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PR Card Renewal application referred to Program Support

MaHab

Full Member
Jan 8, 2023
41
7
Hi everyone,

I wanted to provide an update since my last post. As some of you know, I’ve been waiting over six months for my PR card renewal and have encountered some unexpected complications.

Last week, my MP’s office contacted IRCC on my behalf. IRCC initially expressed uncertainty about whether I was physically present in Canada, even though they acknowledged that they had record of my most recent entry into the country in September 2024 through the land border. Apparently, the confusion stems from the PRTD application I had previously withdrawn via webform and email from within Canada. It seems that IRCC’s records suggest that I withdrew the PRTD from outside Canada, leading them to question my current whereabouts.

Today, after my MP’s office confirmed that I’m indeed in Canada, IRCC advised that my application is under further review and is now considered “non-routine”. No specific reason was disclosed. IRCC advised that no timelines for processing apply in these cases. My MP’s office suggested following up with them if I don’t hear anything by the end of January 2025.

Naturally, I’m feeling quite anxious about this situation. Has anyone gone through something similar? How long did it take before you finally received your PR card or at least an update once the file went non-routine? Were you asked to submit additional documents, or did IRCC eventually resolve the matter on its own? Did anyone consider legal avenues, like a mandamus application, in non-routine cases?

I’d really appreciate any experiences or insights you can share. It would help reassure me and possibly guide my next steps. Thanks in advance!
 

armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
17,596
9,122
Today, after my MP’s office confirmed that I’m indeed in Canada, IRCC advised that my application is under further review and is now considered “non-routine”. No specific reason was disclosed.
...
Naturally, I’m feeling quite anxious about this situation. Has anyone gone through something similar? How long did it take before you finally received your PR card or at least an update once the file went non-routine
I believe your application was already considered non-routine well before this most recent episode, so I doubt that there is any new content beyond the info/clarification before that about their uncertainty as to your physical presence in Canada.

So, I basically have no suggestion, unfortunately.

It seems to me that the somewhat-common approach for non-routine cases where long absences and uncertainty about where the applicant may be is that IRCC decides to send the card to a local office for physical pick-up. You can read in various threads about experiences of others in these pick-up cases (in brief, a large part of the reason for this seems to be to confirm the ID of the applicant and physical presence in Canada - mostly at time of pickup, to a lesser degree some historical verification).

That said, this is not fast either, and so I've no idea about timeframes, and certainly no idea how an applicant might influence IRCC to use this mechanism. So perhaps others have a suggestion, I've nothing better to suggest than waiting for now.
 
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canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
56,128
13,715
Hi everyone,

I wanted to provide an update since my last post. As some of you know, I’ve been waiting over six months for my PR card renewal and have encountered some unexpected complications.

Last week, my MP’s office contacted IRCC on my behalf. IRCC initially expressed uncertainty about whether I was physically present in Canada, even though they acknowledged that they had record of my most recent entry into the country in September 2024 through the land border. Apparently, the confusion stems from the PRTD application I had previously withdrawn via webform and email from within Canada. It seems that IRCC’s records suggest that I withdrew the PRTD from outside Canada, leading them to question my current whereabouts.

Today, after my MP’s office confirmed that I’m indeed in Canada, IRCC advised that my application is under further review and is now considered “non-routine”. No specific reason was disclosed. IRCC advised that no timelines for processing apply in these cases. My MP’s office suggested following up with them if I don’t hear anything by the end of January 2025.

Naturally, I’m feeling quite anxious about this situation. Has anyone gone through something similar? How long did it take before you finally received your PR card or at least an update once the file went non-routine? Were you asked to submit additional documents, or did IRCC eventually resolve the matter on its own? Did anyone consider legal avenues, like a mandamus application, in non-routine cases?

I’d really appreciate any experiences or insights you can share. It would help reassure me and possibly guide my next steps. Thanks in advance!
Not sure how you would qualify for mandamus at the moment. You had an extremely long absence from Canada and got lucky by not being reported, filed for PR card with almost not buffer and then left Canada. You’ll just need to wait and would not suggest leaving Canada until you have the PR card.
 
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MaHab

Full Member
Jan 8, 2023
41
7
Thanks @armoured and @canuck78 for your insights. I'm absolutely convinced, all I can and should do is just patiently wait. I'll try to give myself a break and forget about it. I have no plans leaving Canada anyway. As usual, I'll let you know if anything changes so that people here may benefit and avoid my mistakes. The number 1 mistake PRs like myself should never do is to take our PR status for granted and to risk loosing it by being absent from Canada for too long. That's the root cause of all PR related problems in my opinion.

Have a happy holiday season everyone!