Establishing/mantaining Residency after receiving PR

[carlabea]

Hello folks,
I have just received the letter approving my application and telling to go to a port of entry to get the residency. I am now in Canada, visiting my husband.
But I am broke and I might have a chance of an 8 month temporary academic employment in the US starting in August though. Should I wait to go get the card and finish this process until I get back from the US?
**My concern has to do with properly establishing my Canadian residency: I did read that they require 2 out of 5 years to MAINTAIN residency, but is there a necessary period at the beginning of the residency that one has to stay within the country in order to establish residency? (Hope this is not too convoluted!)
Many thanks! ~carlabea

 

[keesio]

Nope. Just 2 out of 5 years to maintain. You can land, become a PR and then leave the next day if you wish.

 

[carlabea]

Awesome. Thank you so much!!! All the best ~carlabea

 

[Gumper]

Nope. Just 2 out of 5 years to maintain. You can land, become a PR and then leave the next day if you wish.

Really? That's interesting. So you don't have to acquire a resident card or open a bank account etc., as long as the stamps in your passport show entry/exits TOTALING 2 years out of the five since the PR is issued?

 

[keesio]

Really? That's interesting. So you don't have to acquire a resident card or open a bank account etc., as long as the stamps in your passport show entry/exits TOTALING 2 years out of the five since the PR is issued?

I don't think the OP is concerned about opening a bank account. Anyway, as long the OP provides a Canadian address to mail the PR card to (a friend's address, etc), the OP can leave but still have the PR card mailed to that address and pick it up later.

btw - my wife open a bank account without her PR card. They wanted her SIN number and passport. She got her health card using her COPR.

But note that since the PR card is the best government ID a PR can have, it is a bit of a pain if you don't have one.

 

[keesio]

Awesome. Thank you so much!!! All the best ~carlabea

carlabea - one IMPORTANT thing to note is that I don't know if you applied after October 26, 2012, but if you did, you are subject to Condition 51, which requires you to live with your spouse for 2 years after becoming a PR. So if both you and your spouse go back to the US, it is fine. But if you plan on going back to the US by yourself while your spouse stays in Canada, AND you are subject to Condition 51, you a technically violating the Condition and can lose your PR status. That is the big thing I can think of. You weren't clear in your original post if you plan on going back to the US by yourself or if you are subject to Condition 51

 

[benjis_monikuss]

There's a new rule coming in (came in?) that will change this to 4 out of 6 years. This will come with the improvements to inland app processing times. They just started to switch between offices so I'm not sure on the status of the 4/6 rule but if you plan on landing later this may be something to keep in mind.

 

[keesio]

There's a new rule coming in (came in?) that will change this to 4 out of 6 years. This will come with the improvements to inland app processing times. They just started to switch between offices so I'm not sure on the status of the 4/6 rule but if you plan on landing later this may be something to keep in mind.

The new 4/6 proposal is for Citizenship requirements only.

 

[benjis_monikuss]

The new 4/6 proposal is for Citizenship requirements only.

Oh awesome! That makes me feel a lot better about leaving the country then! Haha

 

[carlabea]

thanks to all and thank God I applied at the end of sept. 2012, so the condition 51 does not apply.
Thanks so much Keesio!

 

[CdnandTrini]

carlabea - one IMPORTANT thing to note is that I don't know if you applied after October 26, 2012, but if you did, you are subject to Condition 51, which requires you to live with your spouse for 2 years after becoming a PR. So if both you and your spouse go back to the US, it is fine. But if you plan on going back to the US by yourself while your spouse stays in Canada, AND you are subject to Condition 51, you a technically violating the Condition and can lose your PR status. That is the big thing I can think of. You weren't clear in your original post if you plan on going back to the US by yourself or if you are subject to Condition 51

Hi keesio do you know if there are any specifications for those of us who are subject to condition 51, re: the amount of time they can be out of country? My mother-in-law is elderly and my husband may need to travel out of Canada without me for some of her care. Does CIC make provisions for this type of thing with the conditional PR? If so can you point me to any details? Thanks and blessings.

