Gr8AmirM said:
I am programming to land in canada by April 2016 under FSWP. I want to stay for 15 days. I want to know few things:
1- Is there any requirement of minimum stay. Will I still be required to purchase private health insurance even if my stay for 15 days?
2- I want stay for 15 days only. Will I be able to apply and receive my PR? Currently how long it takes to apply and receive PR?
3- I want some other guy to bring my PR card when he will come home. Or is it more in practice to use Courrier? What risks, if any, invoved in the two cases?
4- While landing on airport and showing immigration documents to concerned officers, Will there be any problem if they see return ticket and noticing that my stay is for just 15 days in canada?
5- If some spelling or any other mistake I notice in my PR after getting it, will it be OK to get it corrected while staying in my country? Can it be any issue if I send them through courrier from location other than canada? Or I can do it only from my address in canada?
6- Is it Ok if I want to stay two more years in my country from initial 5 years?
7- What if some one stay 4 years in home country? Then go to canada. Will it be possible to maintain PR?
Thans a Miilion
1. There is no requirement of minimum stay and there is no requirement to buy health insurance. However, you should have travel insurance because in case you slip and fall and break a leg or worse, it can cost you $$$ if you don't have any insurance.
2. You don't have to apply for your first PR card. It is automatic when you land. Cards for new PR's are currently taking 52 days, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-card.asp for updated processing times.
3. The risk is that the guy loses the card or steals the card and sells it or for courier, they lose it or they refuse to carry it based on it being an important document, that is if you tell the courier what it is. Some would just say documents.
4. If they see your return ticket or ask and become aware that you are only staying for 15 days, they could refuse your PR card address as you will not be there when the PR card arrives and tell you that once you are back in Canada to stay, you should give an address then. You could enter Canada the next time by getting a PR travel document if you don't have a PR card. If they refuse your address, you can try from inside Canada on the next day after landing to call CIC and tell them that you want to give them an address to send your PR card and give the same address that the immigration officer refused. In some cases this has worked.
5. You should carefully check the spelling on your COPR and on all documents filled out when you land. If there is a mistake on your PR card and you feel that this mistake is so serious that you can not use this card to travel, you can send it back to CIC and ask for the mistake to be corrected. They will not be cross with you for sending the card from outside Canada. They do however not send it back to you outside Canada. They will make you a new card and either mail it to a Canadian address that you have given them or based on you not being there to receive it, they may make it available for pick up in a CIC office close to the location of that address and you would have to get a PR travel document and come to Canada in order to pick up your card.
6. To keep your PR RO (residency obligation), you must stay 2/5 years. That means you can be outside Canada for up to 3 years and afterwards, you can come back to Canada, stay 2 years straight and then leave again for up to 3 years if you want. For the first 5 years, immigration will consider that you have not yet spent 1095 or more days outside Canada since landing. Once you reach this limit, you will be unable to meet the RO for your first 5 years. Immigration will after the first 5 years always question the past 5 years so on each entry to Canada or applying for a PR card renewal, you should have no more than 1094 days outside Canada in the past 5 years.
7. Currently, you can if you get lucky. The rules at least right now are such that if you don't get caught, you are forgiven if you manage to stay for 2 years so for someone who spent 4 years outside Canada and returns to Canada, the question is do they get caught. If the immigration officer realizes that this person does not meet the RO, they have the right to report them for it. If they get reported, unless they had humane and compassionate grounds or other acceptable grounds for their absence, they will lose their PR. However, if they don't get reported, they can continue to stay in Canada for 2 years straight, even after the PR card has expired and at this time, they will meet the RO again and can apply to renew the card.
Acceptable grounds for staying outside Canada are: 1. you are accompanying your Canadian citizen spouse outside Canada, 2. you are a PR and have been hired by a Canadian business (they are strict on what falls under a Canadian business and they will not accept for example a business started by yourself) and have been posted to a full time overseas position, 3. you are a PR and are accompanying a PR spouse who falls under 2.
Humane and compassionate grounds could include having to nurse and take care of a seriously ill or dying close relative or having severe medical problems of your own and proof of the above. They will not consider things such as studies overseas or your need to continue a well paying job overseas.
