Expired PR while overseas but still satisfy 730 days

[NewAdventure]

Hi everyone,

I am a Canadian PR holder. My PR will expire in June 2015. I will have clocked more than 730 days (having stayed in Canada from Jan 2012 to October 2014) to renew my PR in Jan 2015 (6 months before the expiry date of June 2015) .

However, I intend to leave Canada and work overseas in November 2014 for some years and will not be renewing my PR card (in Jan 2015).
With the above in mind, my questions are:

1) As a person with an expired PR card of 2 years (June 2015 - June 2017), can I still return to Canada in June 2017 to renew my PR card? I would still be able to meet the residency obligation of 2 years out of the last 5 years due to my stay in Canada from June 2012 to October 2014.

2 ) If I could return to Canada to renew my PR card in June 2017, should I enter Canada with a visa exempt passport/expired PR card by air OR should I apply for a travel document overseas where I will be working at?

3) As I only intend to be in Canada for a few weeks in June 2017 to submit my PR renewal application, can I leave Canada without waiting for my new PR card to arrive? The new PR card will be sent to a Canadian address and a friend will mail it to me overseas. I will only return to Canada in May 2020 to fulfill the 730 days residency obligation before the new PR card expires in June 2022.

 

[Leon]

1) Yes, you will have been outside Canada from Oct. 2014 to June 2017 so that is less than 3 years and you would still meet the residency requirements.

2) Up to you. The airline will let you board with a visa exempt passport and immigration will most likely give you a lecture about not renewing your PR card and ask if you meet the residency requirements which you do.

3) This is where you have a problem. Two problems actually. First, it is not certain that your new PR card will be mailed. Your long absence from Canada before applying could well cause immigration to take a better look at your application or at the very least request you to pick your new card up in person. Your second problem is that if you leave Canada again after a month or two, having applied to renew your PR card, you will no longer meet the RO after say Nov. or Dec. 2017. You see, the RO is not staying in Canada 730 days in each 5 year PR card period in which case your plan would work. The RO is staying in Canada 730 days in any rolling 5 year period which means that once you have been outside Canada for 1095 days (3 years) which would happen in late 2017, you would no longer meet the RO. Sure, if you manage to renew your PR card, it may be unlikely that you would get caught for not meeting the RO but if it happens, you would have a problem. Say your new PR card is lost, stolen or destroyed and you need a travel document, they will not ask if you met the RO for your first 5 years as a PR or if you can meet the RO for your 2nd 5 year period as a PR. They will ask if you meet it for the past 5 years counting from that date and you will not.

 

[NewAdventure]

Thanks Leon for the detailed explanation. I appreciate it very much.

I have not thought about the rolling 5 year period.

Let say if I manage to get my PR card renewed in June 2017 and I leave Canada a month after. PR renewal application process will take a few months, say December 2017 approval and I need to collect and the immigration office in person.

In December 2017, I would have stayed out of Canada for more than 3 years. 1) Does that mean I will not be able to enter the country or obtain my new PR card?

2) If I only intend to stay in Canada for 1 month to renew my PR card, would it work better if return to Canada earlier in Jan 2017 (after being outside of Canada for 2 years 2 months). So if the PR renewal application process takes several months to process (e.g. 6 months), I will still have a leeway of 10 months (till November 2017) to cover the RO of the rolling 5 year period.

The problem in this case (if I get it right) is that after November 2017 (while overseas) if my new PR card is lost, stolen or destroyed, I will not be able to get a travel document to enter Canada or to apply for another PR card. This is because I will not meet the RO for the past 5 years from the date of application.

 

[Leon]

1) Because immigration does not have full and immediate access to all info about your travels, they do not automatically know when someone doesn't meet the RO so after you have spent more than 1095 days outside Canada, you can not know that you will have a problem on entry or not. If the immigration officers suspect or know that you do not meet the RO, they could report you for it and if they do, you would have to appeal for your PR listing your reasons for not meeting it. If you have a good H&C reason like taking care of your seriously ill relative for example, you would likely keep your PR but if you had left because of a job, that would not be a very strong reason to them.

It is possible that you will be able to enter in Dec. '17 without a problem and it is possibly that you would get reported. This is always the case when someone doesn't meet the RO. Every time you enter Canada, you have a risk of getting reported. This is true even with a new PR card.

2) If you enter in January and apply to renew your PR then, you would have more time, that's true. After getting the card renewed, your risk is not only tied to something happening to it and having to apply for a travel document. It is also possible that immigration somehow realizes that you do not meet the RO even though you have a new PR card. You may for example try to enter in 2020 and then get reported with almost no time in Canada in the past 5 years.