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I have received my Green Card after being granted asylum in the US. As a result, I do not have a valid passport from my home country.

Can I visit Canada by means of land - not by air - without a visa? Do I need to apply for a travel document from US? Or will my I-9 form suffice?

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  • I have edited the title and body of your question for clarity, and have tried to maintain the meaning. If you disagree with my changes, you can roll back my edits and restore what you originally wrote. Commented Jun 24, 2023 at 2:19
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3 Answers 3

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You don't need a visa to Canada, as a green card holder, but you do need a travel document. If you cannot get a valid passport from your home country, consider applying for a US refugee travel document.

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See xngtng's answer. It seems that US permanent residents may still be able to travel to Canada by land using only a green card as they have been for the last several decades. In other words, the Canadian government website cited below may be incorrect. Stay tuned.


Original answer:

You may be asking this question because you've seen information online saying that US permanent residents can travel by land between the US and Canada using only their green card. This used to be true, but that changed 14 months ago:

As of April 26, 2022, lawful permanent residents of the United States must show these documents for all methods of travel to Canada:

  • a valid passport from their country of nationality (or an equivalent acceptable travel document) and
  • a valid green card (or equivalent valid proof of status in the United States) Features

The application for a refugee travel document is available at https://www.uscis.gov/i-131

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    "This used to be true, but that changed 14 months ago" I don't see the legal basis of this. Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations section 52(2)(b) still says that US permanent residents entering directly from the US are exempt from needing a passport, and this has not been amended recently. April 26, 2022 seems to refer to the date that US permanent residents became exempt from needing an eTA to travel to Canada by air.
    – user102008
    Commented Jun 24, 2023 at 14:43
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    @user102008 it seems that you are correct. Please join me in upvoting xngtng's answer.
    – phoog
    Commented Jun 24, 2023 at 14:47
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    I've sent an informal request for information to CBSA and IRCC regarding this, but meanwhile, it can never hurt to have a valid travel document and some CBSA agent may insist on the "requirement".
    – xngtng
    Commented Jun 24, 2023 at 15:21
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    @xngtng indeed, but getting a travel document costs both time and money. There will be people who don't have enough time or want to avoid spending money if they don't have to, so knowing what's really going on here will help those people.
    – phoog
    Commented Jun 24, 2023 at 15:59
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As @phoog linked, you should always try to follow official information from government website and have a refugee travel document issued by the U.S. before trying to enter Canada.


But as a side note, the message on the government website is probably the result of a confusion. If you have some really urgent need to visit Canada, you can still attempt crossing at a land border.

The April 26 regulatory changes only concerned the ETA requirement, not the passport exemption for U.S. LPRs requesting admission direct from U.S. at a land border (IRPR 52(2)(b)). A valid passport or travel document is always required for air travel due to a separate regulation. For whatever reason, IRCC decided to put a much broader change on the website.

Even in May 2022, the CBSA/IRCC operational guide says

13.16 Passport and travel document exceptions

[...] Permanent residents of the U.S. seeking to enter Canada from the United States or St. Pierre and Miquelon. Note that U.S. Permanent Resident Cards are only acceptable upon presentation on contiguous territory and not valid for international flights from outside Canada unless accompanied by a valid and subsisting passport or travel document;

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