PR Status , PR Card Renewal and Health Card

[dutsub]

Dear Leon

Getting back to you after a while. Leaving our children in Toronto has never been easy for all of us, particularly when one is a minor living under brother's care. So my wife has finally decided to go back and stay in Toronto permanently. But She has to leave Canada for a short while (once every six months) to return here to maintain her residency here and go back to Toronto to the children again.

Our PR Card expired in Aug'2013. When she last visited in June'2013 and stayed for three months in Toronto, she received her Health Care Card which she eventually surrendered before leaving Canada in September'2013. We do not need visa to travel to Canada as we are from Australia. She has written to Canadian Mission to give her Permanent Resident Travel Document. She will travel again in June'2014 for living there.

My inquiries are;

1. After arriving in Toronto, should she apply for PR Card Renewal giving all facts and figures as all our kids, including one minor are living there. Will it have a strong Humanitarian consideration as minor child needs her support. It was hard for the minor to stay alone with brother for last one year and as mother she wants to go back to look after him. Do you think it will receive favourable consideration.

2. Can she send her PR Card Renewal application from outside of Canada. Will that be considered the same way as if it was done from within Canada. Then we can send immediately hoping that they may call her for interview or talk to her there.

3. If all these do not work, can my first child who is working now, can apply for her super visa. Will Super visa be considered favourably as a part of future application for sponsoring Parents. Will Super visa have any added advantage as she can travel to Canada as Visa Exempt Travelers and stay for six months at a time.

4. Can she apply for her health card again when she is there in June.

Appreciate your response.

Regards

 

[Leon]

Being in breach of the RO for not living in Canada but wanting to return to another country every 6 months to keep residency there sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too. Be advised that this will not work.

You were in Canada in 2013. If you had wanted to, you could have stayed and your PR would have been back in good standing after 2 years. You chose not to do this.

Applying for a travel document now was a mistake if you are visa exempt. She could simply have entered Canada on her passport. Now, immigration is forced to determine if she is eligible for a travel document or not, meaning does she meet the RO or not and does she have solid H&C grounds for not meeting them. I suspect they will deny her travel document and as a result, she will officially lose her PR.

1) If she loses her PR, see above, this is a moot point as she can not apply to renew her PR card when she has lost her status. Even if she had not applied for a travel document and simply tried to enter Canada on her passport, it would by no means have been a good idea to apply for a PR card renewal without meeting the RO. Staying with the 2 adult children is not a good reason for immigration to forgive her long absence and grant her a PR card. Staying with the minor child, I think immigration will say that she can take him back with her if she wants to. After all, he has only been back in Canada for less than a year and as such does not have strong ties to Canada.

2) Applying to renew a PR card when you don't meet the RO is not a good idea and from outside Canada, absolutely not. Applying from outside Canada is not encouraged. You can do it but she would be refused anyway because she doesn't meet the RO and has no mitigating circumstances.

3) If she officially loses her PR, she can still travel to Canada and stay up to 6 months as a visa exempt visitor. If your son meets the income requirements to apply for her super visa, he can do it. This would allow her to stay for up to 2 years at a time. She would however not be covered by health care. She would have to buy her own insurance. If she has lost her PR and your son meets the income requirements to sponsor her for the past 3 tax years, he could sponsor her for PR again.

4) If she manages to get back to Canada somehow without losing her PR, she can apply for a health card again.

 

[dutsub]

Dear Leon

Thanks for your response. I appreciate your input, but wondering why did you consider that it is a mistake to apply for PR Travel Document as we are Visa Eempt. You wrote that basically my wife's application for PRTD will force immigration to determine her PR Status and she will be denied PRTD and lose her PR Status. This may be true. But is it not also a fact that even if she keeps travelling to Canada couple of years with our Visa exempt status and makes 730 days stay in Canada and then anytime she applies for renewal of PR Card, she will be reviewed by Immigration with all her documents like Passport and Record of of living in Canada. She will have fulfilled 730 days, say in coming 30 months time, but as a visitor not as a PR. WIll the immigration overlook this stay in Canada as a visitor and be kind to consider granting her PR Renewal.

I have still not lodged her PRTD application as your opinion is valuable.

Applying for PRTD is basically seeking kindness from Immigration on our facts, so that she can meet both ends. We are not one of those who abuse the systems and still exert their rights. We still believe honesty is the best policy and there is enough good people to help honest people.

Kindly give your opinion.

Regards

 

[Leon]

She is still officially a PR so there is no distinction for a PR to stay as a visitor or something else in order to fulfill their 730 day requirement. A PR could fulfill their 730 days by staying for an unbroken 730 days or by making 24 trips of 1 month each or by making 104 trips of 1 week each or anything in between.

However, if she wants to do this, she shouldn't be travelling back and forth, she should enter once and not leave until she meets the 730 days and can renew her PR card and she should make sure if she wants to keep it that she always has 730 days in Canada in the past 5 years.

