Direct answer
To extend a work permit in Canada, you must file an extension application online with IRCC before your current permit expires. If you submit on time, you benefit from maintained status (formerly called implied status): you can keep working under the same conditions throughout processing, as long as you stay in Canada. The base fee is 155 CAD, plus 100 if you are asking for an open permit. If the expiry date passes without a filing, you lose your status, must stop working immediately, and have 90 days to apply for restoration (239.75, with no right to work in the meantime). Plan several months ahead and always confirm the current rules on Canada.ca.
Why an extension needs months of preparation
If there is one date every foreign worker in Canada should know by heart, it is the one printed on their work permit. Your entire administrative life in Canada is organized around it: your right to work, obviously, but also things people think about far less. Your temporary social insurance number carries the same deadline as your permit. Your provincial health coverage, your driver's licence in some provinces, sometimes even your lease or your car financing can be tied, directly or indirectly, to the validity of your status.
Before we go any further, a point that matters to me: I am an independent writer, not a lawyer or a regulated immigration consultant. What I share here comes from my research and from countless stories gathered over the years. For your personal situation, the authority remains Canada.ca, and where needed, a licensed professional.
A countdown almost everyone underestimates
Extending a permit is not a chore you knock out in one evening. Depending on your situation, you need to gather documents, sometimes wait for your employer to complete their own steps, then sit through the processing of the application. Each of these stages takes time, and some of them do not depend on you at all. I have seen too many people realize six weeks before the deadline that their employer first had to obtain a fresh authorization on their side, and that the calendar no longer added up.
What is really at stake around the expiry date
Understand the core issue clearly: in Canada, a temporary resident's right to work flows entirely from their document. The day the permit expires without an extension application having been filed, that right ends, immediately and completely. There is no grace period during which you could keep working "just while things get sorted out". Conversely, an application filed on time triggers a very well designed protective mechanism, maintained status, which makes all the difference between a calm transition and a crisis. That mechanism is what I explain next, because it sits at the heart of any extension strategy. For the general foundations of the system, my guide to the work permit in Canada remains the best starting point.
Maintained status: your safety net during processing
Where maintained status comes from, formerly "implied status"
The principle is simple and rather generous. If you file your extension application before your current permit expires, the law considers that you keep your temporary resident status, under the same conditions, until IRCC makes its decision. For years, this was called "implied status". The government then adopted the term "maintained status", which is truer to reality: your status does not disappear and then reappear, it is maintained without interruption.
In practice, this means you can keep working under the same conditions as your expired permit: the same employer and the same position if you held a closed permit, any eligible employer if you held an open work permit. And that holds for as long as processing lasts, even if your paper permit has shown a past date for months.
The conditions to benefit from it
Two conditions, and only two, but they are absolute. First condition: the extension application must have been submitted before the permit expired. The day before is legally enough, though I strongly advise against cutting it that fine. Second condition: you must stay in Canada. Maintained status is a mechanism internal to the country, one that protects the continuity of your stay, not a travel document.
On the evidence side, hold on carefully to the acknowledgment of receipt for your application and the receipt for the fee payment. These are what prove, to your employer as to any authority, that you filed on time and that you are on maintained status. Many employers know this mechanism poorly: do not hesitate to send them the official Canada.ca page that explains it, as it defuses plenty of anxiety in the payroll department.
What maintained status does not cover
This is where caution is needed, because maintained status has precise limits. It maintains your existing conditions, it does not create new ones. If you held a closed permit, you cannot use the processing window to change employer or position: you remain bound by the conditions of your old permit until the decision. If your application aims to change conditions, you cannot apply the new conditions ahead of time.
Another essential limit: maintained status ends with the decision. If your extension is approved, all is well, your new permit takes over. If it is refused, your right to work stops, and you have to react fast, generally by ceasing work immediately and then examining your options for restoration or departure. Maintained status is not a guarantee of outcome, it is a bridge between two permits.
Leaving Canada during processing: the trickiest point
I am devoting a whole subsection to this question because it comes up endlessly and the consequences of a mistake are real. If you leave Canada while on maintained status, you lose the benefit of that status for work. Depending on your situation, you may be able to return to Canada, for example as a visitor if you hold the necessary entry documents, and wait there for the decision. But you will not be able to resume work on your return until the new application has been approved.
