Waiting for PR card. Can I travel with my TRV?

[alvero]

I recently became a PR, about a month ago. I am in Canada. I applied for a PR card but the wait time is 130 days.

I would like to travel outside of Canada for a couple months with my spouse who is a Canadian Citizen. I probably wont get my PR card before then. I have a valid tourist visa on my passport, can I travel with that? Or is it cancelled?

If I apply for a PRTD, it may not be approved, and I dont want to be stuck overseas. What are my options?

 

[scylla]

I recently became a PR. I am in Canada. I applied for a PR card but the wait time is 130 days.

I would like to travel outside of Canada for a couple months and I probably wont get my PR card before then. I have a valid tourist visa on my passport, can I travel with that? Or is it cancelled?

If I apply for a PRTD, it may not be approved, and I dont want to be stuck overseas. What are my options?

Any temporary visas (including TRVs) are generally canceled in the system once you become a PR and are no longer valid for boarding a plane or travel. You should assume you'll need a PR card or PRTD to return.

 

[armoured]

I recently became a PR. I am in Canada. I applied for a PR card but the wait time is 130 days.

I would like to travel outside of Canada for a couple months and I probably wont get my PR card before then. I have a valid tourist visa on my passport, can I travel with that? Or is it cancelled?

If I apply for a PRTD, it may not be approved, and I dont want to be stuck overseas. What are my options?

You don't give many details, but if you are a recently minted PR, you should be able to get pr. You should be in compliance with ro.

It might be inconvenient and cause delays, of course.

Is there some reason you think a prtd would not be granted.

 

[kathysrazor]

An application for a PRTD must be made outside Canada (unfortunately).

Airlines are required to provide Advance Passenger Information through a government of Canada systems.

Advance Passenger Information / Passenger Name Record Data (cbsa-asfc.gc.ca)

In Canada, there is the Interactive Advance Passenger Information system (IAPI), that allows airlines to provide data to the CBSA before takeoff. This includes your travel documents (including visas) and eTA.

Right now, discretionary travel by non-Canadians (including PR) to Canada is essentially banned. There are some limited exceptions, but speaking from experience they don't like to apply those to PRs. As an American Citizen, with a spouse in Canada, travelling for work, they still denied me boarding and I ended up driving.

If you go with a tourist visa, you are essentially saying "I am entering for recreation". Even if they didn't cancel the visa (or the airline doesn't find out), you may be denied entry to Canada, even if you have an exemption under the ban. If the Airline provides your visa number under IAPI, and it's rejected, then you aren't going to be boarding a plane to Canada.

Essentially, if you want to travel, you need to leave Canada, apply for a PRTD outside Canada, and use that to return to Canada. PRs, by law, are eligible for Status Documents. If you violate your residency obligation, they may revoke your status to avoid the need to issue you one, but even then if you've been in Canada during the last year they will still give you a PRTD to travel back to Canada.

In your case, if you are a recent PR in compliance, any denials are going to be due to things like insufficient documentation. Those don't count against you, and are fixed by providing the required documentation.

If you are within the first year or two of PR status, it's impossible to breach residency obligations, which makes granting the PRTD really easy. Any issues you have would be things like failure to include proof of payment for the PRTD, or your photo not meeting spec, etc. If that happens, fix it and you will get your PRTD.

If you are gone for several months, you will have time to make sure your PRTD is approved. You will have to send them your passport while it's processed.

 

[steaky]

Fly to the US and get to a land border on foot might work

 

[Avas_india]

Can someone kindly advise me on the below ?

Recently I have got my eCOPR on the new PR portal, and the address has been reviewed and accepted but the photo is still in review.

Can I ask howmany days will it take to receive a PR card from new PR portal ? I can also see that some are still getting the COPR's in their email directly and those are applying the PR card manually, in my case, I dont need need to apply so Im not able to track anything,

Please advise, THanks.

 

[armoured]

Right now, discretionary travel by non-Canadians (including PR) to Canada is essentially banned.

I don't believe that's true for PRs at all. PRs coming back basically can't be denied entry - at a border, boarding a plane can be a different matter.

There are some limited exceptions, but speaking from experience they don't like to apply those to PRs. As an American Citizen, with a spouse in Canada, travelling for work, they still denied me boarding and I ended up driving.

I can't speak to what happened as you don't give any details. But there are no essential travel exceptions needed for PRs. (Obviously stuff can happen but in terms of policy...)

 

[alvero]

You don't give many details, but if you are a recently minted PR, you should be able to get pr. You should be in compliance with ro.

It might be inconvenient and cause delays, of course.

Is there some reason you think a prtd would not be granted.

PRTD is subject to approval - I have no reason to believe it wont be approved, but I also cannot guarantee that it will. Do people usually have success when applying for PRTD? How long is the wait?

