Expired PR card

[Shah2016]

Hello

I landed in 2010 and stayed for few days. I had to take care of my parents due to their old age. I did travel to different countries for short duration like 2 to 5 days because of my Job requirement. I did not travelled back to Canada after my initial entry. My PR card is expired and I know I did not fulfilled the 730 days requirement.

My humble request to seniors kindly guide/advise me, Can I restore my permanent residency ? if yes what are the possible ways ?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Leon]

You can apply for a travel document based on that you could not fulfill the residency requirements due to humanitarian grounds as you were taking care of your sick parents. Provide your parents medical records as well as some doctors letters stating that you were taking care of them.

If you get the travel document, you can return to Canada and renew your PR card. However, keep in mind that a travel document granted on humanitarian grounds excuses you for not having met the RO in the past but not the future so even with your new PR card, you should really stay in Canada for two years straight afterwards.

If you are still taking care of your parents and still need to stay in your home country, you should not apply for a travel document now but wait until the situation with your parents is resolved.

If you are refused the travel document, you can appeal but if you lose the appeal, you lose your PR.

 

[Shah2016]

Dear Leon, Thank you very much for your quick reply. My mother is no more in this world but my still take care of my father. I would like to understand,
a) Is there any requirements / laws/ rules, defining the "humanitarian grounds".
b) Based on your knowledge how much are the chances that Canadian embassy will accept my application and issue travel document ?
c) what documents (other than medical records and doctor letters) I have to attach with application
d)If travel document is issued then, Can I apply for PR card once I will reach there or first complete 730 day and then apply ?

Thanks again.

 

[Leon]

If you are still taking care of your father, there is no point in applying now. If you apply now and go to Canada, who will take care of your father?

Immigration does have an allowance for humanitarian grounds and taking care of sick relatives is one of them. If you manage to prove your case without a doubt, you have medical records, you have doctors letters stating that you were taking care of your parents, I think you have a pretty good chance of getting the travel document.

If you get a travel document based on humanitarian grounds, you can apply to renew your PR card as soon as you arrive in Canada. Getting a PR card renewal took about 5 months last time I checked.

 

[torhout13]

Hello, I would like to ask regarding an expired PR. Do I need to apply for a PR Travel Document if I am from a visa exempt country? I meet residency requirements and I also applied for a PR renewal while in Canada but I am now outside of Canada.
From my understanding eTA is not mandatory until fall 2016.
Thank you.

 

[dpenabill]

Hello, I would like to ask regarding an expired PR. Do I need to apply for a PR Travel Document if I am from a visa exempt country? I meet residency requirements and I also applied for a PR renewal while in Canada but I am now outside of Canada.
From my understanding eTA is not mandatory until fall 2016.
Thank you.

Short answer:

My guess is probably; that is, that you probably will need to obtain a PR TD or travel via the U.S. to return to Canada.

I recognize some have a contrary opinion for PRs with a visa-exempt passport, at least for the near future before the eTA leniency period ends, with views ranging from those who think boarding will be allowed, by displaying the visa-exempt passport, to the view it is possible if the PR manages to avoid disclosing PR status.

IRCC advises that PRs must present a PR card or PR TD to board a flight to Canada.


Longer, more detailed explanation:

eTA does not directly affect a Canadian PR. Indeed, in particular, Canadian PRs are not subject to eTA requirements.

The information currently being provided by IRCC is posted at the top of the IRCC web page titled "Understand permanent resident status," which is the following web page:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/about-pr.asp

There is no mention of any leniency period for this.

There is similar information, essentially stating that to board a flight to Canada a Canadian PR must present either a valid PR card or a PR Travel document, posted in multiple IRCC web pages, including those with information for prospective visitors to Canada; for example, see
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/apply-who.asp
This page contains the general eTA advisory at the top (it is after all a page addressed to prospective visitors), which generically refers to "travellers" who do not have an eTA being able to board flights during what is being referred to as a leniency period, but also states that travelers must otherwise have appropriate travel documents. (For PRs, the appropriate travel documents for boarding a flight to Canada is the combination of a valid passport plus either a PR card or PR TD.)

Again, there are (probably) some participants in this forum who continue to believe that during the eTA leniency period those PRs without a valid PR card still may be allowed to board a flight to Canada if they present their visa-exempt passport.

I am not among those who believe this. My guess is the contrary, that the PR rule is now generally being enforced. I am quite sure, however, that at the least there is a substantial risk the PR rule will be enforced for any given PR, subject to the particular circumstances.

There have been NO recent reports, one way or the other, none since the mandate of the eTA regulation (section 7.1(1) IRPA Regulations - this should link) took effect March 15, 2015.

It appears that airlines are not updating their information and to some extent continue to post conflicting information. Air Canada, for example, has a webpage titled "Travel Documents" (this should link) which specifically states that PRs without a PR card "will not be allowed to board the carrier back to Canada." But in a drop-down window for "details" for international flights, linked from the same page, it states that only PRs "from non visa-waiver countries" need a PR card "to return to Canada." My impression is that this page has not been updated in some time.

How to approach this is of course a personal judgment subject to individual circumstances.

 

[torhout13]

Thank you very much for your answer. I really appreciate that. I suppose I should apply for a PR TD to be safe. Although, I am a bit uncomfortable sending the original copies of my passport and expired PR card along with my PR TD application, which I will later need.

 

[torhout13]

I would like to ask one more question. Recently - two weeks ago - I sent my application for a PR renewal. A week later I realized I made an error in my application regarding dates. My application will start being processed in approx. 3- 4 months. Is there any way how I could notify cic that I made an error in application? Thank you.