Replace Lost Immigration Documents in Canada

To replace lost immigration documents in Canada, the first question is not "how" but "which one." The form depends entirely on the document. A lost or stolen work permit, study permit, visitor record, or temporary resident permit is replaced on IRCC form IMM 5009, and only while the document is still valid. A lost Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) or Record of Landing works differently. IRCC does not reissue it. You request a Verification of Status instead, which arrives as a plain-paper record of your landing. Your permanent resident card follows its own separate route, and your passport is not an IRCC document at all. This guide sits inside our broader document services in Canada work. It shows you which form matches which document, where each one goes, and the small errors that get these applications returned before processing begins.

Last reviewed by Narek Mirzoyan, RCIC # R1005184, on 2026-06-25.

TL;DR

Replacing a lost immigration document in Canada starts with matching the document to the right form. A valid work permit, study permit, visitor record, or TRP is replaced on IMM 5009 (Guide IMM 5545), mailed to the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa, currently for a $30 fee. IRCC only replaces a document that is still valid. A lost COPR or Record of Landing is never reissued. IRCC sends a Verification of Status in its place. A lost PR card uses a different form (IMM 5444) and a different centre. Correcting an error on a landing record is a third path (IMM 5218). Picking the wrong form is the most common reason these requests come back unprocessed.

Which form replaces which lost immigration document?

Is there one form for all lost immigration documents?

No. There is no single "lost documents" form. IRCC sorts replacements by document type, and each type has its own form, fee, and processing centre. Get the routing wrong, and the application is returned before anyone reads it. The first step is always to name the exact document you lost.

The baseline rule is simple to state. Each immigration document has a home. The catch is that readers routinely send the right information on the wrong form, and IRCC does not fix the routing for you. It returns the package.

Here is the practical map. A valid temporary resident document, meaning a work permit, study permit, visitor record, or temporary resident permit (TRP), is replaced on IMM 5009, the Verification of Status or Replacement of an Immigration Document application. A lost or damaged permanent resident card uses IMM 5444 with a solemn declaration, covered in our lost PR card replacement guide. A lost COPR or Record of Landing is not reissued at all. For that you request a Verification of Status, also on IMM 5009.

Now the edge case that trips people. Your passport, even with a Canadian visa or eTA inside it, is not an IRCC-issued status document. A lost passport goes to your country of citizenship, not to IRCC. If the lost passport held a permanent resident visa counterfoil or a study or work permit, the IRCC piece is replaced separately on IMM 5009 once you hold a new passport. Two losses, two different offices.

One more distinction matters before you start. Replacing a lost document and correcting an error on a document are not the same request. If your name or landing date was recorded wrong, that is an amendment under Guide IMM 5218, covered later in this guide. Do not file a replacement when you actually need a correction.

How to replace a lost work permit, study permit, or visitor record

What is the actual process to replace a lost permit?

You complete IMM 5009, confirm the permit is still valid, give a police report number if it was lost or stolen, pay the fee, and mail the package to the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa. The numbered steps below walk through it. None of this requires a lawyer, though a representative can file for you.

  1. Confirm the document is still valid. IRCC only replaces a temporary resident document that has not expired. This is the trap that ends most of these requests early. If your work permit expired last month, there is nothing to replace. You may instead need restoration of status or a fresh permit, set out in our restoration of status in Canada guide.

  2. Get the police report number. For a lost or stolen valid document, IMM 5009 asks for the police report number, or a brief written explanation if you do not have one. A report is the cleaner record for a theft. Leaving both the number and the explanation blank is a frequent return reason.

  3. Complete IMM 5009 in full. Fill out Parts A, B, and C, following Guide IMM 5545. Identify the exact document by its number, or by its issue and expiry dates. If you do not specify, IRCC issues a replacement of the last valid document it has on file, so a request for any other document then needs a fresh form and a fresh fee.

  4. Pay the fee and attach proof. The fee for a Verification of Status or replacement document is currently $30. Attach the payment receipt, a copy of your photo identity document, and any supporting evidence the guide lists for your situation.

  5. Mail to the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa. Send the complete package to the Operations Support Centre (OSC) in Ottawa. This is not the Sydney, Nova Scotia centre that handles PR cards. Courier it with tracking, and keep a full copy of everything.

  6. Keep proof of status while you wait. A replacement does not arrive overnight, and there is no online tracker for these paper applications. If you need to prove your status to an employer or school in the meantime, a Verification of Status request can confirm your record while the replacement is in transit.

When a file is complicated, say a lost permit tied to a lost passport or an expired document, the routing decision matters more than the paperwork. Book a document services consultation with Mirzoyan Immigration before you mail anything you cannot easily resend.

