A former KGB agent who spent six years living inside a Vancouver church to avoid deportation has voluntarily left Canada.

Mikhail Lennikov's lawyer Hadayt Nazami says his client has concluded negotiations with Canadian border services and is no longer in the country.

"The decision was his own," said Nazami.

"His family are Canadian citizen and have not left Canada. I can only hope he is safe."

Nazami did not say where Lennikov had gone.

Lennikov was ordered deported in 2009 but sought religious sanctuary in a B.C. Lutheran church, where he lived until recently.

Several groups called for him to leave, including Ukrainian groups based in Canada.

Canadian immigration officials declared Lennikov a threat to national security because of his history working as a KGB translator in the 1980s.

Lennikov openly confessed his role with the infamous Soviet spy agency to the Canadian government in 1999 and said he did the work under pressure.