 

[alvero]

An application for a PRTD must be made outside Canada (unfortunately).

Airlines are required to provide Advance Passenger Information through a government of Canada systems.

Advance Passenger Information / Passenger Name Record Data (cbsa-asfc.gc.ca)

In Canada, there is the Interactive Advance Passenger Information system (IAPI), that allows airlines to provide data to the CBSA before takeoff. This includes your travel documents (including visas) and eTA.

Right now, discretionary travel by non-Canadians (including PR) to Canada is essentially banned. There are some limited exceptions, but speaking from experience they don't like to apply those to PRs. As an American Citizen, with a spouse in Canada, travelling for work, they still denied me boarding and I ended up driving.

If you go with a tourist visa, you are essentially saying "I am entering for recreation". Even if they didn't cancel the visa (or the airline doesn't find out), you may be denied entry to Canada, even if you have an exemption under the ban. If the Airline provides your visa number under IAPI, and it's rejected, then you aren't going to be boarding a plane to Canada.

Essentially, if you want to travel, you need to leave Canada, apply for a PRTD outside Canada, and use that to return to Canada. PRs, by law, are eligible for Status Documents. If you violate your residency obligation, they may revoke your status to avoid the need to issue you one, but even then if you've been in Canada during the last year they will still give you a PRTD to travel back to Canada.

In your case, if you are a recent PR in compliance, any denials are going to be due to things like insufficient documentation. Those don't count against you, and are fixed by providing the required documentation.

If you are within the first year or two of PR status, it's impossible to breach residency obligations, which makes granting the PRTD really easy. Any issues you have would be things like failure to include proof of payment for the PRTD, or your photo not meeting spec, etc. If that happens, fix it and you will get your PRTD.

If you are gone for several months, you will have time to make sure your PRTD is approved. You will have to send them your passport while it's processed.

I will be travelling to Europe over the summer for 2 months with my spouse who is a Canadian Citizen.I have been in Canada as a visitor for over 6 months while waiting for my PR app to be approved. So I became a PR only a month ago. Why is it really easy to get a PRTD for me? I am worried I wont be granted one and wont be able to return to Canada. Thought I could still use my temporary resident visa to travel.

 

[dpenabill]

I will be travelling to Europe over the summer for 2 months with my spouse who is a Canadian Citizen.I have been in Canada as a visitor for over 6 months while waiting for my PR app to be approved. So I became a PR only a month ago. Why is it really easy to get a PRTD for me? I am worried I wont be granted one and wont be able to return to Canada. Thought I could still use my temporary resident visa to travel.

Just to reiterate what others have said: the TRV is no longer valid (in addition to the cancellation described by @scylla, as a PR you are not eligible to have any temporary status in Canada). You cannot use an invalid visa or permit to board a flight headed to Canada from abroad.

Regarding Process to Obtain PR Travel Document:

The procedure is usually a fairly perfunctory formality for PRs with NO inadmissibility issues.

Moreover, in general a new PR, and indeed up to the third year anniversary of landing, will ordinarily have NO problem obtaining a PR Travel Document. In particular, no problem in terms of qualifying for the PR TD. Only question is establishing identity (that is, documenting you are the person who has PR status . . . which is why identification and passport must be submitted with PR TD application). Up to the third year anniversary of landing a PR is for-sure in compliance with the Residency Obligation regardless the number of days so far spent in Canada.

Beyond that, potential problems are largely logistical or a matter of processing timelines, which tend to be more problematic in some parts of the world but not Europe. In particular, PR TD processing times in Visa Offices in Europe are ordinarily quite quick, often a matter of days not weeks. BUT COVID has messed things up. And other stuff-happens possibilities can sometimes cause delays.

But overall, apart from how the ongoing global pandemic situation might impact travel (frankly, for this summer the situation regarding Covid alone would discourage me from international travel unless there is a compelling reason for it), there should be very low risk of a problem getting a PR TD for the trip back to Canada from Europe . . . so long as you can provide documents per the PR TD application checklist (other than as to RO compliance since you will not need to show RO compliance).

Regarding Comments About PRs Banned From Entry Into Canada (spoiler, PRs are not banned from entering Canada and cannot be banned from entering Canada):

Not worth wading into specific fact-based variables in regards to being allowed to board flights to Canada attendant Covid-related restrictions . . . these vary widely, are in near continuous flux, and are subject to wide-ranging changes on very short notice, even virtually no notice. General expectation is that most restrictions will relax some over the course of the next few months, but some Covid-variants threaten situations in which things could go back the other way.

But PRs are not banned from entering Canada. PRs cannot be banned from entering Canada (but can be subject to emergency conditions imposed attendant entering Canada).