The exact rules depend on several factors: your nationality, your entry documents, the port of entry, the nature of your application. I will not pretend to cover every possible scenario, and this is precisely the kind of situation where a check on the official page, or even professional advice, is well worth its cost. My personal rule, which I repeat to everyone who asks me: while an extension is being processed, you avoid non-essential travel outside Canada. A wedding abroad, a family emergency, those can be discussed and prepared for. A sunny holiday can wait.
When to file your extension application
Several months ahead, not a few weeks
You may be expecting me to give you a precise number of days. I will not, and that is deliberate: IRCC recommends filing windows that vary by program and change over time. What I can tell you without risk of misleading you is this: start preparing your extension several months before expiry, and file as soon as your file is complete. There is no advantage in waiting, and every disadvantage in the world in leaving it late.
Think about the whole calendar, not just yours. If your permit is tied to an employer, the step on the employer's side (a new labour market impact assessment or an exempt job offer, which I come back to below) must be finished before you can file your own application. That preliminary step can be slow. Add the gathering of your documents, a possible appointment for biometrics, and you understand why "several months" is not an exaggeration born of caution but a logistical reality.
Checking the processing times in force
Extension processing times vary a great deal depending on the period, the volume of applications and the type of permit. Any average I could quote here would be out of date before this article was even published. The right reflex: check the official processing times tool on Canada.ca at the moment you prepare your application, and check again if your plans stretch out over time. <!-- TODO vérifier sur canada.ca --> That tool gives you an up-to-date estimate for your type of application, far more reliable than forum anecdotes, where everyone generalizes from their own particular case.
How to extend your work permit online, step by step
Step 1: clarify your situation and the permit you are seeking
Before you touch a single form, ask yourself the fundamental question: which permit are you applying for, exactly? Extending a closed permit with the same employer, extending an open permit whose criteria you still meet, or switching to another type of permit are three different processes. Some categories, in fact, do not renew within the same category: the post-graduation work permit, for example, is issued only once in a lifetime. If your current category is ending, you need to identify a new pathway among the types of work permit in Canada rather than a simple extension.
Step 2: gather the documents
The exact list depends on your category, but the base is fairly constant: a valid passport (ideally well beyond the length of permit you are requesting, since a permit cannot exceed the validity of the passport), proof of your current employment such as a letter from your employer and recent pay stubs, and the documents specific to your category. For a closed permit, you will need the number of the new impact assessment or of the job offer submitted by your employer. For an open permit, proof that you still belong to an eligible category. Prepare legible files, clearly named, translated by a certified translator if necessary.
Step 3: complete the application in your IRCC account
The extension application is filed online, from within Canada, through your secure IRCC account. The system asks you a series of questions to generate your personalized list of documents and forms. Answer with obsessive precision: it is the consistency between your answers, your forms and your supporting documents that makes a strong file. A contradiction, even an unintentional one, can be read as a misrepresentation, and that is one of the most damaging accusations in immigration. Reread everything, with a clear head, before submitting.
Step 4: pay the fees
Let's talk money, with the figures in force as I write. Extending a work permit costs 155 CAD, the same fee as an initial application. If you are asking for an open permit, an open work permit holder fee of 100 is added, for a total of 255. On the biometrics side, the fee is 85, but your biometric data stays valid for 10 years: if you have already provided it for a previous application, you often will not have to give it again or pay again. Check this point in your IRCC account before you pay. And since fee schedules change, confirm the up-to-date amounts on the official fees page before submitting. <!-- TODO vérifier sur canada.ca -->
Step 5: submit, track and keep every piece of evidence
Once the application is submitted, you receive an acknowledgment of receipt in your account. Archive it immediately, along with your payment receipt and a complete copy of everything you sent. These documents prove your maintained status and may serve you years later, especially if you aim for permanent residence and have to reconstruct your status history. Then monitor your account regularly: IRCC may ask you for additional documents, biometrics or a medical exam, with response deadlines to meet. A missed message can derail a perfectly solid file.
