.

“This has left my family in an extremely difficult position,” said the 41-year-old Calgary father of two. “Our family has built our lives in Canada. We have worked hard to contribute to our communities. Today, however, we find ourselves unable to work, unable to support our family, and uncertain about what will happen next.”

The Immigration Department said applicants must meet eligibility and admissibility requirements. If a person “directly or indirectly” misrepresents their information, the application will be refused and the individual could face a five-year ban from Canada. 

“Applicants who are seen to be exploiting Canada’s immigration system may be subject to additional scrutiny in subsequent applications,” it said in an email.

Polina Sezen came in 2023 to study at Niagara College. Instead of going for a one-year postgraduation work permit, she obtained a three-year work permit under Ottawa’s one-time policy to offer temporary refuge to those already in Canada from the regions in Turkey devastated by a massive earthquake. She has worked in logistics here but her work permit is expiring in September.

Like other temporary residents, Sezen is exploring all possible legal ways to prolong her Canadian dream. She’s banking on Ottawa to renew the special policy for Turkish earthquake victims and trying to get an employer-sponsored work permit. She even looked into getting a study permit for an MBA but she would need to give up her job and it would be too costly.

To boost her immigration score, she has started learning French. If all fails, her last option is to apply for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, given her two-year-old daughter was born in Canada and the family is well integrated here. But that would be a long shot, with a processing time beyond 10 years.

“It’s people’s lives they are putting on pause,” said the 33-year-old Toronto woman. “That is going to take so long. To be honest, we are not sure we are going to go ahead with it.”

Both Dangzalan and Holthe said they sympathize with the temporary residents whose lives are caught up in the abrupt changes in Canada’s immigration landscape.

“Sometimes your best strategy is to retreat,” said Dangzalan. “A retreat is not defeat.”

Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/desperate-temporary-residents-in-canada-are-using-this-tactic-to-extend-their-stays-it-may-no-longer-work/article_8a6a0247-c212-476d-a897-000dcd7da533.html