PR Renewal- Humanitarian Grounds

[Utsav]

My green card expires in July 2013 and I may not meet residency requirements, I became a PR in July 2008. My husband is in a similar situation.
Unfortunately, both of us are cancer survivors and have kept out of Canada due to treatment/caregiver reasons in India and/or in the United States. My breast cancer was diagnosed in July 2008, the same day we became PR, we didn't have a choice to stay in Canada,I was in India at that time. Later, he had rectal/colon cancer in 2012. All medical records show continuous treatment/caregiver status and are accurately preserved and also available online.
We intend to preserve our green cards. Our children, one son and one daughter are Canadian residents of Toronto and we intend to be with them in our grey years.
We wish to file our PR renewal application as soon as possible with an appeal for a humanitarian consideration of our extremely precarious and merciful emergency medical condition.
We are professors and not legal experts, please guide us on this appeal, its prospects in our situation and if there is a possibility of its rejection we may plan to complete 730 days before we apply for renewal. Have a happy Easter.

 

[arunnagpal]

Will someone experienced please take this call and care to reply us something in this precarious situation. leon heard of you, you have people with similar situations. take a good step and help this out. thanx.

 

[Canadian helper]

show ur email add for advice

 

[Leon]

The best option for you it to travel to Canada now before your PR card expires. If you are not reported on entry for not meeting the residency requirements, you can stay in Canada for 2 years straight and this will put your PR status back in good standing and you can after that apply to renew it without any consideration to your situation as you will then meet the residency requirements again.

This is not against any law. You are a PR until your PR status is officially revoked. This is not a thing that happens automatically on the day you fail to meet the residency requirements because immigration does not know the whereabouts of each PR at all times so they will only find out that you fail to meet the requirements if they examine you which can happen as you enter Canada or as you apply for something from immigration.

If you have been a PR for more than 5 years, they only look at the past 5 so as I said, if you get in and stay for 2 years straight without applying for anything from immigration, you will meet the requirements again and can renew your PR card without any consequences.

If the immigration officers ask you if you meet the requirements, you can tell them no but you have special considerations because of your medical problems and that you will deal with that when you apply to renew your PR. 99% of cases, the immigration officers will then let you in without reporting you. Only if they report you do you have to appeal for your PR by sending in your medical documents. If that happens, I really do not know if you have a strong appeal because they can say so you had cancer but you could have gotten medical care in Canada too. Canada health care is not perfect and there are waiting lists for many things but Canadians are proud of their health care for the most part and proud that everybody has access to it regardless of rich or poor.

If you are still under medical care, you will have a problem if you go to Toronto because you will not get OHIP coverage until after 3 months. If you want to avoid that problem, you can go to a province that doesn't have a waiting period and will cover you from the first day if you are moving from overseas. However, if you do that, make sure you stay in that province for at least 6 months to avoid problems with your health care coverage. After that, you can eventually move to Ontario and join your children.

By the way, there is no green card in Canada. Only the US has a green card and it isn't even green from what I'm told. In Canada, we have a PR card.

 

[arunnagpal]

Thank You! Leon for your expert advice. I had a positive test for left breast cancer on July 12, 2008 and I got my PR on July 4th 2008, but I had been diagnosed earlier for ca.I didn't have time and go to Canada and apply for health insurance and wait three months. I had a job in hand that would pay for me.I continued with my treatment and you know these treatments are not over early, I am still going for follow ups though I am done with my treatment.And my husband had cancer in 2012. We were engrossed in our medical conditions heavily day after day for these years.

We paid some short trips to Canada to visit our children but couldn't stay long due to our emergency.Now we are prepared and in a better shape to go to Canada with our children, we have two children who are in Canada and no one else in the world to care for us in our older years. We will not be constraint on CA health, we have sufficient retirement funds/savings and we are cancer free now.

we would rather like to appeal and get renewal than stay in Canada for two years, do you think our medical record and ties to Canada in view of urgency to stay with our children support our case? we desperately need your reply.

 

[steaky]

If you landed in provinces such as Alberta, you could have immediate medicare coverage. You don't wait three months. The main reason you cannot maintain your residency obligation is due to your in hand job. I don't see other emergency other than your overseas job.

If you lost your PR, you can always apply for temporary resident visas to come to Canada to be with your children.

