So basically I am eligible to renew my card when there will be 9 months left but I shouldn't apply right away. so when should I apply for the renewal? what's the best practice to apply. I mean with 3-4 months of expiry or so?
That is a decision for you to make, based on YOUR best understanding of your facts, your situation, as well as your best understanding of what the rules are and how they work. Moreover, things can change between now and the earliest date you can even apply, including what is the earliest date you can apply.
CAUTION: At the very least you are
cutting-it-close, so the actual numbers can matter, really matter. Much of my previous response was based on your calculation that you have been outside Canada 1044 days since the date of landing, which as you noted gives you approximately 51 days buffer over the minimum 730 days required by the PR Residency Obligation.
BUT, as I reiterate and emphasize, again and again,
what you do, and when, are decisions for YOU to make based on YOUR best understanding of your situation, and that includes the facts, including dates and numbers. There appears to be some inconsistencies, or at least incongruities, in the dates and numbers you report. YOU need to get those right . . . not necessarily here, since the best we can do here is generally describe how things work . . . but for yourself, for making the decisions YOU need to make. While it helps to be working with accurate dates and numbers, here in these discussions, this is merely illustrative, to describe how the rules work given certain assumed facts. We cannot reliably analyze your case for you, here. That's for you to do . . . again, f
or YOU to figure out, unless you pay for an in-depth consultation with a competent immigration lawyer who can closely review all the relevant details and give you a detailed opinion.
We can identify some scenarios in which it would be very risky to make a PR card application, or conversely some scenarios in which it is near for-sure safe to apply. In regards to the latter, for example, if both of you wait to apply more than two years since you last arrived in Canada, respectively (that is, for you June 2023, and for your spouse September 2023), without leaving since your arrival here, that almost for-sure avoids any risk of a negative outcome leading to a loss of PR status (could still involve non-routine processing and delays). That is the safest approach.
Moreover, it appears that is the only approach for your spouse to apply in compliance with the RO, since your spouse appears to have been outside Canada for more than 1095 days since landing. That means your spouse is currently in breach of the RO, and will not be in compliance until your spouse has remained in Canada for two years following last arrival.
And that really is the safest approach for you as well. Assuming you have been outside Canada no more than 1044 days since landing, you have other options, some
wiggle-room, but you are nonetheless
cutting-it-close, and this involves relying on days in Canada back in 2018, which you begin losing credit for starting March 21, 2023 (days in Canada more than five years ago do NOT count). What is for-sure is that waiting two years since your arrival definitively establishes compliance with the RO.
There are good reasons why several veteran participants in this forum stick to that formula. It works. It is simple, easy to understand, and easy to apply. No need to get bogged down in weedy what-if tangents or engage in complex analysis, no need to take calculated risks. Even just the counting side of the equation is easier. Wait two years since last arrival before applying for a new PR card. Still might be some non-routine processing delays in actually getting the new PR card, but there is no risk of a decision terminating PR status.
So, rather than attempt to further sort out some of the alternative scenarios, and related risks, the safest approach is to wait until June 2023, when you have been here two continuous years, before applying, allowing that if the 1044 days absence is correct, an application sooner should be safe; beyond that let me say, to be clear, perhaps
YOU are right when you say you "
shouldn't apply right away" (which under current rules can be no sooner than nine months before your current PR card expires), BUT, again to be clear,
nowhere in my post did I say you shouldn't apply right away. I made a concerted effort to emphasize that a decision like this is for the individual PR to make based on their own judgment, situation, and understanding of how to best navigate the system. The approach stated by
@scylla works. Moreover, just because you can apply does not mean it is necessarily a good idea to apply. But there are situations in which a particular PR might judiciously, prudently, elect to rush applying for a new PR card. You need to sort out what is best for you, for yourself.
At the risk of belaboring the point, the variables and potential vagaries are many, with more than a few contingent elements, far too many factors and considerations specific to the individual for anyone in a forum like this to reliably say when a particular PR, like you, should proceed to make the PR card application.
I will also add that there are, potentially, additional complexities in some circumstances.
Not worth wrestling with here and now. However, I will note for example that
@GuyanaGirl is off some in saying:
"If you dare apply before you have 730 days you will be rejected and could end up in issues."
There is indeed a risk of "
issues," and there is that risk even if the PR is RO compliant (with factors like
cutting-it-close influencing how much risk there is), but PR card applications are rarely, almost never "
rejected" for Residency Obligation issues. Rather than rejected, when a PR applies for a PR card but is in breach of the RO, IRCC can conduct a formal RO examination resulting in the preparation of a 44(1) inadmissibility report and issuance of a Removal Order, a decision terminating PR status subject to appeal. Bringing this to your spouse's situation in particular:
Secondly, In case of my wife she has lived 1122/1095 days outside of canada and our 5 yrs timeframe is completing on 21 Mar23 but looks like her 730 days will be completing somewhere around 20th april 23 or so.? So she needs to wait till 20th april 23 and could possibly renew after then only?
There is no such thing as "
completing" the RO. I understand what you probably mean, which is reaching the 730 day threshold, for days actually present, sufficient to satisfy the RO. Which works during and for the first five years, but ONLY the first five years, only until the fifth year anniversary of landing. After that, which appears to be March 21, 2023 for you and your spouse, each day is subject to a different calculation. A PR is either in compliance with the RO or in breach, as of a given day, calculated differently each day. This may come across a bit picky but there is a reason why it is important to understand this.
For your wife, it appears she has been outside Canada more than 1095 days since March 21, 2018, the day of landing, and if so then she is currently in breach of the RO and there is NO way to reach that 730 day threshold of days in Canada before the fifth year anniversary of landing. So from now on she will not be in compliance unless and until she has been IN Canada at least 730 days since her arrival here last September. Thus, this probably means she will NOT be in compliance until September 2023. And after that she will be in compliance only if she continues to have been IN Canada for 730 days within the preceding five years as of any day. Thus the soonest she should apply for a new PR card is likely to be in or after September 2023 (there's a wrinkle, a work-around, but it is not worth getting tangled up with that now).
You suggest she might be in compliance, having 730 days credit toward the RO, around April 20, 2023. On that date the RO calculation will be based on the number of days IN Canada between April 20, 2018 and April 20, 2023. That calculation will NOT count days in Canada before April 20, 2018, as those days will be more than five years past, no longer in the five years that count.
Similarly as of May 19, 2023: if she makes a PR card application on May 19, 2023, her compliance with the RO will be based on days in Canada between May 19, 2018 and May 19, 2023. Days in Canada prior to May 19, 2018 will NOT count.
And so on.
Apparently she was in breach when she arrived here last September. Which indicates she was, like many others have reported in this forum, the beneficiary of some border control leniency. That has long been common for PRs still within their first five years, and apparently far more common during the Covid pandemic. A PR card application may also benefit from similar leniency. But there is no good reason to test it, to risk it. As I mentioned before, even if a new PR card is issued, that does not restart the clock.