Closed permit or open permit: two very different extension logics
Extending an employer-tied permit
If you hold an employer-specific permit, the extension is teamwork, and it is your employer who opens the ball. Before you can file your application, they must obtain a new positive labour market impact assessment (LMIA) or, if your situation falls under an LMIA exemption, submit a new job offer through the dedicated portal and pay the applicable compliance fee on their side. <!-- TODO vérifier sur canada.ca --> Without that prerequisite, your extension application simply cannot succeed.
My recommendation: open the conversation with your employer very early, well before the deadline. Explain the calendar, the steps that fall to them and what you need from their end. Some employers, especially small outfits that have never hired a foreign worker, discover these obligations at the same time as you. The earlier you support them, the better the odds that everything is wrapped up on time. And if the employer drags their feet despite your reminders, treat that as a signal: it may be time to explore other options, including a change of employer, which I discuss below.
Extending an open permit
For an open permit, no LMIA and no employer step: the central question is whether you still belong to an eligible category at the time of the application. A spousal permit, for instance, can often be extended as long as the situation that justifies it continues, such as the validity of the principal spouse's permit. Conversely, some categories have a limited lifespan by nature: the post-graduation permit does not renew, and the working holiday permit has a fixed duration. In those cases, "extending" really means "finding another permit", and it is better to understand that early. My article on the open work permit details each category and its renewal prospects.
The traps of expiry: what happens when the date has passed
Loss of status and immediate work stoppage
Let's be clear, without dramatizing but without softening it either: if your permit expires without an extension application having been submitted, you lose your temporary resident status. From that moment, you no longer have the right to work, not even to finish the week or hand over your files. Every day of work without authorization is a breach of your conditions of stay, one that can seriously complicate all your future immigration steps, including a possible permanent residence application.
If this happens to you, breathe: solutions exist, and thousands of people have been through it before you. But the first decision, non-negotiable, is to stop working immediately and inform your employer. An employer acting in good faith will understand: they too face penalties if they employ a person without valid authorization.
Restoration of status within 90 days
The law provides a catch-up window: restoration of status. You have 90 days from the loss of your status to file a restoration application, together with an application for the new permit. This is one of the rare numeric rules stable enough for me to quote it without hesitation. On cost, count on 239.75 CAD in restoration fees, on top of the fees for the work permit you are requesting. In your application, you will have to explain honestly why you lost your status: a sincere, documented explanation always beats an omission.
Past that 90-day window, restoration is no longer possible from inside the country, and you generally have to leave Canada, then rebuild a plan from abroad. That is exactly the scenario this whole page is meant to help you avoid.
During restoration, you do not work
I insist on this point because it is poorly understood and heavy with consequences: unlike maintained status, restoration of status does not authorize you to work during processing. Between filing your restoration application and the decision, you must remain without a job, which can mean long months with no income. Budget for that possibility, talk it through with those close to you, and above all, measure the gap between the two scenarios: an application filed the day before expiry lets you work calmly throughout processing, an application filed the day after imposes months of stoppage and extra fees. Rarely will twenty-four hours have weighed so heavily.
Changing employer or position: that is not an extension
A common confusion deserves its own section. If you hold a closed permit and want to join another employer, or change position with the same employer, you are not asking for an extension: you are asking for a new work permit, with new conditions, which means the new employer obtains their own LMIA or submits their own exempt offer. The calendar, the documents and the strategy are not the same as for an extension under unchanged conditions.
The nuance has very concrete consequences: until the new permit is approved, you cannot start with the new employer, even if you are on maintained status thanks to an application filed on time. Maintained status maintains your old conditions, it does not anticipate the new ones. I have devoted a full guide to this process, its steps and its traps: changing employer in Canada. If your extension plan is really hiding a change-of-job plan, start with that read.
Thinking about permanent residence while you extend
A permit extension is also an excellent moment to lift your head from the handlebars and look further ahead. Every month of work in Canada enriches your profile for permanent immigration: Canadian work experience is one of the most powerful assets in the Express Entry system, and provincial nominee programs strongly value people already working on their territory, with a provincial nomination aligned with Express Entry worth 600 additional points in the ranking.
