Living with Canadian wife aboard. PR card expired. What to do?

[cclee]

Hi

I landed and became a PR in 2002 (not a typo; 13 years ago).
Then, found a job in the US in 2003, and worked in US since then.
So, I was not able to maintain my residency requirement.

Then, in 2007, married my wife (who is a Canadian citizen), and both are working in US.

Now, both my wife and I are now US Citizens.
Over the weekend, we were stopped by the Canadian Immigration officers at the Canadian Border.
The reason was "not meeting my residency requirement".
(We crossed the border many times, and this was the first time, the Canadian officers questioned about this.)

Question:
I don't want to be stopped by the Canadian officers every time I cross the Canadian border.
What are the options now?


Thanks.

CC

 

[ttrajan]

Apply for PR card renewal. But still you can enter with your USA passport?

 

[cclee]

Apply for PR card renewal. But still you can enter with your USA passport?

Thanks for the reply.
I read through some emails from this forum.
There are quite a few people with similar situation.

I looked at the application form for the PR card.
It does ask me about "Residency Obligation - Absence while accompanying a family member who is a Canadian citizen".
So, hopefully by applying for a PR card and indicating the above in the application, the officers at the border will not send me for secondary inspection anymore.

 

[Abe G. Weit]

Hello cclee:

A couple of questions if you wouldn't mind answering
1. During your numerous border crossings, did you present your PR card or your USA passport ?
2. Did you present the same travel document the time you were stopped?
3. When you were stopped, did they issue you a departure or removal order or some kind of notification that your PR status might be revoked?

Not sure if your circumstances permit, but if you were not issued a departure/removal order (i.e., if the answer to 3 is NO), it may be possible to get your PR residency obligation back in good standing by staying in Canada long enough to restore your 2/5 RO and then apply for renewal of your current PR card - a discussion of this is located at on this forum under a thread titled "Troublied" - see replies #10,11,13 (can't post links, but should be able to find this with a forum search).

Regards,
Abe

 

[zardoz]

Hello cclee:

A couple of questions if you wouldn't mind answering
1. During your numerous border crossings, did you present your PR card or your USA passport ?
2. Did you present the same travel document the time you were stopped?
3. When you were stopped, did they issue you a departure or removal order or some kind of notification that your PR status might be revoked?

Not sure if your circumstances permit, but if you were not issued a departure/removal order (i.e., if the answer to 3 is NO), it may be possible to get your PR residency obligation back in good standing by staying in Canada long enough to restore your 2/5 RO and then apply for renewal of your current PR card - a discussion of this is located at on this forum under a thread titled "Troublied" - see replies #10,11,13 (can't post links, but should be able to find this with a forum search).

Regards,
Abe

He doesn't need to get it "back in good standing". He is in full compliance as he is accompanied by a Canadian citizen spouse.

 

[cclee]

A couple of questions if you wouldn't mind answering
1. During your numerous border crossings, did you present your PR card or your USA passport ?
2. Did you present the same travel document the time you were stopped?
3. When you were stopped, did they issue you a departure or removal order or some kind of notification that your PR status might be revoked?

#1. Nexus card, tied to my USA passport.
#2 Sort of the same doc. It was my renewed Nexus card, which I had used 2 or 3 times already without any issue.
#3 No. Once the officers learnt that my wife is Canadian and we were living together in USA. They let us go.