PROSnCONS said:
Hi expert advisors;
I have a PR as (FSW) and did the landing last year with my family, and we flew back to where we work (It is hard to sacrifice everything all of the sudden as you know). how long is it ok to stay outside canada and What is the impact on our PRs and re-entry to canada if we exceeded this period?
what is acceptable to tell the immigration officer why are we stayed long outside canada?
You have up to 3 years (1095 days) that you can stay outside Canada in any 5 year period. If you utilize the full 3 years in one go, you would have to stay for a full 2 years after that to make up.
If you stay outside Canada longer than 3 years, you may be reported for not meeting the RO (residency obligation) as you enter. If that happens, you would have to appeal for your PR. If you had mitigating reasons like taking care of a dying family member and can prove it, they would most likely let you keep your PR but if your reason was that you did not want to move because you had a good job in another country, they would not consider that a good reason.
If you get in without being reported, you could let your PR card expire and stay for a full 2 years to bring your PR status back in good standing. In this case, you would have to stay under the radar so you can not have any more children at this time because you would not be able to sponsor them without immigration realizing that you do not meet the RO which would most likely result in an investigation and possible loss of your PR.
If you stay outside Canada so long that your PR card has expired but you are visa exempt, you could try to go back to Canada on your visa exempt passport and see if you get in without being reported. If you are not visa exempt, you would have to apply for a travel document which they will not give you without a good reason for having been away or you could try to enter from the US in which case you would have to enter in a private or rented car as no carrier would take a person to Canada who is not visa exempt, doesn't have a visa, a valid PR card or travel document. You would then have to deal with immigration on entry showing your expired card and hope they don't report you.
If you did get into Canada without being reported but with an expired card, you would face other challenges trying to live in Canada for 2 years. There is no law that says you must have a PR card to stay in Canada but various establishments have started to ask for it anyway in order to provide you services so you may have problems getting health care and a drivers license for example.
To avoid problems in the future, just make sure you don't exceed the 3 years. There is also no guarantee that immigration will not change the rules about being able to stay for 2 years to get your PR status back in good standing if you didn't get caught so you shouldn't count on it staying that way.
A SIN will be made inactive if you didn't use it for 5 years and you would have to go to Service Canada and get it re-activated.