Do I need to renew my PR card if my citizenship changes?

[needhelpwithrenewal_]

Hello there!

My sister and I have been Canadian PR holders since February 2022 (I am currently in the Netherlands finishing off a rental lease/degree). I have recently obtained Dutch citizenship - but my PR card still reads my citizenship as Kenyan. Would I need to request a new PR card to show this before re-entering Canada (i plan on permanently relocating to Canada coming October after my course/lease is up)? Or can I enter Canada with my Dutch passport and my now-void Kenyan passport? And if I have to request a new card - what is the procedure and which form must I fill in, especially since I would be applying from the Netherlands?

Any help would be incredibly appreciated!!!!!

 

[armoured]

Don't need a new card. Do you still have your Kenyan citizenship? Or at least the cancelled Kenyan passport?

 

[needhelpwithrenewal_]

Thanks for your answer! Two weeks from now I will not have my Kenyan citizenship. I cancel my Kenyan passport in the next two weeks and they require me to give the passport back (though I think I could ask them to simply punch holes in it and let me keep it). Would Canada immigration make a fuss at the airport if the passport I am traveling on is no longer the passport/nationality indicated on the card? Would it suffice to simply show the old passport though void? Thanks so much again!

 

[armoured]

Thanks for your answer! Two weeks from now I will not have my Kenyan citizenship. I cancel my Kenyan passport in the next two weeks and they require me to give the passport back (though I think I could ask them to simply punch holes in it and let me keep it). Would Canada immigration make a fuss at the airport if the passport I am traveling on is no longer the passport/nationality indicated on the card? Would it suffice to simply show the old passport though void? Thanks so much again!

Just keep at least a photocopy of the kenyan passport and travel with it. If you have any documentation apart from Dutch passport such as Dutch grant of citizenship or renunciation/revocation of Kenyan citizenship, that might help too.

The reason I bring this up: the only possible issue at airport is the airline's check-in officer. The issue is not whether you need to change the PR card, but whether the airline officer knows this. So I'm suggesting having the other docs so you can show that person that you-are-you, that there is no other person (with same name and DOB but carrying a kenyan passport), just one former-Kenyan-now-Dutchman.

So you are fully in the right, if they ask, just calmly show them the docs I mentioned above and explain. If they say anything more, insist - calmly - that the PR card is unchanged by your change of nationality, you remain a Canadian PR. If they continue to insist, they should contact CBSA (there is some mechanism airlines can use, I don't know). My impression is that reputable/large airlines leaving from large central European airports understand this and how to check (i.e. if you're travelling air canada or klm, possibly less likely there would be an issue). In small airports airlines for check-on counters often employ personnel from some third-party service company that works with dozens of airlines and don't know as much, and at best there is a single rep from the airline who may or may not be well informed. Likewise charter and other cheap flights often use these service companies (and the airline rep may not know much at all).

Canada immigration at arrival in Canada will not care. Well they may be interested and make a note of it in the file, and you probably want to tell the border officer in Canada, but it's not at all an issue - just tell them. You coudl even ask them if it's possible/does it make sense to change the PR card, but I think the answer will be no.

Of course none of this may happen at all and it will go smoothly with no comments at all.

 

[needhelpwithrenewal_]

This is so incredibly helpful! Thank you so much - you're a star!

 

[armoured]

This is so incredibly helpful! Thank you so much - you're a star!

Do let others know how it goes when you return.