My spouse already received his passport request letter and it is urgent. He must submit it in 5 days. Now, the problem, as we didn't see this happening this soon, he has a flight Canada within that 5 days. Can he still be virtually landed even if he has already a passport request? I know the letter says that virtual landing is possible but if you are currently in Canada. In his case, he is not in Canada yet, but he will be in couple of days. Any thoughts?
My thought is that generally IRCC is not
terribly strict about these deadlines - at least where it comes to short periods.
So while I think it might be more
certain to change his flight and submit passport there, it would
probably work to come to Canada and then ask for virtual landing.
BUT - and this is a VERY big but - there are a couple reasons I think it would be FAR superior to change the flight and submit passport wherever he is. First and foremost is the certainty - IRCC certainly
could decide that he didn't submit in time and didn't advise so ... cancelled.
The second reason is actually more likely to convince you, though: the virtual landing process (specifically scheduling) can take some time. Like, months. And with no clarity on exaclty how long, esp for those who have rescheduled/changed to internal like your spouse.
In contrast: if he stays, submits passport right away, he'll get the passport back in (usually)_ 2-3 weeks, and then when he travels to Canada, he 'lands' (administratively)_ and becomes a PR right away. THe process is done. He can work the next day.
It's up to you and him. If there's some reason he absolutely must travel in five days, life and death, whatever - it's up to you. If it were me, I'd change/cancel the flight even if I had to buy a whole new ticket.
