Residency Obligation not met. Can enter YYZ airport or not?
- Thread starter asamad88
- Start date
As mentioned by @scylla, it's impossible to predict what may happen.
Using the PIK machine at YYZ may not compute that they have only spent 20 days in Canada over the last 4 years. If they are sent to Secondary Inspection, the officer will likely find out and could certainly start asking a bunch of questions. In any event, they will be allowed to enter Canada, even if a 44(1) report is created by CBSA.
any idea if CBSA has record of last exit? If I remember correctly, my parents had exit Canada 4 years back with previous passport which is now expired.
Nobody can answer your question apart from CBSA. You have to assume if they don't know that they can get the info if they want to. Expired passport doesn't matter, they won't become invisible because of a new passport.
One of the most common questions CBSA asks is about your absence. Its significance is actually to determine what you can bring into the country depending on your stay outside Canada. Please check for absence details. This question when asked can indirectly can lead to the finding of s.28 of the Act (residency obligation).
CBSA may not have an exit record, per se, but they likely have an entry record into another country, from a passenger manifest for example. You should assume that they will know when your parents last exited Canada IF they decide to investigate.
Exact date of exit probably not all that important at this juncture. If asked any questions regarding when they were last in Canada, when they last exited Canada, or how long they have been outside Canada, as long as they give honest responses that are close to accurate (not misleading and not evasive) that should suffice as reasonably responsive to such questions during a Port-of-Entry examination. (And thus not be grounds for prosecution for misrepresentation.)
Given the situation, seems very likely they will be asked some question for which they will need to reveal they have been outside Canada for more than three years (again, they should be as close to accurate as they can), whether the initial question is for customs declaration purposes or they are more specifically asked questions in regards to their PR status and compliance with the Residency Obligation. Once they reveal they have been outside Canada more than three years, that signals a breach of the PR Residency Obligation on its face.
We do not know to what extent PoE officials are closely examining returning PRs with valid PR cards. They might be waived through without being closely examined about RO compliance.
However, there is at least a significant risk they will be asked more questions related to the RO and their failure to comply. And of course if asked such questions, given the extent of the breach, there is a significant risk it will lead to inadmissibility proceedings. If this happens and a Removal Order is issued, as @Ponga noted they will still be allowed to enter Canada . . . but if that happens, if they are issued a Removal Order, in order to stay more than thirty days they will need to appeal, and in order to keep their PR status they will need to win the appeal (on H&C grounds).
Before a Removal Order can be issued, they must be allowed to present H&C reasons why they should be allowed to keep PR status despite the failure to comply with the RO. Either consult with a lawyer ahead of time to review the situation and frame how to best make their H&C case, OR, be prepared to simply explain why they failed to come to Canada sooner, what the actual reasons are for not getting here sooner, including what their honest intentions are in regards to settling in Canada.
Note: it is important for them to be honest and NOT evasive during the PoE examination. Leading back to questions about whether CBSA will know when they last exited Canada. Does not matter. They CAN know. They can figure it out. And for those who have been away for more than three years, there are all sorts of signals of that.
Some PRs probably get away with dodging, fudging, or even outright lying to border officials in response to questions related to the length of their absence from Canada. But the odds are NOT good. And really NOT good for anyone whose last time in Canada was more than three years previous (let alone for those who have spent so little time in Canada). And the consequences are seriously NOT good. Even if not prosecuted for misrepresentation, the impact of being perceived to be a poor reporter of facts, let alone a dishonest reporter of facts, tends to make things go badly.
And some PRs will think they got away-with-it, so to say, because they are then waived through into Canada without being subject to inadmissibility proceedings (initiated by a 44(1) inadmissibility report), but there is no statute of limitations. I have seen at least one case where a PR lost PR status for misrepresentation more than five years later after making misrepresentations as to their absences during a PoE examination.
Overall: if they are coming to stay, and wanting to keep PR status, best to focus on being honest and making the case why they should be allowed to keep PR status despite failing to comply with the RO.
my mother was on wheelchair, so the airport staff near CBSA counter, told me and my parents to exit without meeting CBSA staff after generating slip from kiosk.
after arriving my parents also made multiple trips to USA by land border, and the CBSA officer didn't asked any questions.
Yes I agree. Surprisingly officers at land borders also did not questioned regarding their RO.