Immigration Passport

Question:

I'm citizen of Russia, in USA without status and expired passport.

Can I apply for Canadian Immigration from New York without getting new passport?

Answer:

Tell you what man...The quickest route for this is to call the INS and surrender. They will have your ass deported back to Chechnya!

Yes, that would be very nice.

Then you are in US illegally.

I don't see how you can do that without revealing your illegal status in the US, which will give Canada good reason to believe that you will, given the opportunity, violate the immigration laws of Canada as well.

Go back to Russia and start from scratch.

Canadian immigration don't care about my status in USA and i'm not a criminal. It would be easier and faster to immigrate to Canada from USA - that is why i'm looking for more information regarding this subject.

The new IRPA (Immigration Act) specifically forbids applications outside of the country of citizenship unless you have legal status valid for at least one year in another country. You defintiely cannot apply through the USA.

"In USA without status" = in USA illegally, because if you were in USA legally, you would have a legal status!

So tell us, what is your legal status in USA?

Should have thought about that before you let your passport expire and decided to stay "in USA without status".

Get your passport renewed. My educated guess is that you are close enough to your embassy to go there and do so, or at least get started whatever is the renewal process in Russia. As a practical matter, you're going to have to present your passport to Canada sooner or later, so you'd better get started renewing it now.

But you're still going to have to explain to Canada what "in USA without status" means.

Fred, what it means "without status" I will explain and they will understand it.

Should and could - thank you for advice, unfortunately we can't change past, but we can shape future.

Renewing passport in USA without status is another big problem, Russian consulate need to know that I have legal status - they want us back in Russia I guess.

I'm sorry to say that your only option will be to return to Russia voluntarily and apply abroad. You might want to check processing times at http://www.cic.gc.ca. You might find that the processing centre in Russia is faster than Buffalo. If you try to renew your passport in the states, I guarantee that you will open up a can of worms that will reflect poorly on your immigration application to Canada.