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi keesio do you know if there are any specifications for those of us who are subject to condition 51, re: the amount of time they can be out of country? My mother-in-law is elderly and my husband may need to travel out of Canada without me for some of her care. Does CIC make provisions for this type of thing with the conditional PR? If so can you point me to any details? Thanks and blessings.

Nobody really knows as we haven't seen any cases of the new conditional rules being enforced yet.

In the majority of cases, I imagine it will be enforced through direct notification to CIC, i.e. in cases when a couple separates, the sponsor reports it.

In your case, you probably don't need to worry. In order for it to be an issue the immigration officer your husband gets upon returning to Canada would need to notice he's a conditional PR, note the time he's spent outside of Canada, determine during that time he wasn't cohabiting with you, and then report it all to CIC for further investigation.

In general to minimize risk I would go by the CIC definition of cohabiting, which is that "temporary and short" times apart are allowed due to work, school, family etc. I would say anything up to a month is ok, and over that you are pushing your luck a bit.

 

[CdnandTrini]

Nobody really knows as we haven't seen any cases of the new conditional rules being enforced yet.

In the majority of cases, I imagine it will be enforced through direct notification to CIC, i.e. in cases when a couple separates, the sponsor reports it.

In your case, you probably don't need to worry. In order for it to be an issue the immigration officer your husband gets upon returning to Canada would need to notice he's a conditional PR, note the time he's spent outside of Canada, determine during that time he wasn't cohabiting with you, and then report it all to CIC for further investigation.

In general to minimize risk I would go by the CIC definition of cohabiting, which is that "temporary and short" times apart are allowed due to work, school, family etc. I would say anything up to a month is ok, and over that you are pushing your luck a bit.

Thanks Rob, I kind of figured as much as it is hard to know how CIC plans on enforcing the conditional PR stuff. They do not even have the staff right now to follow up on certain complaints of provable fraud. I mean there are all kinds of legitimate situations where the new "conditional PR" spouse may have to return home for periods of time (and how is CIC defining "temporary and short") or possibly go to another country/province to work even. I wonder how they are going to deal with all of the many scenarios that will inevitably arise. It will be interesting to see I'm sure. Blessings.

 

[keesio]

As Rob mentioned, it is likely that this condition will most often be investigated on request by the sponsor. This condition came about because of complaints by jilted sponsors who felt used by applicants as a way to get PR status and have no recourse. So this condition would all sponsors to report any breakdowns in the relationship to CIC to get their partners removed from Canada. If the sponsor doesn't contact CIC, most likely it is fine (though there *was* some reports of CIC officers making unannounced visits to couples to see if they were living together).

Short visits I imagine are fine. Really it would have to be an extended absence where your spouse actually sets up residency in another country.

 

[Rob_TO]

If the sponsor doesn't contact CIC, most likely it is fine (though there *was* some reports of CIC officers making unannounced visits to couples to see if they were living together).

Keep in mind the other kind of immigration fraud, in which the sponsor is part of the fraud. Usually this involves an applicant paying cash to a Canadian in order to arrange a fake marriage and sponsor them to Canada. Under the previous PR way, the new PR could just separate shortly after landing in Canada and both parties would go on their separate ways.

However now with the new conditions as they are written, they must actually live together 2 years. Not impossible to do, but also not ideal to a potential fake sponsor to live with a fake spouse (perhaps this has increased the price for this service lol). So obviously in this case, the sponsor would not be reporting anything if the PR actually lived elsewhere, since sponsor was part of the fraud. In these cases it's up to CIC to determine if they are really cohabiting... which could be done through spot checks or by reports of CBSA/immigration officers.

For this reason I can see why CIC wrote the rules as they did. It makes the whole thing a little more tough on genuine couples, but incredibly more tough on fake ones.