PR status

[gaurav1974]

We had immigrated to Canada in Nov 2011,after staying for 6 months
we returned to India in May 2012 for some personal reasons and plan to return
in May 2014 with my family .
Please let me know if i'm wrong ,my understanding is that to maintain your PR
status you need to stay total 2 years in given 5 years.
And to apply for citizenship you have to stay in Canada for 3 years in 5
years period .If we stay in Canada for another 2.5 years now would my earlier 6 months would be counted for citizenship .
Also would i have any problem on returning back to Canada as i would have
stayed outside Canada for 2 years .My PR expires in 2016 dec .
Is there any other requirement other than staying in Canada for 2 years for
renewal of your PR.

Many thaks in advance

 

[scylla]

Yes - to maintain PR status you must live in Canada for 2 out of every 5 rolling years. As long as you meet this requirement you should have no issues returning to Canada.

You need 3 years of residency in the last 4 years to apply for citizenship (not 3 out of 5). Since you have been outside of Canada for quite some time, you would need to return and stay for 3 years (not 2.5) to qualify to apply for citizenship under the current rules. Note that a change to the citizenship law has been proposed which, if passed, will increase the residency requirement to 4 out of 6 years.

 

[Leon]

Right, to renew your PR card and keep your PR status in good standing, you need 2 years in Canada in a 5 year period.

If you return in May 2014, you will not have any problem entering. Because it will be less than 3 years since you got your PR, even if they do not consider your 6 months stay, it would be impossible for you to be in breach of the RO at this point because you are still more than able to complete 2 years in Canada before the 5 year anniversary of your landing.

The citizenship requirements are currently 3/4 years so your first 6 months can not be counted because after you have spent 2.5 years, the 6 months will no longer be in the period of the previous 4 years.

However, there are plans on making the residency period for citizenship longer, 4/6 years. In that case, you would be able to count the first 6 months. Stay another 3.5 years and you would be able to apply sometime in November 2017