PR Card renewal approved, Travel document denied. What shall I do?

[chymex]

I landed in Canada in 2005 and couldn't get a job and was therefore forced to hold a job overseas. I applied for my PR Card renewal in June 2010 and it was not approved till my PR Card expired in December. I did not meet the 730 days requirement, but my PR was finally approved on Compassionate ground. My family (wife and kids) are already Canadian Citizens.

I just got a notice form the Citizenship and Immigration office of my area to come and pick up my renewed PR Card. The invitation came when I was already outside Canada. I then applied for a travel document attaching the invitation to pick up my approved PR Card, but to my greatest surprise, the application was denied based my not meeting the 730 obligation.

At this point I'm confused and wonder the best line of action to take since I need to get back to Canada to pick up my PR Card. Is it better to make any appeal or to apply for visiting visa based on an invitation by my wife who is already a Citizen?

Your advise is welcome. Thanks.

 

[Leon]

Did you tell the visa office when you applied for the travel document that you had already appealed based on not meeting the residency requirements and won?

If you did not, you can try doing that now and see if they reconsider and give you the TD.

If you did, they probably looked at your situation and saw somebody who doesn't meet the residency requirements, appeals for it, wins but has already left Canada in the meantime. In that case, they may have denied on the basis that they think you are not serious about living in Canada.

Between immigration and the visa office, somebody has to decide what they want to do with your case. If you lose your PR, your wife can sponsor you again but you would have to officially lose it first. You can not apply for a visit visa until you officially lose your PR. Get your wife to have a word with your MP about clearing up your situation.

 

[PMM]

Hi Leon

Did you tell the visa office when you applied for the travel document that you had already appealed based on not meeting the residency requirements and won?

If you did not, you can try doing that now and see if they reconsider and give you the TD.

If you did, they probably looked at your situation and saw somebody who doesn't meet the residency requirements, appeals for it, wins but has already left Canada in the meantime. In that case, they may have denied on the basis that they think you are not serious about living in Canada.

Between immigration and the visa office, somebody has to decide what they want to do with your case. If you lose your PR, your wife can sponsor you again but you would have to officially lose it first. You can not apply for a visit visa until you officially lose your PR. Get your wife to have a word with your MP about clearing up your situation.

Look at from CIC's perspective, he retained his PR status after appeal on H.& C. grounds. By not remaining in Canada after the appeal and acquiring 730 days of residency he demonstrated that he has no intention of remaining in Canada. So his residency was evaluated when he next applied for a PR card, and again he did not meet the residency requirements.

 

[toby]

Hi Leon

Look at from CIC's perspective, he retained his PR status after appeal on H.& C. grounds. By not remaining in Canada after the appeal and acquiring 730 days of residency he demonstrated that he has no intention of remaining in Canada. So his residency was evaluated when he next applied for a PR card, and again he did not meet the residency requirements.

And yet, CRA considers him a Canadian taxpayer, because he has dependants in Canada. Curious way of having it both ways: denying residency but extracting taxes.

I'd have thought that the Visa Office ruling on the TRV application would consider the H&C decision to restore residency, and if that decision considered and accepted the PR's being out of Canada (which it presumably did), then the Visa Office that simply looked at the fact that he was outside the country, and no more, was using bureaucratic blinkers. This may be another example where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, or doesn't care.

 

[Leon]

Like we have talked about before, residency for tax purposes has nothing to do with residency for PR. If you own a home in Canada, you may be considered resident for tax purposes even if you haven't lived there for years. If PR's were allowed to meet residency requirements based on owning a home in Canada, all anybody would have to do not to lose their PR is buy a condo or a house and rent it out and that is not what Canada expects of their PR's. You are given a PR to live in Canada. If you choose not to live in Canada, you lose it.

CIC may well have looked at this mans case and seen someone who has moved his family to Canada while staying outside himself. He has been doing that for the first 5 years he is PR. Why should they believe him when he says he is coming back to live in Canada now? So ok, they gave him a chance and let him renew his PR but when he left Canada during that process, they now do not believe him any more.

 

[toby]

That makes sense.