Ask yourself the question honestly: do you want to string together temporary permits, or build a lasting settlement? If the second option speaks to you, the extension becomes one step in a bigger plan: keeping your status unbroken, accumulating skilled experience, taking your language tests, gathering your employment evidence. I have described this full journey, with strategies by profile, in my guide to moving from temporary work to permanent residence. The best time to think about it is not the last year of your last possible permit, it is now.
The common mistakes I see far too often
The first mistake, by a wide margin the most costly: waiting until the last minute. Everything you have read above converges on the same conclusion: every week of lead time is a week of safety. Files filed in a rush are also the ones that contain the most omissions and inconsistencies.
The second: believing that an expired permit "gets fixed easily". Restoration of status exists, thankfully, but it costs more, bans you from working for months and offers no guarantee. It is not a variant of the extension, it is an emergency procedure.
The third: travelling outside Canada during maintained status without having weighed the consequences. As we saw, leaving the country makes you lose the benefit of maintained status for work. If a trip is unavoidable, find out the precise consequences before booking anything at all.
The fourth: neglecting the employer part of a closed-permit extension. Your personal application, however perfect, can do nothing if the new LMIA or the exempt offer is not in place. Following up on that step is as much on you as on your employer, because it is your status on the line.
The fifth: mixing up extension and change of conditions, thinking a single application covers everything. Each objective has its own process, and confusing them produces inconsistent files that officers cannot approve as they stand.
The sixth, finally: relying on the average processing times that circulate in support groups rather than the official tool. Times vary enormously by period and category; the only estimate worth anything is the one from Canada.ca, checked at the moment of your own application.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep working while my extension application is being processed?
Yes, on one imperative condition: having submitted your extension application before your current permit expired. You are then on maintained status and can keep working under the same conditions as your previous permit, even if its date has passed, until IRCC's decision. Keep your acknowledgment of receipt and your proof of payment within reach: these are what attest to your situation for your employer. If, however, the application was filed after expiry, you do not have the right to work during processing.
What happens if I leave Canada while on maintained status?
You lose the benefit of maintained status for work. Depending on your documents and your nationality, you may be able to return to Canada as a visitor and wait there for the decision on your application, but you will not be able to resume your job until the new permit is approved. The precise rules depend on your situation, and this is an area where the nuances matter enormously. My constant advice: avoid non-essential travel during processing, and if a trip is unavoidable, check the exact consequences on the official page before booking.
How much does it cost to extend a work permit?
The processing fee is 155 CAD, the same amount as an initial work permit application. If you are asking for an open permit, an open permit holder fee of 100 is added, for a total of 255. Biometrics cost 85, but your data stays valid for 10 years: if you already provided it during an earlier application, you often will not have to give it again, which your IRCC account will confirm. These amounts change periodically, so check the official fees schedule on Canada.ca just before you pay.
My permit expired a few weeks ago, what can I do?
First, stop working immediately if you have not already: that is the condition for not making the situation worse. Next, check where you stand within the 90-day window that follows the loss of status: inside that window, you can apply for restoration of status (239.75 CAD, plus the fees for the permit requested) by honestly explaining the circumstances. You will not be able to work during the restoration processing. Beyond the 90 days, restoration from inside Canada is no longer possible, and professional support becomes genuinely advisable.
Can I change employer when I extend my closed permit?
Not through a simple extension. Joining a new employer with a closed permit requires a new permit application based on an LMIA or an exempt offer obtained by that new employer, and you cannot start working for them before approval. Maintained status only preserves the conditions of your old permit. If your goal is to change companies, steer your process in that direction from the start rather than filing an identical extension that you then try to modify.
How long before expiry should I file my application?
I will refrain from quoting an official number of days, because the recommendations vary by program and change over time. The logic to remember: start preparing several months before the deadline, especially if an employer has to obtain an LMIA or submit an offer on their side, and file as soon as your file is complete. Check the official processing times tool while you prepare to calibrate your calendar. Filing early has no drawback: at worst, you wait for the decision comfortably settled within your current status.
Official sources
To extend a work permit, IRCC's reference page is the one dedicated to extensions: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/extend-work-permit.html. The general work permit portal is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/work-permit.html, and the official processing times tool here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/check-processing-times.html. Rules, fees and timelines change regularly: before any decision, confirm the up-to-date information on Canada.ca, which alone is authoritative.