In immigration rules, immigration may only look at the past 5 years when you apply for something so if a PR has been outside Canada for too long but manages to come back without being reported and applies to renew their PR card once they meet the residency requirements again, immigration must approve. They can not go further back in time and say that she did not meet the RO at some point in time further back.

Also be advised that even if her PR travel document were approved, that does not excuse her absences in the future. If she returns on a PR travel document but leaves again in 6 months, she could still be reported when she re-enters again as she still does not meet the RO and she has left again, showing that she does not have serious intentions to maintain her PR.

 

[dutsub]

Dear Leon

You wrote 'She is still officially a PR, so there is no distinction for a PR to stay as a visitor or something else in order to fulfill their 730 day requirement."
Does it mean that a Visitor, who has expired PR Card, do not need to surrender his/her PR status? So, through a number of entries he/she can accumulate 730 days in five years and can then apply for PR Renewal. Will they not ask about entry as visitor when PR CArd Expired.

Also, when a visitor enters he can stay for a maximum period of 6 months. Are they very strict to trace a visitor after 6monts and deport him.

Appreciate your response.

 

[keesio]

Dear Leon

You wrote 'She is still officially a PR, so there is no distinction for a PR to stay as a visitor or something else in order to fulfill their 730 day requirement."
Does it mean that a Visitor, who has expired PR Card, do not need to surrender his/her PR status? So, through a number of entries he/she can accumulate 730 days in five years and can then apply for PR Renewal. Will they not ask about entry as visitor when PR CArd Expired.

Also, when a visitor enters he can stay for a maximum period of 6 months. Are they very strict to trace a visitor after 6monts and deport him.

Appreciate your response.

If you have not been stripped of your PR by CIC, then you are still a PR... regardless of if you PR card is expired or not. You are not a visitor.

 

[Leon]

Right, she is not a visitor when she is still a PR but each entry, she risks that she may be reported for not meeting the RO. If she is reported, she would have the chance to appeal. However, as she has no mitigating reasons for not meeting the RO, the chances to win an appeal are low. Therefore, she should try once. If she manages to enter, she should stay for 2 years straight. As a PR, she would have health care and she can work. After 2 years, she can renew her PR card.

Alternatively, if she insists on going back and forth and gets caught, she can accept the loss of PR and just come visit the boys as a visitor. She would not have health care and she can not work. She can stay max 6 months at a time.

 

[dutsub]

Hi Leon

You are wonderful and we are grateful to you.

So basically CBSA is a bit lenient and will not chase anyone down and out once a visitor exceeds six months and continue to overstay. This way after two years one will be eligible for PR card renewal. Why I am saying a visitor, that if one ticks the disembarkation form in the flight as Visitor, as per your clarification he is still not a visitor because earlier he became a PR and Visa officer did not report him.

In regards to your point that she has no mitigating factor to defend once she is reported, would the psychiatric illness of her mother in law and brother in law since last 15 years, (for which visiting them once and twice every year was a must for us) be given a Humanitarian Consideration. Both the patients were in Psychiatric home and there is enough medical history to prove this claim. Options are 1) an application of PRTD (one may be lucky to get a favourable decision) or 2) representation to IAD at a later stage if reported at the port of entry....which one do you suggest..Mr. Leon.

 

[Leon]

Hi Leon

You are wonderful and we are grateful to you.

So basically CBSA is a bit lenient and will not chase anyone down and out once a visitor exceeds six months and continue to overstay. This way after two years one will be eligible for PR card renewal. Why I am saying a visitor, that if one ticks the disembarkation form in the flight as Visitor, as per your clarification he is still not a visitor because earlier he became a PR and Visa officer did not report him.

In regards to your point that she has no mitigating factor to defend once she is reported, would the psychiatric illness of her mother in law and brother in law since last 15 years, (for which visiting them once and twice every year was a must for us) be given a Humanitarian Consideration. Both the patients were in Psychiatric home and there is enough medical history to prove this claim. Options are 1) an application of PRTD (one may be lucky to get a favourable decision) or 2) representation to IAD at a later stage if reported at the port of entry....which one do you suggest..Mr. Leon.

They don't have exit checks so in most cases, they would not know that a visitor didn't leave. However, she doesn't necessarily have to enter as a visitor. She can also introduce herself as a PR and show her expired card at the immigration desk. It would be up to the immigration officer if they report her but if they don't, she can still enter and stay for 2 years to revive her PR. She would have a better chance doing this than applying for a travel document because the immigration officers don't always report.

Even if she tried to claim that she could not meet the RO for the reason of visiting sick relatives, immigration would say that she could have lived in Canada all along and still visited them 1-2 times a year or that you could have gone and visited them alone if you could not afford for the whole family to go that often. It is not really a good excuse.