Credit Toward RO Compliance After Applying for PR Card:
An effort to bring closure to this issue.
The time in Canada will not count if the PR card renewal is denied which is why she shouldn’t have renewed her PR card before completing the 2 years. Until she receives her new PR card she is at risk of losing her status if she leaves Canada.
In particular, as I noted in my previous post, and yes this is contrary to other comments here in addition to yours, a PR is entitled to the benefit of counting days in Canada
AFTER applying for a PR card. There really is no doubt about this, not only based on the statutes and regulations, but also on Program Delivery Instructions, Operational Manuals, Operational Bulletins, and the fact there are no actual cases so much as hinting otherwise. To be frank, it is hard to understand why the contrary view has persisted in this forum.
Moreover, the procedure followed when IRCC has concerns about RO compliance in regards to a PR applying for a PR card does NOT involve denying the application. That is NOT how it works. There is, rather, a referral to the local office, and if the local office cannot determine based on the file that the PR is either in RO compliance or should be allowed to retain PR status for H&C reasons, the local office conducts a formal Residency Determination. The PR will be given credit for days IN Canada during the preceding five years, up to that date, the date of the formal Residency Determination. If based on that examination the local office determines the PR is not in RO compliance and there are not sufficient H&C reasons to allow the PR to retain PR status despite not being in compliance, a 44(1) Report is prepared, and the process for 44(1) Reports is followed.
That is, if in processing the PR card application IRCC determines the PR is inadmissible for failing to comply with the RO, it does not deny the application but, rather, commences the 44(1) Report process. (With the possibility of a rare exception, many years ago now, in a case involving a PR abroad; and that procedure would be contrary to current PDIs; and that PR was not in Canada after applying for the PR card.)
Yes, of course the PR who applies for a PR card without being in compliance is at risk of a decision terminating PR status . . . but if the number of days IN Canada after applying are enough to get the PR in compliance BEFORE the formal Residency Determination examination (which does not happen until AFTER the PR is given an opportunity to submit supplemental information), the PR will get the benefit of those days.
That is, as long as a 44(1) Report has not been prepared, and the PR has not been denied a PR TD, the time IN Canada AFTER applying for a new PR card does count toward meeting the Residency Obligation.
There really is no other way to construe or apply the applicable statutes and regulations, which are:
Confusion about this probably stems from the basic procedure according to which the Residency Determination is based on the date that an application is officially received. But as the most recent update of Program Delivery Instructions states:
Using this date does not disadvantage the applicant in any way if the formal assessment of an application is delayed for any period of time following receipt of the application.
At examination, it is sufficient for those who have been permanent residents for 5 years or more to demonstrate that they have met their residency requirements in the 5 years immediately before examination
Note,
NOT during the five years before the date the PR card application was made, or received, but
BEFORE EXAMINATION. And, again, there really is no other way to construe or apply the applicable statutes and regulations.
The confusion may have been further perpetuated by previous versions of the PDIs and Operational Manuals which used permissive language describing this procedure, like the older Operational Manual ENF 27 regarding Permanent Resident Card, which in section 8.7 said that exceptions to using the date of the application . . .
. . . can be made to take into account the five-year period immediately prior to the time that the application is reviewed by an officer, if it allows for the applicant to benefit from the processing delay on IRCC’s part.
Again, actually
the applicable law requires the PR to be given such credit. That is, instead of using the word "
can" here, this operational guideline should have made clear what the current PDI does, that the officer must give credit for days in Canada up to the date of the examination.
Sources:
ENF 23 – Loss of Permanent Resident Status
ENF 27 – PR Card
OP 10 – Permanent Residency Status Determination
*** All PR card applications are delayed for "
a period of time following receipt of the application," since there is no same day as received service; so this qualifying factor does not change the way the process actually works, which is to allow credit (as the law mandates) for days in Canada up to the date there is a formal residency determination examination.
I hope this is sufficient to put to rest the view that days in Canada after applying for a PR card do not count toward RO compliance.