I became a permanent resident in November 2019, travelled to Vancouver and stayed for 2-3 months . . .
Observations by
@scylla and
@armoured should adequately answer your questions. I am commenting mostly to emphasize and clarify a couple things.
There are two very distinct aspects of your situation. One is returning to Canada, and whether or not you might have a 44(1) Report prepared against you upon your arrival. The other is about applying for a new PR card.
The latter is simple: do NOT apply for a PR card UNLESS and NOT UNTIL you are in compliance with the PR Residency Obligation. It is OK to let the PR card expire as long as you are IN Canada.
What MIGHT happen when you arrive in Canada after being absent for three years or more is a little more complicated, but here too as both
@scylla and
@armoured have noted, the sooner you arrive in Canada the better the odds there will be NO problem when you arrive, the better the odds you will be waived through the Port-of-Entry without being subject to 44(1) Report processing.
I hesitate to reassure you that even if you are a little or a couple months late, the odds are good there will be no problem. There is always a risk for a PR in breach of the RO. So no PR should take for granted the fact of good odds will mean they too get a pass, even if many others do not encounter a problem.
@armoured noted the easy way to calculate when you are in breach of the RO. If at anytime during the first five years after landing you have been outside Canada more than 1095 days, you are in RO breach, in RO breach as of the day you exceeded 1095 days abroad (since that means you cannot possibly meet the 730 days in first five year RO).
As noted, if you get here when you are only a little in breach of the RO, the odds are fair to good you will be waived through without being questioned much about RO compliance. But you might be.
SO, YES, you will want to be prepared to explain your absence. Be honest. Just tell your story. Contrary to some forum participants, even factors related to staying working abroad are more likely to help if that is part of the real story, your real story, and it is just what you needed to do in order to prepare to make the permanent move here. To the extent Covid was a factor, you can and should briefly state how that influenced the delay in YOUR making final arrangement to make the move here; not in the kind of detail
@canuck78 discusses (see comments by
@armoured and mine below), but in general terms. Since you were in Canada for a period of time, you will want to be prepared to give details about that time in Canada and especially about the date of exit, perhaps even have some evidentiary documents showing that departure from Canada date.
Worst case scenario is, yes, a 44(1) Report and Departure Order. You would still be allowed to proceed into Canada. You will still have PR status. And if you want to try to stay, you can by making an appeal. Pending an appeal you can live and work like any other PR.
But you seem to go far beyond in intuiting or stating what IRCC, CBSA, IAD or others will do. These comments are actually just your speculation, and they're starting to resemble most of all what (I presume) you would like to happen or how you would prefer these cases be disposed (more strictly, I guess).
OP relocated within India, started a new job, etc. during the pandemic. How is that different than relocating to Canada? People using Covid as a reason for not being able to come to Canada usually showEd that they remained in the same place, continued with their same housing, same job, stayed with their family. If the reason for not coming to Canada was due to the pandemic most were able to show that they were taking steps to quarantine/isolate and limit travel. It is also now the end of 2022 when international travel has been running at maximum capacity, at least as much as the airlines can manage, for many months so it is pretty hard to keep justifying that the pandemic has prevented you from relocating. The only reason that OP is not coming to Canada earlier is because it sounds like they need to give 6 months notice for work. Since this spring travel has become much easier. If arriving in Winter/spring 2023 not sure how the Pandemic will still be an acceptable reasons for not meeting your RO. There were plenty of people who delayed travel but arrived starting last spring and into the summer.
Your comments have little if anything to with anything
@armoured noted. And very little relevance for the OP. And I know you know better. You know as well as anyone here that if the OP arrives in Canada while his first PR card is still valid, the main factor which will influence whether the OP is waived through or is subject to a 44(1) Report process is mostly numbers, how much the OP is in breach of the RO upon arrival. The sooner the OP gets here, the better the odds of no serious RO enforcement questioning, let alone being "Reported" (as typically referred to here).
But even if the OP is referred to Secondary upon arrival and asked detailed questions about RO compliance, there is no indication that the questioning will proceed in the way you outline. We have yet to see any significant reports of returning PRs, with valid PR cards but in breach of the RO, being asked detailed questions related to the particulars in how Covid delayed their return to Canada, let alone detailed questions about the extent to which they otherwise protected themselves from Covid during their absence. There has been no indication that returning PRs citing the impact of Covid among reasons for not returning here sooner have been challenged in the way you describe . . . AND YOU KNOW THAT.
There is little doubt that CBSA border officers have been exercising a significant degree of leniency in not even questioning many returning PRs about RO compliance in large part in deference to the general impact that Covid has had.
Sure, the scope of leniency related to Covid is bound to be on the decline.
But it warrants noting with emphasis that even before Covid, being "
Reported" upon arrival was still unusual, the exception, for a PR whose first PR card was still valid for at least another year. Some, like me, are hesitant to state this so directly because for any PR who arrives at a PoE while in breach of the RO there is a real risk of being Reported, and that risk should not be minimized let alone dismissed. There is no doubt, a PR abroad in RO breach, or approaching being in breach, should make a concerted effort to return to Canada as soon as they can if keeping PR status is important to them.
