i need advice on my options?

[mike121]

great Forum..

I have been sponsored by my wife (family class), landed in 2007 then stayed and had a child, filled the citizenship application in 2010, approved and invited to the exam which I could not attend cause of unexpected situation back home required my physical presence (parents health matter) then PR expired while outside Canada.

what are my options? any help will be appreciated..

 

[PMM]

Hi

great Forum..

I have been sponsored by my wife (family class), landed in 2007 then stayed and had a child, filled the citizenship application in 2010, approved and invited to the exam which I could not attend cause of unexpected situation back home required my physical presence (parents health matter) then PR expired while outside Canada.

what are my options? any help will be appreciated..

1. If you have met your PR residency requirements,(2/5 years or residing with CC spouse abroad) then you can apply for a Travel Document to return to Canada.
2. If not then you can apply for TD on H.& C. Grounds and if refused appeal, or if you have a US visa, or a Visa exempt passport, then you could try to enter Canada at a Land Border using your COPR.

 

[mike121]

PMM

I really appreciate your guidance, thank you.

1. I am outside Canada since Oct 2010.? what is your advice?
2. H & C do you mean humanitarian consideration?

what about the Citizenship exam which I missed in ? will I be able to ask to consider the time stayed in Canada 2007 till 2010 and been scheduled for exam again?


last notice to appear for exam was on OCT. 2011? any comment?

Thanks again

 

[scylla]

Your citizenship application is long since dead. You'll have to wait until you've returned to Canada, once again meet the residency requirement for citizenship, and then apply again. Note that starting next year, the citizenship requirement is increasing to 4 years in Canada out of 6. So this is the requirement you'll have to meet once you return to Canada to apply for citizenship again.

For now what you should be concerned about is retaining your PR status. Any chance you've been outside of Canada all this time with a Canadian citizen spouse?

And yes, H&C is humanitarian and compassionate consideration.

 

[mike121]

Thank you Scylla

my child and wife were with me for about 20 months in the last 4 years (both are Canadian citizens).

do you mean I totally lost the time I have stayed in Canada before?

 

[scylla]

Because you failed to attend the citizenship interview your application would have been flagged as abandoned and closed. This means you'll need to apply again. In order to apply you'll need to meet the criteria at the time you apply. Currently, you must have lived in Canada for 3 out of the last 4 years to apply for citizenship. This is increasing to 4 years out of 6 mid way through next year. Since the citizenship process only looks at the most recent years, yes, you will have effectively lost the three years you were in Canada between 2007 and 2010 and will have to start the residency count again from scratch once you return to Canada. You should forget about citizenship for the time being since you are now years off being able to apply.

Getting back to your PR status... You should see if you can get evidence to prove that your wife spent 20 months with you over the last 4 years. If you can prove this, you can count the time she was with you outside of Canada as time spent in Canada (for PR purposes only - not for citizenship).

 

[brbr]

Thank you Scylla

my child and wife were with me for about 20 months in the last 4 years (both are Canadian citizens).

do you mean I totally lost the time I have stayed in Canada before?

mike121,

Just to follow up on scylla point, if your PR has expired and if you haven't been in Canada for 24 months (2 years) in the last 60 months (5 years) you might not be able to renew that either even if you re-enter Canada.... which might become a major pain/issue for you.

 

[mike121]

Brbr and Scylla

thank you.

 

[Leon]

1. I am outside Canada since Oct 2010.? what is your advice?

my child and wife were with me for about 20 months in the last 4 years (both are Canadian citizens).

For the PR residency requirements, looking at the past 5 years, September 2009 until today, you have approximately 11 months in Canada and then 20 months outside Canada accompanied by your Canadian citizen wife. This is more than enough for you to meet the residency obligation so if you want to return to Canada at this point, you can.

If you have a visa exempt passport, you can travel on that and when you get to immigration, tell them you are a PR and show your expired card.

If you are not visa exempt, you will have to apply for a PR travel document through the embassy.

Once you are back in Canada, you can apply to renew your PR card.


As for the citizenship requirements, when you missed the citizenship exam, you should have notified them that you could not attend and they would have scheduled you again. If you didn't do this or you missed the 2nd chance as well, they would have considered your application abandoned and you can not revive it.

Because you needed 3/4 years in Canada in the past 4 years to apply, once you were outside Canada for more than 1 year, you would have lost your time already spent because once you are outside Canada for more than 1 year, you can not reach 3/4 years again in the past 4 until you have stayed for a full 3 years. However, you will have to stay 4 years not in order to apply because the rules are changing next year to 4/6 years.

 

[hoping_canadian]

go to your locan canadian embassy and they will walk you with the process

 

[mike121]

thank you Leon..

i sent a fax to CIC about that i can not attend the exam due to emergency situation but got no reply and it was impossible to reach them.