Glossary · Temporary residence. Extensions filed before the current status expires.

Maintained status from more than one application

Practice slang: shotgun and hedge

Shotgun means two or more independent valid applications filed before expiry, each able to create maintained status. Hedge is the reason, plus smaller hedges. IRCC does not use these names.

On the official record

• Official language is maintained status. File before expiry. For electronic files the PDI uses midnight UTC on the expiry date.
• Shotgun: two or more independent valid applications filed before expiry. Each one can create maintained status on its own. Officers should process both and not cancel the outstanding file as a clerical tidy-up.
• Hedge: the reason you file more than one is so a refusal of the first does not leave you with no file that can maintain status. Smaller hedges are other valid files that can stand alone.
• Refusal of the maintaining file ends maintained status that day. The 90-day restoration window starts on the refusal date. Withdrawal ends authorized stay the day the withdrawal is registered.

Common mix-ups

• A second file after expiry is late, not a shotgun. That later file does not create maintained status.
• Restoration is not maintained status.
• Not a public default of filing the same request twice, once online and once on paper. The PDI says in-Canada visitor, study, and work extensions are electronic, with printed exceptions.
• Not a normal plan to file a BOWP before an ITA.
• Not a C16 plus C51 recipe.

Confirm on the official page

Start here: IRCC PDI: Maintained status during processing.

The catch

Stay in Canada. Leaving can end the work or study authorization even if you can return as a visitor. An incomplete first file is treated as if it was never submitted.

What people mix up

Say maintained status. A late file is not a shotgun. Restoration is a different, later problem.

Related

Maintained status · BOWP · PGWP

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