Lost COPR or Record of Landing: why you get a Verification of Status, not a duplicate

Can I get a new copy of my COPR or Record of Landing?

No. IRCC does not print a duplicate Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) or Record of Landing. Both are one-time landing records. When yours is lost, you request a Verification of Status, and IRCC issues a plain-paper document carrying the same landing information instead.

The baseline is that these documents are not reissued. The point worth understanding is why that almost never matters. The COPR (issued as IMM 5292 or IMM 5688) and the older Record of Landing (IMM 1000) are proof of one fact: that you landed as a permanent resident on a given date. A Verification of Status proves the same fact, with the same legal weight, for citizenship applications, pension records, and status confirmation. People panic about a lost COPR because it looks irreplaceable. The information on it is not.

The hard case is the very old landing record. Consider a typical scenario: a permanent resident who landed in the 1970s, applying for citizenship today, who cannot find any landing paper and whose PR card lapsed long ago. A Verification of Status pulls whatever IRCC still holds and confirms the landing date that anchors the physical-presence count. The request runs on the same IMM 5009 form used for permit replacements, because that form does double duty as the Verification of Status application.

There is a separate scenario worth naming, because readers confuse it with replacement. When your COPR or Record of Landing exists but shows a wrong name, wrong date of birth, or wrong landing date, you do not request a replacement. You file a Request to Amend under Guide IMM 5218, sent to the same Operations Support Centre. Amendment corrects an error on a record you still hold. Verification of Status reconstructs a record you lost. For the overlap between a Verification of Status and the officer notes behind your file, see our verification of status in Canada guide.

The Internal Logic of an IRCC Officer

What is an officer checking when a replacement request lands?

A replacement clerk is not assessing your eligibility for anything. They check two things: did you use the correct form for the document, and does the file confirm the document exists and is valid. When either answer is no, the package is returned, not refused. Returns and refusals are different, and the difference matters.

The baseline is that this is administrative work, not a fresh decision on your status. The point to grasp is what "administrative" means in practice. The officer cross-checks your claim against the Global Case Management System, the IRCC database holding your file. If you ask to replace a study permit but the system shows that permit expired, there is nothing to issue, so the request bounces. If you ask for a "duplicate Record of Landing," the officer cannot produce one, because the system generates a Verification of Status for that request, not a copy of the original.

Officers also read the police report field on a lost-or-stolen request. A blank field with no explanation reads as an incomplete form. A short, specific explanation reads as a complete one. The officer is not judging your story. They are confirming the form is filled out the way the guide requires.

The hard case is a mismatch between your identity document and your file. Consider a recurring pattern we see: an applicant who married and changed their surname, then files a replacement under the new name while the IRCC file still carries the old one. The officer cannot match the request to the file, so it comes back. Send proof of the name change with the request, not after the return.

Strategic Trade-off Matrix

Which route do I use for which lost or expired document?

When a status document goes missing, four routes exist, and they are not interchangeable. IMM 5009 replaces a valid permit or issues a Verification of Status. IMM 5444 replaces a PR card. A PRTD gets a permanent resident back to Canada from abroad. Restoration handles an expired permit. The matrix below sorts them by what you lost and where you are.

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The single decision that drives the whole matrix is valid versus expired. A lost but valid permit is a replacement on IMM 5009. A lost and expired permit is not a replacement question at all. It is a restoration or fresh-application question. The PRTD and PR card routes live in our PR travel document and lost PR card replacement guides.

Four replacement routes by document and situation. Forms and fee.
Route Use it when Strategic risk if you pick wrong Cost and where it goes
IMM 5009 replacement / Verification of Status A valid work permit, study permit, visitor record, or TRP is lost; or a COPR / Record of Landing is lost. If the permit has expired, there is nothing to replace; request bounces. Wrong form for a PR card gets returned. $30; Operations Support Centre, Ottawa.
IMM 5444 (PR card replacement) A permanent resident card is lost, stolen, or damaged and you are inside Canada. Filing IMM 5009 for a PR card produces no card. You lose weeks before the return. $50; processing centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
PRTD (travel document) You are a permanent resident outside Canada without a valid PR card and need to return. A replacement card cannot be issued from abroad. Booking a flight on an expired card fails at the gate. $50; the visa office for your country.
Restoration of status The lost document is a permit that has already expired and you are still in Canada. Treating an expired permit as "lost" wastes the 90-day restoration window, which does not pause. Restoration fee plus the permit fee; online to IRCC.

Red Flags & Procedural Fairness Letters (PFL)

What gets a lost-document replacement returned or refused?

Most failures on these requests are returns, not refusals, and they are avoidable. A return means the package comes back unprocessed because something is missing or mismatched. The three patterns below cause the bulk of them, and each burns weeks you may need for travel, a job start, or a citizenship deadline.

