PR renewal (Living outside Canada)

[Leon]

Thanks for your response. You advised me "In any case, you can not apply for anything until your wife is better and you are ready to return to Canada. Then you can apply for a PR travel document based on H&C grounds stating that you could not return to Canada because of her ongoing cancer treatment". Could you please tell me: what are H&C grounds and how, when and where and to whom can I apply for a PR travel document. Thanks a lot for the enlightenment you provide to me.

You can find the application form here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/travel.asp

They will ask you how many days you spent in Canada in the past 5 years and if you don't have 730 days, you will have to write your H&C (humane and compassionate) grounds for why you could not spend 730 days in the past 5 years. Include medical reports and letters from doctors.

Like I said, I have no idea how strong your case is. It is possible they could say that you still could have settled in Canada and made use of health care in Canada. However, you could say your wife needed to be under constant care and she would have been endangered moving to another health care system, having to wait 3 months to get covered by health care, finding the right specialists etc.

The reason you should only apply for this when you are ready to go back is that if you apply now and they accept your reasons and give you a TD but you are not ready to go and let the TD expire or use it but then return to your home country again, you will have almost zero chance of getting a TD again when you did not use the opportunity you were given. Therefore, you should only apply once you are ready to return.