I am a PR who would be returning to Canada with only 10 months left on the card, not having stayed in the country at all in the last four-plus year period (four preceding years were spent outside). So my card expires in 10 months and I have to be back in CA and wouldn't meet RO if I applied for a renewal on expiry on my card. I am aware of the below:
1. I am still a Permanent Resident at this point and still hold a valid PR card and should be able to travel.
2. Whether I am allowed inside CA or not depends on luck or the immigration officer. There is no specific rule, depends on each person's situation and justification.
3. If allowed to enter, then after my card expires, I would have to wait inside the country until I complete the RO before I can apply for renewal.
I would still like to know if anyone was in a similar predicament recently and managed to enter without any hassle and without losing their status. I am looking for anecdotal evidence to that may bring some hope. Are they lenient, in general? and if so, which port of entry was that at?
Even if the officer and the further process determines me to be ineligible to continue as PR, would I be allowed to live out my rest of the time period on the card inside the country or will I be sent back on short notice?
While
@Ponga addresses the gist of things, more specifically in response to your questions:
I would still like to know if anyone was in a similar predicament recently and managed to enter without any hassle and without losing their status. I am looking for anecdotal evidence to that may bring some hope.
Your situation appears to be quite common and there are numerous relatively similar situations anecdotally reported in this forum. If you are really interested,
you need to do the homework, to at least browse topic titles looking for relevant discussions. You do not specifically say so, but I'm guessing your situation is like the most common scenario, a PR who did what many call a
soft landing, planning to make the move to Canada within the next two or so years but then failing to make the move for more than three years. You should be able to find scores of anecdotal reports similar to this and also see many responses. If you do the homework.
However, many of those who post about this do not return and update how things actually went when they arrived at the Port-of-Entry. It will be appreciated if you do, when the time comes.
Overall the accounts about how it goes vary widely, ranging from PRs who are not much more than a couple hundred days past getting here in time to be in compliance with the PR Residency Obligation encountering inadmissibility proceedings, to a significant number waived through without a problem even though they are arriving here within a few months or even weeks of when their PR card expires.
Once the PR is in breach, however, which during the first five years occurs when the PR has been outside Canada more than 1095 days since the date of landing, there is a risk of inadmissibility proceedings. Possessing and presenting a valid PR card reduces the risk, but the more days abroad total, since landing, in conjunction with more days abroad since last in Canada, is the most obvious and dominant factor increasing the risk.
It is very difficult to quantify the risks more than that, although in general the risk probably goes up a lot if the PR has been abroad four years since landing and it is getting close to the date the PR card expires.
PRs for more than five years: This does not appear to be your situation, but if it is the risks are likely higher, and for such a PR who has been outside Canada four plus years since last here, odds of inadmissibility proceedings are most likely quite high.
Are they lenient, in general? and if so, which port of entry was that at?
Depends on what you mean by "
lenient." In general terms CBSA appears to be very lenient with many PRs in breach of the RO. But that might be comparable to saying law enforcement is lenient with speeders driving ten to fifteen km over the speed limit. Thirty km over is a different story. Falling short of meeting the RO by one or four months is one thing. Falling short by four hundred, approaching five hundred days, that's another.
It appears that the biggest factor for PRs in breach by more than a year is whether they are waived through at the PIL (Primary Inspection Line), be that the booth at a roadway border crossing, or the kiosk at some bigger airports. This is where having and presenting a valid PR card probably makes the most difference. The vast majority of PRs presenting a valid PR card are not asked questions about RO compliance. For obvious reasons: nearly all of them, most of the time, are living in Canada, returning from travel abroad, and not even close to being in breach of the RO.
So what triggers a Secondary immigration referral and RO compliance questioning? Again, any PR in breach is at risk. The bigger the breach, the bigger the risk. Efforts to quantify the odds any more precisely tend to be guessing.
For a PR who was last in Canada four or more years ago, being waived through at the PIL eliminates the risk of inadmissibility proceedings. Which leads to the situation you described: if they stay two years without triggering a RO examination (no travel abroad, no PR card application), that will cure the RO breach and they can then apply for a PR card without risk.
But if there is a Secondary immigration referral and RO compliance questioning, we cannot say with certainty but it is very likely that size of breach makes it quite likely the PR will encounter inadmissibility proceedings resulting in a Removal Order UNLESS they have a good H&C case explaining why they did not return to Canada sooner.
There are no indications that any Port-of-Entry is better than another on any given day.
Even if the officer and the further process determines me to be ineligible to continue as PR, would I be allowed to live out my rest of the time period on the card inside the country or will I be sent back on short notice?
Worst case scenario is being issued a Removal Order. This happens when a second officer reviews the 44(1) Inadmissibility Report and determines (1) it is valid in law (meaning there is a RO breach), and (2) there are not sufficient H&C reasons to allow the PR to keep PR status despite the breach. This Removal Order is NOT immediately enforceable, so the PR is then allowed to proceed into Canada.
That decision terminates PR status, taking effect when the Removal Order becomes enforceable. (So no, the expiration date on the PR card does not determine how long the PR can stay in Canada.)
The PR has thirty days to appeal. If there is no appeal, the Removal Order becomes enforceable thirty days after it was issued. So that is the date the individual is no longer a PR but becomes a Foreign National (FN). The Removal Order then typically allows the FN up to thirty more days to leave Canada. So, if there is no appeal, the individual can typically stay in Canada for up to sixty days after being issued the Removal Order at the PoE.
If the PR makes an appeal within thirty days, the Removal Order remains unenforceable as long as the appeal is pending. The PR continues to have PR status pending the appeal, and thus can work in Canada, continue to travel in and out of Canada, and if the appeal lasts long enough, after the PR card expires the PR will be entitled to a one-year PR card . . . again, pending the outcome of the appeal.
