PR card validity

[sharmausct]

hi,
i will be landing for the first time in April 2014.after getting PR card i will come back to India as need to finish some jobs.is there any constraint for returning to Canada within certain time period?how long can i stay out of Canada?you need 2 years out of five years for PR renewal.does that mean i can come back to Canada even after 2 years without any problem?

 

[Leon]

The only constraint is that you must have 730 days in Canada / not have spent more than 1094 days outside Canada in your first 5 years as a PR and in any rolling 5 year period after that. Hence, you can leave after landing and stay outside for almost 3 years but after that you would have to return and stay for 2 to make it up.

 

[sharmausct]

The only constraint is that you must have 730 days in Canada / not have spent more than 1094 days outside Canada in your first 5 years as a PR and in any rolling 5 year period after that. Hence, you can leave after landing and stay outside for almost 3 years but after that you would have to return and stay for 2 to make it up.

thanks for reply.and what about health card?you need 183 days stay out of one year....i am going to land in alberta...what be happen when i will come back say after 2 years..will they issue me a new card or not as my first health card will not be valid at that time

 

[Zac_12]

The only constraint is that you must have 730 days in Canada / not have spent more than 1094 days outside Canada in your first 5 years as a PR and in any rolling 5 year period after that. Hence, you can leave after landing and stay outside for almost 3 years but after that you would have to return and stay for 2 to make it up.

Hi Leon, I have had the same inquiry as of sharmausct an d I believe your answer was reallysufficient, just need to know something more,…
1- as I have heard from some friends that, though based on CIC rules that u can stay outside Canada for not more than 3 year but still they can for any reason decline your return in the airport, or question you about you staying out of Canada for a long time,…is it possible?
2- if I stayed in Canada for the last 2 yrs in the five year and got my pr renewed for another 5 years, then if I am planning to apply for the citizenship I’ll only be required to stay for one more year to complete 3 years, or I’ll have to stay 3 year all over again since my pr renewal date?

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Leon]

thanks for reply.and what about health card?you need 183 days stay out of one year....i am going to land in alberta...what be happen when i will come back say after 2 years..will they issue me a new card or not as my first health card will not be valid at that time

It is true that you must reside in AB for 183 days a year to be eligible for health care. Therefore, if you are just making a short trip to land now and will not be staying 183 days in the first 12 months after you landed, you are in fact not eligible for a health card on this first trip. You would therefore apply for your first health card when you come back after 2 years.

If the situation were different, say you were planning on staying for longer than 6 months and then leaving for 2 years, you could get a health card but upon moving away, you should inform AB health and upon your return after 2 years, apply for a new card as a returning resident. AB has no waiting period for newcomers or returning residents so you would get coverage right away in both cases.

 

[Leon]

Hi Leon, I have had the same inquiry as of sharmausct an d I believe your answer was reallysufficient, just need to know something more,...
1- as I have heard from some friends that, though based on CIC rules that u can stay outside Canada for not more than 3 year but still they can for any reason decline your return in the airport, or question you about you staying out of Canada for a long time,...is it possible?
2- if I stayed in Canada for the last 2 yrs in the five year and got my pr renewed for another 5 years, then if I am planning to apply for the citizenship I'll only be required to stay for one more year to complete 3 years, or I'll have to stay 3 year all over again since my pr renewal date?

Thanking you in advance.

1. No, they can not deny you entry when you are a PR and can prove it (for example with a valid PR card). What they can do is question you about your staying out of Canada for a long time, they can make notes, they can warn you that you must stay 730 days in order to meet the residency requirements and if they believe that you do not meet the requirements, they can write a report and start proceedings to revoke your PR. If this happens, you can appeal, either proving that they are wrong and that you do meet the requirements or claiming H&C grounds why you couldn't.

2. Citizenship requirements are completely separate from the PR card periods. For citizenship, you currently need 3 years in Canada in the past 4. They will not consider time spent in Canada more than 4 years ago. They do not care if you renewed your PR card during the qualifying period. Therefore your plan would work. However, note that they are planning on changing the citizenship requirements soon. They will make it 4 years out of the past 6 and including 4 calendar years where you have stayed more than 183 days in each of those years.

 

[Zac_12]

Thanks leon for your reply,...i have hear about the new 4 years out of the 6 yrs however not sure yet how this would be applied and on whom,....but anyways i guess in my case instead of 1 yr more after renewing the pr then i would have to count 2 yrs to have total of 4 yrs in order to apply for my citizenship.

i just didn't get the 183 days part you have mentioned "They will make it 4 years out of the past 6 and including 4 calendar years where you have stayed more than 183 days in each of those years".