 

[Leon]

we would rather like to appeal and get renewal than stay in Canada for two years, do you think our medical record and ties to Canada in view of urgency to stay with our children support our case? we desperately need your reply.

Immigration will see no urgency for you to stay with your children. Your children are adults and can take care of themselves. Immigration often considers what is in the best interest of minor children but your children are not minors any more.

Immigration will not take into account your excuse that you could not go to Canada because you would have had to wait 3 months for health care. Like I already explained, Ontario is one of few provinces that has this waiting period for people who are moving from outside Canada. Most provinces don't. You could have gone to AB, SK or MB and had health care immediately. You chose not to. I really do not know if you have a strong case for an appeal. Maybe you should consult a lawyer.

In any case, if you really want to appeal, wait until your PR cards expire and then apply for a PR travel document at a Canadian embassy. They will then have to process your reasons and will decide if you get to keep your PR or not.

If you lose your PR, your children can apply for a super visa for you to stay with them for up to two years at a time. Your status will then be visitors, you will have to buy private health insurance and will not be allowed to work.

 

[arunnagpal]

Leon I agree with you on all aspects but medical. I had extenuating medical grounds, the cancer was established by reports and surgery was planned and if not done within a week it was a life threat, all documents with doctors notes well in place and you suggest going to Canada making new contacts wait for health card, I didn't expect a Minister of State welcome from them, please advice in light of real situation after all immigration does not wear those rosy glasses. How can they take an emergency for an excuse and when you have a solid paper trail shows it was compelling at least from my point of view but it is not my opinion that counts I regard your opinion more close that is why I am asking you, so please get another dimension, review and let me know your final opinion, I don't like to get legal advice it's exploitative, I will trust you instead.

thank you again.

 

[Leon]

Leon I agree with you on all aspects but medical. I had extenuating medical grounds, the cancer was established by reports and surgery was planned and if not done within a week it was a life threat, all documents with doctors notes well in place and you suggest going to Canada making new contacts wait for health card, I didn't expect a Minister of State welcome from them, please advice in light of real situation after all immigration does not wear those rosy glasses. How can they take an emergency for an excuse and when you have a solid paper trail shows it was compelling at least from my point of view but it is not my opinion that counts I regard your opinion more close that is why I am asking you, so please get another dimension, review and let me know your final opinion, I don't like to get legal advice it's exploitative, I will trust you instead.

thank you again.

Like I said, I really do not know if you have a strong case for an appeal. Having had emergency surgery can explain having not returned to Canada for some months but not for 5 years. However, it is possible that immigration will consider your appeal. Try it if you want to and please let us know how it goes. The more info we have, the better we can advise other people. I do remember one mother and son who had a car accident somewhere and tried to use that as grounds of not having met the requirements but they were denied.

 

[arunnagpal]

Thank you Leon, one last question.

For applying on humanitarian grounds do I have to fill in IMM 5444 and IMM 5455 and attach all documents with statements/notes or there is some other way to file PR renewal on humanitarian grounds

 

[Leon]

A PR card renewal application has to originate within Canada. They can not deny it on the sole basis of you being outside Canada when you apply but you have to at least get the application mailed from within Canada. However, PR renewal is not really set up to deal with H&C considerations and almost all PR card applicants are in Canada when they apply so using such an application to ask for H&C grounds will take forever, probably a couple of years.

You would be better off waiting for your PR cards to expire and then applying for a PR travel document at an embassy because they are set up for that. If you are ready to move to Canada now but do not want to slip in and stay for 2 years without leaving, you could also go to Canada and tell the immigration officers when you arrive that you do not meet the residency requirements and you request that they report you so you can appeal for your PR based on medical grounds. If they do report you, you can enter Canada and have 30 days to send in your appeal. I have no idea how long that takes but I assume faster than trying to use the PR card renewal process.

If you do win the appeal, you can apply for a PR card based on that but you will have to meet the residency requirements in the future. Ideally you should stay your 2 years in Canada soon after you get the PR card back because if you lose it and end up in the situation that you have to apply for a new one, they will not be happy if they had granted you your PR back a couple of years earlier and you have still not moved back or spent any real amount of time.

 

[arunnagpal]

Thank You Leon for wealth of info I will keep you updated.