Trigger 1: the wrong form for the document type. Filing IMM 5009 to replace a PR card, or IMM 5444 to replace a study permit, is the most common return reason on these files. The failure pattern is silent. You do not get a refusal letter. You get the package back after weeks, with the clock reset. The fix is the routing map above. Name the document first, then pick the form.

Trigger 2: requesting a "duplicate Record of Landing" instead of a Verification of Status. IRCC cannot reissue a COPR or a Record of Landing. A request worded as "please send a copy of my Record of Landing" has no product the officer can deliver. The failure pattern is a returned or rejected request with a note redirecting you to the Verification of Status process, after the delay. Ask for the Verification of Status from the start.

Trigger 3: a lost-or-stolen request with no police report number and no explanation. On IMM 5009, the police report field is not decorative. A theft with the field left blank, and no written explanation, reads as an incomplete form, and incomplete forms are returned. The fix is to file the police report when the document goes missing, enter the number, or write the short explanation the form allows. Do not leave it empty.

One genuine refusal risk sits above these returns. When a Verification of Status request, or an amendment, surfaces an inconsistency between what you declare now and what IRCC recorded at landing, an officer can open a misrepresentation concern under section 40 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which carries a five-year inadmissibility. This is rare on a simple lost-document file. It is not rare when someone uses a replacement request to quietly change a recorded fact. When your landing record is genuinely wrong, correct it openly through the IMM 5218 amendment, and consider advice first.

Key Takeaways

  • There is no single "lost immigration documents" form. A valid work permit, study permit, visitor record, or TRP is replaced on IMM 5009 (Guide IMM 5545), mailed to the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa.

  • IRCC only replaces a temporary resident document that is still valid. An expired permit is a restoration or fresh-application question, not a replacement.

  • A lost COPR or Record of Landing is never reissued. IRCC sends a Verification of Status carrying the same landing information, which institutions accept as proof.

  • A lost PR card uses a different form (IMM 5444) and centre (Sydney, NS); correcting an error on a landing record uses a third form (IMM 5218). Picking the wrong one gets the file returned.

  • Mirzoyan Immigration sorts the correct route for each lost document, prepares the IMM 5009 or amendment package, and confirms your status while a replacement is in transit, so a missing document does not stall your job, school, or citizenship file.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Use IRCC form IMM 5009, the Verification of Status or Replacement of an Immigration Document application, following Guide IMM 5545. IRCC only replaces a permit that is still valid. If the permit was lost or stolen, give the police report number. Mail the package to the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa with the fee and your identity document.

  • No. IRCC does not reissue a Confirmation of Permanent Residence or a Record of Landing. Instead you request a Verification of Status on IMM 5009, and IRCC sends a plain-paper document carrying the same landing information. It proves when and where you became a permanent resident, which is what most institutions actually need.

  • A lost or damaged PR card is replaced on IMM 5444 with a solemn declaration, processed in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Every other document, including permits and the COPR record, runs on IMM 5009 through the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa. Using the PR card form for a permit, or the reverse, gets the application returned unprocessed.

  • For a lost or stolen valid temporary resident document, IMM 5009 asks for the police report number. If you do not have one, you must give a brief written explanation of what happened. A blank entry with no number and no explanation is a frequent reason the application comes back without processing.

  • Correcting an error is a different path from replacing a lost document. To fix a wrong name, date of birth, or landing date on a Record of Landing (IMM 1000) or COPR, you file the Request to Amend, Guide IMM 5218, also sent to the Operations Support Centre in Ottawa. Replacement and amendment are separate requests on separate forms.

  • IRCC does not take responsibility for documents lost in the mail. If your document never arrives or goes missing in transit, you generally have to reapply with a new form and a new fee. This is why couriering with tracking, and keeping a full copy of everything you send, matters on every document request.

Conclusion

A lost immigration document feels like an emergency, yet it is almost always a routing problem with a clean answer. Match the document to the form, confirm it is still valid, and send it to the right office. Two facts save the most grief: IRCC does not reissue a COPR or Record of Landing, so ask for a Verification of Status, and IRCC only replaces a permit that has not expired.

When you are not certain which route fits, or a lost document is tangled with an expired permit, a name change, or a citizenship deadline, do not guess and mail something you cannot easily resend. Book a document services consultation with Mirzoyan Immigration, or call 1-888-636-2122. Our RCICs identify the correct form for each document, prepare the package, and confirm your status in the meantime.

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Disclaimer: This page provides general information about replacing lost, stolen, or damaged immigration documents in Canada. It is not legal advice and does not create a consultant-client relationship. Immigration forms, fees, and processing rules change frequently. Verify current information directly with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or book a consultation with a licensed RCIC before making decisions about your file.