yazmost said:
YES. In the last 5 years, I stayed in Canada 2 years and half not a single day out of CANADA.
Unfortunately, this does indeed appear to be the kind of case in which CIC is prone to conducting a residency examination or at least pursue secondary review before delivering a new PR card. Which could mean a non-routine process and somewhat lengthy delays.
This observation is made assuming that the statement about being in Canada two and a half years in the last five means that the other two and a half years in the last five were spent outside Canada, and given the delay in applying for a new PR card, there is a suggestion that prior to returning to Canada two and a half years ago the length of absence at that time exceeded three years.
When you apply for the PR card you have to account for all absences for the full five year time period, so the extent of absence prior to your return two and a half years ago must be disclosed for that period of time, and of course if that was indeed a two and a half year absence it will tend to make a rather obvious, probably not so favourable impression.
If this is the case, this does
not disqualify you from receiving a new PR card now, let alone pose a risk you could lose PR status.
As long as you currently meet the PR residency obligation, that is what really matters.
But it does elevate the risk of a non-routine process, including receiving a PR Residency Questionnaire.
In this regard, however, the posts by
eileenf are exactly on point: there is virtually nothing you can add to the application itself to avoid the RQ . . . either CIC will issue RQ given your history or it will not. Your history is what it is.
In the meantime, your risk appears to be elevated enough you will probably want to gather and maintain all the relevant records you can to show where you have been living, working, playing, going to the doctor, engaging in community events, whatever shows you have indeed stayed in Canada during this period of time. Hopefully the margin of six months will be enough that CIC does not issue you RQ, but you should be prepared if they do.
Whatever you do, do not fudge any of the information you submit in the application. Consequences for misrepresentation are far more serious now than they were just a few years ago, and CIC is scrutinizing applications far more diligently now than they were a few years ago.
Note about travel without PR card: There is nothing which legally precludes you from traveling abroad in the meantime, so long as you can prove your presence in Canada for more than two years in the last five. You would have to apply for and be issued a PR Travel Document by an embassy abroad in order to make the return trip, but if you have strong proof of your presence in Canada that should not be a problem despite the legal presumption that a PR abroad without a currently valid PR card is presumed to not have valid PR status. That is more or less a procedural presumption fully putting the burden of proof on the PR. Just be sure to take a copy of the proof with you and submit it with the PR Travel Document application (if you decide to travel before being delivered a new PR card), the PR TD application being the one situation in which to bulk up the documentary submission upfront with the application.