 

[Leon]

Thanks leon for your reply,...i have hear about the new 4 years out of the 6 yrs however not sure yet how this would be applied and on whom,....but anyways i guess in my case instead of 1 yr more after renewing the pr then i would have to count 2 yrs to have total of 4 yrs in order to apply for my citizenship.

i just didn't get the 183 days part you have mentioned "They will make it 4 years out of the past 6 and including 4 calendar years where you have stayed more than 183 days in each of those years".

If you stay for 4 years in a stretch it does not matter. Say you arrive back in Canada in the latter half of the year 2016 say mid July or later, so you don't make 183 days in that year, you would then stay 2017, 2018, 2019 and in 2020 when you have spent your 4 years, you can apply with more than 183 days spent in 2017, 18, 19 and 20 so 4 years with more than 183 days each. If you arrive in the early half of the year 2016, you will could 16, 17, 18 and 19 and you qualify to apply in 2020 again once you have spent a full 4 years.

However, if you have absences, it might start to matter. Say you leave for one year during that period but a little more than one year, exactly such that you do not manage 183 days in Canada in two of the calendar years counted, say 2017 and 2018, then you can not count those years towards the 4 years, you can count the days stayed though. So in that case, you have arrived in the latter half of 2016, still can't count 2016, 2017 or 2018 as years but have almost 1.5 years in Canada from those years. After staying 2019, 2020 and 2021, you would have almost 4.5 years in Canada in the past 6 but because you need a 4th year with more days in Canada than 183, you would have to stay in 2022 for more than 6 months before you can apply.

 

[Zac_12]

thanks leon i got it,...just one more thing,....what is the max period i could stay out side Canada in one go? without facing any issue at port?

 

[Leon]

Maximum would be a day less than 3 years but it would be a good idea to have proof of your exit date such as passport stamps, boarding card etc. so you can prove it if you are asked. Immigration Canada doesn't do exit checks so they may or may not know when you left. They could believe that you left earlier than you did and hence have stayed outside more than 3 years. Of course if you are a PR for under 3 years, you couldn't possibly be in breach of the residency requirements yet.

If you stay outside for the maximum amount of time, you would then have to spend a full two years straight in Canada in order to make up for it and reach your 2/5 years.

 

[bokahontas]

Hi Leon, I have had the same inquiry as of sharmausct an d I believe your answer was reallysufficient, just need to know something more,...
1- as I have heard from some friends that, though based on CIC rules that u can stay outside Canada for not more than 3 year but still they can for any reason decline your return in the airport, or question you about you staying out of Canada for a long time,...is it possible?
2- if I stayed in Canada for the last 2 yrs in the five year and got my pr renewed for another 5 years, then if I am planning to apply for the citizenship I'll only be required to stay for one more year to complete 3 years, or I'll have to stay 3 year all over again since my pr renewal date?

Thanking you in advance.
please I have a question for leon he is very smart for immigration law so im sure I will find the answer for this questin I want to renew my expired pr card and in the last five years immediately I travel 35 times so that's mean 35 departure from Canada and 35 arrival to Canada ,,, so total 70 days are they will count those days in Canada or not from the 730 days

 

[Leon]

Thanking you in advance.
please I have a question for leon he is very smart for immigration law so im sure I will find the answer for this questin I want to renew my expired pr card and in the last five years immediately I travel 35 times so that's mean 35 departure from Canada and 35 arrival to Canada ,,, so total 70 days are they will count those days in Canada or not from the 730 days

Any part of a day spent in Canada, counts as a day spent in Canada towards the PR residency requirements (however not towards the citizenship requirements) so if you left on February 10th and came back to Canada on the 20th, the 10th and 20th are both days in Canada and you have been away for 9 days only.

You can find this rule here:

6.4. Day

Section 27(2) of the Interpretation Act governs the calculation of time limits in federal statutes.
Where a statute refers to a number of days between two events (and precedes the number of
days with the words “at least”), both the day of occurrence of the first event as well as the day of
occurrence of the second event are to be counted in calculating the number of days. For the
purpose of calculating the number of days to comply with the residency obligation in IRPA
A28(2)(a), a day includes a full day or any part of a day that a permanent resident is physically
present in Canada. Any part of a day spent in Canada, or otherwise in compliance with A28(2)(a),
is to be counted as one full day for the purpose of calculating the 730 days in a five-year period.