I am in a very special situation. I got my PR status in Jan 2019 and from Feb 2020-July 2023 I worked for a Canadian business in the US during which period I got paid in CAD and paid federal and BC tax.
The Setting; Where Things Stand:
If you qualify for the working-abroad RO credit and thus you are in compliance with the PR Residency Obligation, you can RELAX. However long it takes to process the PR card application, issue and deliver you a new PR card, should not matter much. You do not even need a valid PR card. If this goes on for awhile, your expired PR card will suffice for driving across the border (at least into Canada; I don't know what U.S. side requires).
Border officials cannot (and will not) deny you entry into Canada. Again, even if you only have an expired PR card to present. They can examine your RO compliance. So, the border crossing may involve increased inconvenience a few times, but if you do not have a RO compliance issue, that inconvenience is not likely, not at all, to continue. (More about this below.)
Meanwhile, yes, if IRCC completes processing your PR card application, determines you meet your RO, approves the application and issues a new PR card, that too would likely eliminate referrals for Secondary screening during border crossings. That would solve the problem of inconvenient border screening. There are, however, no guarantees about how long that is going to take. Telephone calls and webform communications are not likely to accelerate the timeline, not by much.
The catch: What happens going forward depends on you actually being in RO compliance, which in turn, at this juncture, depends on your time in the U.S. qualifying for the working-abroad credit. This is the real issue, the real fulcrum in your situation. If your information and supporting documents show RO compliance, the hassle of Secondary at the border is going to diminish, probably go away. If your information and supporting documents show RO compliance, your PR card application should not take too much longer and you should have a new card in hand before too long.
In contrast, if there are concerns about whether you are in RO compliance, questions challenging your entitlement to RO credit for time working-abroad, the PR card application is likely to get bogged down in non-routine processing with potentially significant delays. And, meanwhile, in one of these upcoming referrals to CBSA Secondary at the border, attendant a more thorough and formal examination of your RO compliance, if there are real concerns about your RO compliance a decision will be made whether to prepare a 44(1) Inadmissibility Report, and if so, that would be followed (probably then and there, while you are still in the PoE) by a determination whether to allow you to retain PR status or whether to issue a Removal Order.
That is to say your situation does not depend so much on accelerating IRCC's processing of your PR card application anywhere nearly as much as it depends on your information and supporting documents showing you qualify for the working-abroad credit and therefore meet the RO. This is what looms largest in your situation. Qualifying for this credit is subject to some strict criteria, and many PRs have misunderstood and misjudged how the criteria apply in their particular situation.
There is more to it than just being employed by an ostensibly Canadian business while outside Canada. So some will say something like it is "
hard to count time working abroad for a Canadian employer."
Nonetheless, if you do actually qualify for the working-abroad RO credit, as I said above, you can probably relax. To the extent there are repeated referrals to Secondary when crossing the border, they should become routine, brief and not difficult, and it is NOT likely you will actually be "
pulled in every time," nowhere near that.
The Catch About The Catch: There are enough hints of a potential admissibility issue to apprehend the possibility it is not readily clear you qualify for the working-abroad RO credit. Meaning there may be an underlying problem here more serious than the inconvenience of repeated referrals to Secondary. In fact, that's the fulcrum:
If there is no serious underlying issue regarding your RO compliance, there is no serious problem, no reason to apprehend that future border crossings are going to be much inconvenient let alone pose a serious problem.
In contrast, if there is reason for CBSA or IRCC to question your RO compliance, to challenge the claim for working-abroad RO credit, that's likely to be the real issue, the real problem . . . and spoiler alert: if this is an issue, at the very least it is likely your PR card application has gone into non-routine processing and that could take significantly longer, perhaps a lot longer.
Dealing With Secondary at the Border:
To the extent there are repeated referrals to Secondary going forward, mostly be prepared to readily explain:
-- your are a PR living in Canada (presenting your PR card)
-- you meet the RO and have applied for a new PR card
-- you are regularly traveling into the U.S. to work on assignment by your Canadian employer (may be good idea to carry and present a copy of the letter from your employer you submitted with your PR card application)
And carry in hand, in a way that makes it easy to present, copies of certain documents, including a copy of the employer's letter (the one you included with your PR card application, or a more recent version), and documents showing your address in Canada, and a copy of a Notice of Assessment (or other tax-related document showing Canadian employment), or two, from previous years. No need for a lot. Just a few, keeping it simple.
Unless there is reason to challenge the working-abroad RO credit, thus reason to question your RO compliance and whether you are inadmissible, that should resolve any concerns border officials have. Subsequent referrals to Secondary should go easier and easier, and actually are NOT likely to continue, at least not frequently.
BUT, again, there are indications that there may be an issue about qualifying for the working-abroad credit, leading to . . .
Main Thing; Qualifying for The Working-Abroad RO Credit:
Since you have already made an application for a new PR card in which you rely on the working-abroad credit, I assume that you followed the instructions and provided supporting documents in accordance with the section of
Appendix A, in the guide for a PR card application titled "
Situation A. Employment outside Canada." So you probably have reviewed the applicable criteria and provided the required letter from an official in your employer's business meeting the criteria described in the instructions.
A lot could ride on how well the letter from your employer documents meeting the criteria for the working abroad credit. If the letter shows what is listed in the guide, supports your claim to working-abroad credit (that you were outside Canada on a TEMPORARY assignment for your employer, a qualified Canadian business, expected to return to Canada to work for that employer IN Canada when the assignment is done), that should do the trick . . . you should be OK . . . and assuming your factual situation does support the credit and RO compliance, you can probably shrug off the border official's threat.
What If Your Time In U.S. Does Not Qualify for Working-Abroad Credit?
That's H&C consideration time. Big subject. Just as tricky as qualifying for the working-abroad credit.
For now, prepare to make your working-abroad RO credit case to border officials and, meanwhile, maybe review what you submitted with your PR card application, looking especially at the employer's letter in conjunction with what is described in appendix A in the guide, and
objectively (as best you can) take careful stock of how confident you are that you are entitled to the working-abroad credit. And decide whether to ride with it, see a lawyer, or pose some further questions here.