Beyond that, it often helps to clearly distinguish immigration rules as such, from regulations governing commercial transportation companies which are separate from the immigration rules even though they are measures implemented to enforce immigration rules. What constitutes documentation of authorization to enter Canada sufficient to meet the transportation regulations is more specific than the range of who has authorization to enter Canada under immigration law. After all, even a Canadian citizen (whose right to return to Canada from abroad is protected by the Charter itself, while for PRs it is merely based on statute) will not be allowed to board a flight to Canada without presenting a Canadian passport or special Travel Document (albeit easier and faster to obtain than a PR TD).

Edit to make a further clarification:

If you go with a tourist visa, you are essentially saying "I am entering for recreation". Even if they didn't cancel the visa (or the airline doesn't find out), you may be denied entry to Canada, even if you have an exemption under the ban.

Generally, except for the comments about PRs being "banned," I agree with the gist of your post. But some of the details are a bit off. Like this one. Regardless what travel documents the traveler presents attendant boarding a flight to Canada, a PR can only enter Canada as a PR. Moreover, regardless what travel documents are presented to board a flight or at the Port-of-Entry (PoE), even PRs waived through a PoE based on presenting a temporary visa or a visa-exempt passport, are nonetheless then in Canada as a PR . . . presenting an invalid document at the border does not magically transform the individual's status in Canada.

In this regard it warrants noting that once border officials establish the traveler is a Canadian, and this applies to Canadian PRs as well as citizens, entry into Canada must be allowed. The PR who presented an invalid visa or such may be subject to other consequences, perhaps even proceedings to determine inadmissibility based on misrepresentation in applying for entry into Canada (remember, just showing up at a PoE constitutes making an application for entry into Canada, which here too applies to citizens as well as PRs and FNs). But the PR must be allowed to enter Canada.

 

[kathysrazor]

Generally, except for the comments about PRs being "banned,"

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting PRs are banned. Specifically, if one does not present as a PR, then as far as the airline is concerned, you can be banned (for example, non-essential travel). Even if you have an "exemption to the ban" (essential travel), it's not available as that exemption is for non-Canadians.

PRs are Canadians, and were never subject to any bans in the first place, therefore a PR can't use the exemptions available to non-PRs.

 

[armoured]

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting PRs are banned. Specifically, if one does not present as a PR, then as far as the airline is concerned, you can be banned (for example, non-essential travel). Even if you have an "exemption to the ban" (essential travel), it's not available as that exemption is for non-Canadians.

PRs are Canadians, and were never subject to any bans in the first place, therefore a PR can't use the exemptions available to non-PRs.

A PR does not need the exemption to the ban - if, of course, the PR using their pr card or arriving at a port of entry on land.

So I'm not sure what situation you are referring to, perhaps?

Otherwise I'm struggling to understand "PRs were never subject to any bans, and therefore can't use the exemptions available to non-PRs." They can't use them because they ... were never subject to the ban in the first place, right?

 

[dpenabill]

While I am not sure that any further clarification is needed . . .

The short answer, as @armoured said, is that "A PR does not need the [essential travel] exemption to the . . . " [Covid-19 related] ban . . . " because a PR is NOT subject to such a ban.

But to be clear, just like Canadian citizens, PRs have NOT been banned or otherwise prohibited from traveling to or entering Canada whether their travel is discretionary, non-essential, or essential. While certain conditions have been imposed (like quarantine), regarding which the purpose of the travel can have an impact on PRs, for this there is essentially little if any difference between travelers who are Canadian citizens versus Canadian PRs.

Thus, in particular, a Canadian PR (just like a Canadian citizen) does not need to establish the purpose for travel is essential in order to travel to Canada. A Canadian PR can board a flight coming to Canada even if the PR's travel is discretionary or otherwise non-essential.

However, a Canadian PR must nonetheless meet the requirements for presenting certain documentation (namely a valid PR card or PR TD) in order to get permission to board a commercial flight to Canada.

Beyond that, what appears to need emphasizing is that to the extent there remains some confusion it probably derives from failing to clearly distinguish --

-- immigration laws and rules governing who is authorized to ENTER Canada, versus​

-- the rules governing who can board commercial transportation headed to Canada, regarding which​

-- -- there are the general rules requiring presentation of documentation from a specific list, and​

-- -- additional, SEPARATE temporary restrictions imposed pursuant to Covid-19 (global pandemic) measures​

Even though the general rules governing the boarding of flights to Canada are in part based on immigration laws and rules (including laws governing who is authorized to enter Canada), and part of the system for enforcing immigration law and rules, the differences are important. Moreover, confusion derived from the impact of the differences is currently aggravated by the particular travel restrictions imposed due to the global pandemic.

