What happens to my restoration application if I leave Canada?

It gets refused, and you do not get the fee back.
IRCC's instructions on restoration of temporary resident status, last updated 1 May 2026, list remaining in Canada until a decision is made as one of the requirements. The instructions go further than that. If an officer determines during processing that the applicant has left Canada, the officer shall refuse the application because the person is no longer eligible, and processing fees are not refunded.
So, leaving does not pause a restoration application. It ends it.
This matters most to people weighing up a trip home while they wait, usually because the waiting is expensive and they are not allowed to work. If anything, else was filed alongside the restoration, a work permit application for instance, that goes with it, because it was sitting behind a restoration that no longer exists.
Three other things from the same instructions that people routinely have backwards.
The ninety days is the window to apply inside, not a window to be decided inside. You can be waiting well beyond ninety days and still be fine, provided you applied in time and stayed.
You have no work authorisation while a restoration is pending. A person who was authorised to work and lost status can apply to restore their status and their work authorisation, but they cannot work in the meantime. Holding that line is not just caution. Someone who has worked without authorisation is not eligible to restore at all, which makes working while you wait the one thing that can turn a delay into a dead end.
And restoration requires you to meet the requirements for the stay you are asking for, as a visitor, a worker or a student. It is not an automatic reset.
Source: IRCC, Restoration of temporary resident status, canada.ca, updated 1 May 2026.
This is general information rather than legal advice, and it reflects the page as it stood on the date above.