Moving back to Canada after more than 2.5 years of landing as a PR. Any reasons to worry?

[NPconnoisseur]

As the title makes it clear, I am planning on moving back to Canada from the US in March or April 2022. I landed as a PR in Canada back in June 2019 and spent only 13-14 days in total so far - including soft landing and time spent in November 2020.

I have done quite a bit of back in forth in deciding whether to move or give up my PR before making peace with the decision I finally made after months of wanting to do the opposite.

My plan is to travel to India (from the US) in Feb 2022, spend a month or two with the family and move to Canada. My only worry is that I will be leaving a stable job in the US and lose the visa status. Should the Canadian immigration officials prevent me from re-entering the country for any reason, I won't be able to go the US. While I will be having more than 730 days with in the first 5 year period of my PR, just the uncertainity of the whole thing and the fact that I have spent quite a bit of time outside Canada since I got my Permanent Residency are making me nervous.

When asked by the immigration officials upon landing as to why I didn't spend time in Canada the first 2-2.5 years I am planning on telling them that financial commitments + covid delayed my plans of moving to Canada. This post is just an effort to take note of any blindspots or potential surprises or redflags I am ignoring.

Thank You.

 

[armoured]

-You should not have any problems if you're returning in the timeframe you mention. If asked, just tell the truth (family, job, covid, etc).

-No-one can tell you how settling in Canada will go for you job and 'life-wise.'

-The one thing I'd flag in above is that you will have ~4-5 months of 'buffer' time in your residency obligation. In practical terms that may mean you have less flexibility to travel and spend time abroad going forward.

-As long as you your time outside of Canada is less than 1095 days in any five-year period (looking back, first five year period until June 2024), you will be in compliance. The math is simple - if something comes up that means you need to be out of Canada for longer periods, you will start running into residency compliance issues.

-Being out of compliance does not mean the end of the world - you can read many cases here of people being admitted while out of compliance, and then remaining in Canada until compliance re-established - for those whose lifestyles/careers/family require a lot of time abroad and/or frequent travel, it will get more complicated with higher risks. Small amounts of non-compliance are often treated very leniently (but can still lead to inconveniences of consequence).

-Mostly this manifests as higher risks, increasing with time outside of Canada (more out-of-compliance), mitigated by some other factors.

-The point being, no-once can quantify the risks meaningfully, and only you can weigh those against the possibly severity of the consequences.

-Anyway, don't mean to over-frighten you. If you return in your time frame described and mostly remain in Canada, with time abroad limited to eg a month a year, you'll be fine, and in due course renewing your PR card and applying for citizenship. You'll have nothing to fear at borders when in compliance with your RO - they can ask questions, but won't much matter if you're in compliance.

 

[NPconnoisseur]

Thank you @armoured for your input.

And yea, I am well aware that nothing is certain in terms of how life in Canada will pan out. Everyone will have to chart out their own course. I will atleast be satisfied if moving to Canada can give me peace of mind that I have been yearning for.

Also thank you for listing out all the things I need to be aware of. I realize that people are want to have the cake and eat it too. My case is the same. I played that game so far but getting tired of it.

Instead of spending 2 months at a stretch, I will limit my India trip to to 3 or 4 weeks so that I can use the time spent outside Canada later when I absolutely need it. Been more than two years since I saw my family and that's been bothering me a lot. And in the end that is what made me choose Permanent Residency over uncertainitiy of holding a US visa.

Last I greatly appreciate how you've been doing a terrific job of providing inputs on various question people have on this forum, Can never thank you and others enough for that.