I do not mean to presume what you meant, @kathysrazor, but it appears your personal experience was not about being denied boarding a flight to Canada because you are a PR but because you could not present the documentation necessary (PR card or PR Travel Document) for a PR to board a commercial flight to Canada . . . after all, you were allowed to travel to Canada (and then enter), just not aboard commercial transportation.

And otherwise, a traveler carrying a U.S. passport is subject to the Covid-19 restrictions.

Beyond that, what happens in a particular situation can also vary from what should happen according to the applicable rules, so it is always risky to draw conclusions about what the rules are based on what happened in one instance.

For further clarification, the exemption which allows a Canadian PR (also applicable to a Canadian citizen) who is a U.S. citizen to fly to Canada without a PR card (Canadian passport for Canadian citizens), or PR TD, is NOT about a rule for PRs in particular. This is part of the overall U.S./Canada relationship pursuant to which certain documentation showing citizenship in the other country is sufficient for purposes of being allowed to board a flight to the other country. U.S. citizens can board a flight to Canada regardless of status in Canada. However, this [exemption] is currently subject to the additional, separate restrictions on travel imposed pursuant to Covid-19 measures. So, for example, for individuals seeking to travel to Canada based on their status as a U.S. citizen, for the last year the purpose of the travel (essential or non-essential) matters.

Another clarification worth highlighting is that the rules governing travelers boarding flights to Canada generally are specific as to necessary documents . . . for purposes of boarding a flight, it does NO good to prove a person is a Canadian PR, or for that matter a Canadian citizen, since only certain documents qualify to meet the rules governing who airlines may allow to board the flight. That is, it is NOT about whether or not the individual traveler is actually, in fact, a PR or not, but about whether the traveler presents documentation on the list of acceptable documents for boarding flights to Canada. Likewise for Canadian citizenship. Proof of citizenship is not sufficient. A born in Canada birth certificate supported by a dozen affidavits including one from a deity will NOT suffice. The traveler needs to present either a Canadian passport or a special travel document.

Which loops back around to the rule allowing a U.S. citizen to board a flight to Canada, even if the individual is a Canadian PR or Canadian citizen without the documentation generally required of PRs or Canadian citizens. But again, this means this traveler (U.S. citizen without a PR card or PR TD) is subject to any Covid-19 restrictions applicable to U.S. citizens (and thus for the last year the travel must be meet the essential travel guidelines) even if the traveler is a Canadian PR. Which has NO effect on the traveler being allowed to travel to Canada using private transportation.



quotes for reference:

Right now, discretionary travel by non-Canadians (including PR) to Canada is essentially banned.

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting PRs are banned. Specifically, if one does not present as a PR, then as far as the airline is concerned, you can be banned (for example, non-essential travel). Even if you have an "exemption to the ban" (essential travel), it's not available as that exemption is for non-Canadians.

PRs are Canadians, and were never subject to any bans in the first place, therefore a PR can't use the exemptions available to non-PRs.

To be clear, the earlier reference to "non-Canadians (including PR)" makes no sense. As your last observation said, and it is correct, "PRs are Canadians." There is no non-Canadian PR. In particular, those who have PR status in Canada are defined, by law, to not be Foreign Nationals. (Section 2(1) IRPA, which can be seen here: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-2.5/page-1.html#h-274071 )

 

[kathysrazor]

Otherwise I'm struggling to understand "PRs were never subject to any bans, and therefore can't use the exemptions available to non-PRs." They can't use them because they ... were never subject to the ban in the first place, right?

My PR card was stolen. I tried to use my American Passport to get on a plane, and one of the exceptions for Americans. The CBSA and the airline denied me, because the presumption is that a PR without a PR card is not a PR.

I am in the same situation now as I wait for a new PR card. I've waited for months. Without a PR card or PRTD, they may deny me entry to Canada, even though Americans have exceptions to the ban. The logic, such as it is, is that they won't treat me as a PR because I don't have a PR card, but won't treat me as an American because they know I am a PR.

 

[kathysrazor]

I do not mean to presume what you meant, @kathysrazor, but it appears your personal experience was not about being denied boarding a flight to Canada because you are a PR but because you could not present the documentation necessary (PR card or PR Travel Document) for a PR to board a commercial flight to Canada . . . after all, you were allowed to travel to Canada (and then enter), just not aboard commercial transportation.

Yes. The airline is required to verify documentation for PRs by regulation. For non-Canadians, they give the information to the CBSA who makes a determination if the travel is essential.

As PRs, it's possible to be in limbo (for flights) without a PR card or PRTD. This is the same case (for example) when a PR is from a Visa-Exempt country other than the US. Non-Canadians from the same country can get a ETA, but a PR cannot. As such, the PR must have a PRTD or PR Card to board a plane, because they can't pretend not to be a PR in order to use the ETA process.

My earlier statement was supposed to be "PRs without a PRTD/Card", not PRs.