Living near the border and maintaining PR status

[albak]

Hi - My husband and I live in a border town. We have authorization to work in the US and our PR card is under processing. In order to maintain our residency, we were looking to get a cheap condo or house in Canada and travel over the weekend until we can make a decision on whether we want to go the Green Card route or settle in Canada. My question is,

If we travel on Friday evening and return on Monday morning would that count as 4 days spent in Canada? Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

I know that we’ll run into problems when we apply for citizenship but at this point we only want to maintain our PR and want to accrue as much days when we still work in the US.

 

[rish888]

Border town as in the border is 100 meters away or 30 minutes?

As far the PR obligation goes, partial days count as one day in Canada, so you could drive across the border in the evening, buy some milk, return to the States, and accrue 1 day towards your residency obligation. (Even if you only flagpole/spend 5 mins in Canada.) This may be feasible if the border is really close by, but not so much if it's a little drive.

In the Friday to Monday scenario, it will count as 4 days.

For citizenship, it's the same thing. The requirement is "physical presence" and any day spent entering our exiting Canada can be counted as physical presence for that day.

Note that unlike the US which is very intention based, Canada is pure math. You either have the days or don't. As simple as that really.

 

[Buletruck]

Doing the math, you would be 55 days short in 5 years of RO (4x52x5=1040). You would need to spend some additional time in Canada to make the required days.

 

[scylla]

Getting a Nexus card (if you qualify) would speed up border crossings.

 

[albak]

Doing the math, you would be 55 days short in 5 years of RO (4x52x5=1040). You would need to spend some additional time in Canada to make the required days.

Thank you for your response. I thought it was 730 days to maintain PR which I think I should be able to meet. Isn’t that right? I have no intention of applying for citizenship right away. I just want to be able to maintain my PR till my US situation is sorted.

 

[rish888]

Thank you for your response. I thought it was 730 days to maintain PR which I think I should be able to meet. Isn’t that right? I have no intention of applying for citizenship right away. I just want to be able to maintain my PR till my US situation is sorted.

You can more than easily meet your PR RO if you diligently do the Friday to Monday thing. What Buletruck was trying to say was that even if you spend 4 days a week every week for 5 years, you'd still be a little short of the citizenship RO.

Depending on how far away the border is, I would recommend doing Friday to Monday (if it's a little far) or flagpolling a few times a week if it's near by. (Basically just entering and immediately exiting Canada. )

If you'd like meet the citizenship requirements, spend some time in the holidays to get those additional 55 days.

 

[albak]

You can more than easily meet your PR RO if you diligently do the Friday to Monday thing. What Buletruck was trying to say was that even if you spend 4 days a week every week for 5 years, you'd still be a little short of the citizenship RO.

Depending on how far away the border is, I would recommend doing Friday to Monday (if it's a little far) or flagpolling a few times a week if it's near by. (Basically just entering and immediately exiting Canada. )

If you'd like meet the citizenship requirements, spend some time in the holidays to get those additional 55 days.

Thank you! That makes perfect sense. I think we will be living pretty close to the border (we aren't sure on the specifics yet) so we should be able to flagpole pretty frequently.

 

[albak]

You can more than easily meet your PR RO if you diligently do the Friday to Monday thing. What Buletruck was trying to say was that even if you spend 4 days a week every week for 5 years, you'd still be a little short of the citizenship RO.

Depending on how far away the border is, I would recommend doing Friday to Monday (if it's a little far) or flagpolling a few times a week if it's near by. (Basically just entering and immediately exiting Canada. )

If you'd like meet the citizenship requirements, spend some time in the holidays to get those additional 55 days.

Thank you! That makes perfect sense. I think we will be living pretty close to the border (we aren't sure on the specifics yet) so we should be able to flagpole