Hello,
Just wondering what happens when my PR card expires while waiting for oath date. It has been frustrating experience as most of you had experienced. I had to postpone the date due to family member serious illiness. The my spouse and I took the exam in March 2019. Then comes the fun. One document request after another and thousands of dollars spent nothing happened so far. First they said show me your travel details (they could have asked that before the interview which they did not); then comes three months later your partner's fingerprints expired do it again (which they could have asked when they asked for travel details) then comes more document request. It has been three months since we submitted all the documents. Now the PR card is expiring in December. I look at the oath schedule it is full through oct 22nd in mississauga. What should I do? The whole process has taken more than a year.
I live overseas taking care of an ailing sibling for now. I have Indian passport and green card.
"Just wondering what happens when my PR card expires while waiting for oath date."
As others have correctly stated, you do not need a currently valid PR card EXCEPT for the purpose of boarding a direct flight to Canada from abroad. So you do not need to do anything about your expiring PR card UNLESS you want one to facilitate your travel to Canada from abroad.
A PR with an application for citizenship in process can apply for and be issued a new PR card. BUT the PR needs to physically be IN Canada to make that application.
TRAVELING TO or ENTERING Canada
Also as correctly stated by others (except the somewhat bizarre sideshow prosecuted by
@Fido911), since you are a Canadian PR, a U.S. Green Card is NOT relevant for purposes of TRAVELING TO or ENTERING Canada.
As a PR, you need a valid passport PLUS either a valid PR card or a PR Travel Document to fly directly to Canada.
As a PR you do NOT need any particular documents to ENTER Canada once you arrive at a PoE, just sufficient documents to establish your identity and status, and for this your passport plus expired PR card should easily suffice.
If you do not have a valid PR card, you can apply for a PR Travel Document which will allow you to board a flight destined for Canada. OR if you are able to travel via the U.S., which it appears you are, you can fly to the U.S. and then travel to a land-border-crossing to enter Canada.
As others have emphasized, your passport plus expired PR card should easily suffice at the PoE.
PROCESSING DELAYS and DOCUMENT REQUESTS
Apart from logistical issues related to expired PR card and facilitating travel to Canada, presumably to attend an oath ceremony, you describe multiple RISK factors which may explain why you have encountered non-routine processing including multiple document requests and a lengthy timeline.
"Then comes the fun. One document request after another and thousands of dollars spent nothing happened so far. First they said show me your travel details (they could have asked that before the interview which they did not); then comes three months later your partner's fingerprints expired do it again (which they could have asked when they asked for travel details) then comes more document request. It has been three months since we submitted all the documents."
The fact that you are living abroad while the application is in process is a well-known, oft-discussed RISK factor, tending to elevate the risk of non-routine processing and increase concerns about issues like proof of actual physical presence. While the negative influence of this factor appears to have been muted some in the last few years, and there are those who adamantly assert it should NOT have any influence, just the impression it makes alone does NOT help, and that is apart from reasonable inferences, potentially negative inferences, arising from ongoing ties abroad including actually residing abroad.
Frankly, living abroad and asking Canadian officials to grant the
privilege of Canadian citizenship is kind of asking to be investigated. Notwithstanding more than a few views, at least in this forum, that purport to claim otherwise.
"I have Indian passport and green card."
A U.S. Green Card is another obvious RISK factor. Especially given the more strict requirements the U.S. imposes for keeping GC status. Having valid GC status strongly suggests extended periods of residence in the U.S. Not in Canada. Obviously raising the question: how did this individual meet the actual physical presence requirements?
Here too many may assert that having a GC should not have any influence. But if IRCC has questions or concerns about the proof that an applicant was actually physically present in Canada as required, ongoing ties in other countries is very relevant, and especially ongoing ties suggesting ongoing periods of residence in other countries.
"I had to postpone the date . . . "
Not sure what this is in reference to. But if you had to postpone an event scheduled by IRCC, or postpone responding to a request for IRCC, that is also another RISK factor. Reasonable explanations timely given generally resolve questions, but the impression made gets more complicated if there are other reasons for concern, like significant ongoing ties to residing abroad.
Wrinkles tend to have a cumulative impact. One or three small wrinkles tend to cause little or no problem. Those same wrinkles in combination with others, and especially if IRCC PERCEIVES
reasons-to-question-physical-presence, can cumulatively bear significant negative weight.
". . . and thousands of dollars spent nothing happened so far."
Not sure what you have spent thousands of dollars for. Beyond the application fees, some photocopying costs, and mailing costs, applications for citizenship generally have only minimal other expenses. Sure, some applicants have additional costs like those for getting authenticated translation of passport stamps, but such costs should not approach "
thousands of dollars."
". . . they said show me your travel details (they could have asked that before the interview which they did not)."
Citizenship application processing proceeds much in the same way IRCC and CBSA proceed generally: minimizing costs and work-hours employing what has been determined to be the most efficient
ROUTINE processing AND THEN only adding in those non-routine tasks
IF and when facts or circumstances trigger the need to include those.
In particular, the vast majority of citizenship applicants are NOT asked for additional travel details. There is a five to ten minute interview, only part of which is focused on travel history, and IRCC is satisfied the applicant has met the burden of proving actual physical presence.
IRCC does not waste its resources asking for, and examining, additional travel details from all two hundred thousand plus applicants, per year, but rather will screen what is submitted and determine what is verified in that short interview, and then make additional requests from the ten or fifteen thousand for whom there are still questions.
ALL THAT SAID . . .
Hard to discern if there are some outstanding issues lurking in your citizenship application. Assuming your responses to the requests for additional documents adequately meets your burden of proving all the qualifying elements, especially the physical presence requirement,
you may very well be on track to receive an invitation to attend the oath in the near future.
But given just the glimpse of circumstances you reveal here, the non-routine processing and some delays should NOT have been a surprise.
Main thing to be aware, going forward, is that IF you are scheduled to attend the oath, it is very important to make that scheduled event without postponing it. This could be difficult if the amount of notice you get is short . . . it can be as short as just three weeks . . . particularly if you no longer have a valid PR card and will need to quickly arrange travel via the U.S.
It has only been a year so far, but it is also worth noting that in the past some non-routine cases have dragged on for years. In the meantime a PR must continue to comply with the PR Residency Obligation. Especially if there is a Conservative government after this year's election, it warrants a reminder that the last time the Conservatives formed the government there were many citizenship applicants perceived to be abroad who encountered such long timelines it appeared that the government was deliberately delaying processing to see if the applicant would breach the Residency Obligation and thereby provide cause to deny the application. Just a heads-up.
Bottom-line: IRCC does NOT make it easy, and in some ways overtly makes things more difficult, for citizenship applicants who are living outside Canada. Should be NO surprise. Obviously the applicant abroad needs to take extra precautions to avoid certain pitfalls, and this especially includes making sure to get all NOTICES TIMELY, and it especially means NOT missing a scheduled event.