PR Travel Permit Question

[CanuckBoy]

Hi everyone,

I am Canadian and sponsored my wife for PR in 2011 which was approved and she received her card in March 2011. I began an ex-pat assignment a couple of months later in her country (Philippines) where I have remained to this day. We have had a few trips to Canada along the way with our two kids who both have Canadian passports but her PR card is now expired.

I'd like to plan a trip to Canada to visit family this summer and plan to get a PR Travel Permit. My questions though are there:

1) We do not plan to relocate to Canada at this time as I continue to work in Philippines. If we get a PR travel permit my understanding is it can allow for multiple permits but generally last for a year. If I continue to work in the Phils, can we apply for additional PR travel permits in the years to come? Or, once one has been issued, if there is additional travel to Canada planned beyond the expiration of that would we need to get a tourist visa for her?
2) I have not applied for a PR renewal as my iunderstanding is you cannot do this (ethically or legally) while still outside Canada but she does meet the "time served" requirement to maintain her PR status since she is accompanying me ... as a result, is she still considered a PR until the time we ultimately do move to Canada if we do?

Thanks for any help/guidance!!

 

[dpenabill]

Hi everyone,

I am Canadian and sponsored my wife for PR in 2011 which was approved and she received her card in March 2011. I began an ex-pat assignment a couple of months later in her country (Philippines) where I have remained to this day. We have had a few trips to Canada along the way with our two kids who both have Canadian passports but her PR card is now expired.

I'd like to plan a trip to Canada to visit family this summer and plan to get a PR Travel Permit. My questions though are there:

1) We do not plan to relocate to Canada at this time as I continue to work in Philippines. If we get a PR travel permit my understanding is it can allow for multiple permits but generally last for a year. If I continue to work in the Phils, can we apply for additional PR travel permits in the years to come? Or, once one has been issued, if there is additional travel to Canada planned beyond the expiration of that would we need to get a tourist visa for her?
2) I have not applied for a PR renewal as my iunderstanding is you cannot do this (ethically or legally) while still outside Canada but she does meet the "time served" requirement to maintain her PR status since she is accompanying me ... as a result, is she still considered a PR until the time we ultimately do move to Canada if we do?

Thanks for any help/guidance!!

Under current law:

As long as you are a Canadian citizen, you are married, and you are living together abroad, that time is credited toward her PR Residency Obligation. As long as she meets the PR RO, her PR status remains intact.

The multiple use PR Travel Document (it is not a "permit" but is specifically a "Travel Document," an official document which authorizes travel to Canada) is relatively new and thus there is not a lot of reporting about it as yet.

My understanding is that the maximum period of time for which a PR TD will be issued is the time period for which the PR's passport is valid, up to five years.

My understanding is that one-year PR TDs are being issued to PRs in particular circumstances, like those who have landed, did not have a Canadian address and so were not mailed or even issued a PR card, pending their finally relocating to Canada to stay.

For the PR accompanying a citizen spouse abroad, subsequent multiple use PR TDs should be available when a current one expires. Note, however, that historically the PR abroad could only get a one-use PR TD, and thus needed a PR TD for each and every trip to Canada. Whether the current policy to issue multiple-use PR TDs continues is subject to change anytime, no need for any legislative or regulatory procedure. I suspect the current policy makes more sense, is a lot less expensive for IRCC to administer, and provides adequate screening of travelers to Canada, so is likely to continue. But these things are always subject to change.

As I previously noted, as long as your spouse continues to meet the PR RO (by living together with Canadian citizen spouse), her PR status remains intact. And she will be entitled to a PR Travel Document to facilitate travel to Canada. As such, she would NOT be eligible for any sort of visitor permit or visa.

In any event, overall, your situation is a very common one, many thousands of Citizen-PR couples are similarly living abroad. And the government seems dedicated to facilitating retention of PR status for such spouses. Indeed, the implementation of the multiple use PR TD is making this a lot easier than it has been in the past.

 

[dpenabill]

See this recent post for example:

Thanks for all your help on this. I decided to apply for the multiple entry PR TD and they gave me 5 years

My sense is that the multiple-use PR TD is becoming routine for those PRs living abroad with a Canadian citizen spouse, and again that these will be for as long as the current passport is valid up to a maximum of five years.

 

[CanuckBoy]

This is perfect, appreciate all the help and the details. Appreciated!

 

[CanuckBoy]

Hi all,

Going through the forms and a few questions:

1) I don't see any field to request a multiple entry PRTD - where should I reference we would like one?
2) It's asking my permanent address in Canada - when i moved to Philippines I sold my house in Canada (and cut most residency ties to avoid any risk of tax obligation including cancelling OHIP, drivers license etc) - can I put N/A here and if so, do I need to explain anywhere why this is the case?

Thanks,