returningpr said:
I completed my Masters in Canada and applied for immigration. Made my landing in 1999 prior to PR Card but could not stay in Canada or keep my PR status intact. I don't recall whether I applied for a fresh SIN number.
I want to apply for immigration under Express Entry but have been told that I am still a PR in Canada based on my landing and will either have to try to return to Canada via land crossing from USA (allowed through Landing record paper) or formally close my PR status before applying again whether under FSWP or Family sponsorship (I have a relative in Canada who can sponsor me).
Appreciate if someone could point out any posts which already address similar issues or provide their valuable feedback with particular respect to:
1. My status (as per the records) - is it still Permanent Resident? Where can I find the status online?
2. Can I apply for PR Card if I am allowed to enter Canada?
3. Can I check and obtain my post-immigration SIN number (my old SIN number started with 9 i.e. temporary resident) prior to returning to Canada?
Thanks in advance to everyone who responds.
Once a PR, always a PR until:
-- death
-- becoming a Canadian citizen
-- PR status formally adjudicated as lost (PR Travel Document application denied, any appeal lost; Removal or Departure Order becomes enforceable)
-- PR formally, in writing, surrenders PR status
Thus, you are indeed still a PR.
Since you have not complied with the PR Residency Obligation, you are, however,
inadmissible.
That inadmissibility has no effect until you apply for a PR Travel Document, seek entry to Canada at a POE, or are otherwise subjected to proceedings to determine whether your status should be retained.
If you apply for a PR Travel Document, it will almost certainly be denied (H&C grounds must be considered but you do not suggest there is much in your favour in that regard).
If you approach a POE (such as arriving at a POE at a land crossing with the U.S.), odds are high you will be examined and issued a 44(1) inadmissibility report, followed by a Removal Order, and then allowed to enter Canada. You are still a PR at that stage, and you have a specific time within which to make an appeal, and while the appeal is pending (often takes the better part of a year) you continue to be a PR, and can legally work in Canada.
However, given the length of time you were outside Canada, the outcome of the appeal is rather predictable, and the loss of PR status is largely inevitable.
Possibility of being waived into Canada:
It is possible that you could approach the POE, present identification, and be waived into Canada. Actual odds are unknown. My sense is that the odds of this happening are low. But I am not sure.
In the past, more than a few individuals in similar situations fudged, or outright made misrepresentations at the POE, in order to slip back into Canada without being identified as a PR in breach of the Residency Obligation. First, it is far more difficult to get away with this today than it was just a few years ago. Secondly, the consequences for making misrepresentations in this circumstance are more serious now and more often enforced. A five year ban from Canada is just one of the consequences.
If, though, you do attempt to enter Canada via a POE and are among the very lucky, are not asked about being a PR and otherwise not identified as a PR in breach of the Residency Obligation, and are in effect simply waived into Canada, well then all you have to do is stay for two years, not leave at all, not make any applications at all to CIC for those two years, and then you would no longer be inadmissible. Your PR status would be intact. In the meantime, since you are a PR you can legally work. Not sure, though, about how to deal with not having a valid SIN. CoPR plus passport with original PR visa cancelled in it ordinarily suffices to obtain a SIN, but I am not sure how that works fifteen plus years later; at the least you would have to do this in Canada. In any event, while the odds of this going this way are in the range of what is possible, those odds are very low.
Alternatively, surrendering PR status:
The most feasible approach, but more in the vein of a long-term approach, would be to surrender your PR status. Once you have formally surrendered your PR status, you could apply for PR status again. The fact that you have previously surrendered PR status should not hurt your application. (You are not eligible to apply for PR again until your current PR status is formally revoked or surrendered.)
You can do this at an embassy abroad (if not in person, probably by mail or perhaps electronically). And then make the PR visa application. This would, obviously, take time, and there is no guarantee the PR application will succeed.
Alternatively, if you can reach a Canadian POE, you can do this (surrender PR status) at the POE and ask to be allowed entry into Canada under visitor status. As a visitor you would be restricted relative to working in Canada (generally, but not entirely, prohibited from working in Canada). Probably no advantage to doing things this way except, perhaps, taking an opportunity while visiting Canada to contact prospective employers in the hopes of finding one willing to do the paperwork to get you status to work in Canada (subject, of course, to provisions governing work permits and such).
