Parents not meeting Residency Obligations

[shasundi]

Hi, I'm hoping to get some input on what happens in the situation where my parents are at right now. My grandmother has been keeping very ill and as a result my parents are needing to stay in their home country to care for her. Here is my parents' timeline

Jan 15 2021 - Landed as permanent residents (Stayed approx. 9 months)
Sep 02 2021 - Left Canada to care for my grandmother
Sep 2021 to Sep 2023 - Did not live in Canada
Sep 15 2023 - Lived in Canada (Stayed approx. 5 months)
Feb 14 2024 - Left Canada again as my grandmother's health started deteriorating again
Feb 14 2024 to Current time - Are not living in Canada

So far, they have only stayed in Canada for about 14 months of the required 24 months. My grandmother is still quite ill and my parents do not see themselves coming to Canada at least until the summer of 2025 (at which time their PR Card will still be valid but they will not have met their residency requirements of being in Canada for 730 Days by the time their PR Card expires in Jan 2026). They still have to live in Canada for 10 months by Jan 2026 to meet the 2 years residency requirement.

Will they be allowed to enter Canada in July 2025 as they will have a valid PR Card or will they be denied entry for not meeting 2 years of stay requirement by Jan 2026 (5 years from landing)? Please let me know and thank you!

 

[Besram]

Hi, I'm hoping to get some input on what happens in the situation where my parents are at right now. My grandmother has been keeping very ill and as a result my parents are needing to stay in their home country to care for her. Here is my parents' timeline

Jan 15 2021 - Landed as permanent residents (Stayed approx. 9 months)
Sep 02 2021 - Left Canada to care for my grandmother
Sep 2021 to Sep 2023 - Did not live in Canada
Sep 15 2023 - Lived in Canada (Stayed approx. 5 months)
Feb 14 2024 - Left Canada again as my grandmother's health started deteriorating again
Feb 14 2024 to Current time - Are not living in Canada

So far, they have only stayed in Canada for about 14 months of the required 24 months. My grandmother is still quite ill and my parents do not see themselves coming to Canada at least until the summer of 2025 (at which time their PR Card will still be valid but they will not have met their residency requirements of being in Canada for 730 Days by the time their PR Card expires in Jan 2026). They still have to live in Canada for 10 months by Jan 2026 to meet the 2 years residency requirement.

Will they be allowed to enter Canada in July 2025 as they will have a valid PR Card or will they be denied entry for not meeting 2 years of stay requirement by Jan 2026 (5 years from landing)? Please let me know and thank you!

They will not be denied entry, but the process can be started to revoke their PR - which can lead to a subsequent removal order. Caring for a sick relative might be considered under humanitarian and compassionate reasons for not meeting the RO, but there are never any guarantees.

The only way they will not lose their PR for sure is to meet the RO. If they absolutely cannot, they should bring documentation about the illness of your grandmother, why no one else could care for her, etc. Every case will be evaluated individually, so it's impossible to say if your parents will be able to retain their status. They need to be aware of this risk.

 

[armoured]

Hi, I'm hoping to get some input on what happens in the situation where my parents are at right now. My grandmother has been keeping very ill and as a result my parents are needing to stay in their home country to care for her. Here is my parents' timeline

Jan 15 2021 - Landed as permanent residents (Stayed approx. 9 months)
Sep 02 2021 - Left Canada to care for my grandmother
Sep 2021 to Sep 2023 - Did not live in Canada
Sep 15 2023 - Lived in Canada (Stayed approx. 5 months)
Feb 14 2024 - Left Canada again as my grandmother's health started deteriorating again
Feb 14 2024 to Current time - Are not living in Canada

So far, they have only stayed in Canada for about 14 months of the required 24 months. My grandmother is still quite ill and my parents do not see themselves coming to Canada at least until the summer of 2025 (at which time their PR Card will still be valid but they will not have met their residency requirements of being in Canada for 730 Days by the time their PR Card expires in Jan 2026). They still have to live in Canada for 10 months by Jan 2026 to meet the 2 years residency requirement.

Will they be allowed to enter Canada in July 2025 as they will have a valid PR Card or will they be denied entry for not meeting 2 years of stay requirement by Jan 2026 (5 years from landing)? Please let me know and thank you!

Just for the purposes of calculating the residency obligation: what matters between now and 15 Jan 2026 is whether they have been OUT of Canada more than 1095 days (three years total), which is the calculation for being non-compliant. That's ~36 months. By my rough count they were out of Canada about 745 days (sept 21 to sept 23), plus about 135 days (feb 14 to today), for ~880 days.

You'll have to do your own arithmetic on when they need to return to stay compliant. Rough calc would be february 2025 (but do the actual adding up, I take no responsibility for that calc). Returning only then would, however, make staying compliant (in order to get PR card renewed, for example) VERY difficult if they should need to travel at all. A buffer of extra days would be a good idea.

Or return non-compliant and risk it as mentioned above. You should consider that it might be MUCH wiser for one of them to remain compliant, because that parent could sponsor the other in future (should one lose PR status).

[Note of course that after Jan 15 2026, it is a five year looking-back calculation, and eg in first half of 2026 they would be 'losing' days from 2021.]