faisal892 said:
I will land in Canada in mid march and will be back to my home country after three weeks. My cousin who is living in Toronto will receive my PR card and will courier it to me. I want to know whether it is legal because I have heard from somebody that it is illegal to courier PR card out of Canada. Please if any body could advise.
Faisal
I have little doubt that for many, if not most destination countries, the practice of having a trusted family member or friend receive the PR card in the mail (in Canada of course) and then using a trusted delivery service (brand courier service probably better than ordinary mail) to forward the PR card abroad, is OK.
I do not share, however, the view this is definitely sanctioned, and indeed I believe there are some countries for which this is risky and probably illegal.
So, sure, probably OK.
But . . .
The longer explanation:
As some others have similarly indicated, I likewise know of no
Canadian law, regulation, rule, or policy which prohibits the
private mailing of a Permanent Resident card.
That said, while I have done a lot of research into many aspects of what is prescribed by IRPA, I am no expert, and in particular I am no expert on Canada's import/export laws, regulations, or rules. I can say, though, it does not appear that Canada prohibits sending PR cards via private mail. Even if it is restricted or prohibited (in provisions other than IRPA for example), there is no obvious enforcement of any such restrictions, and as many anecdotal reports indicate, many do this without encountering any problems.
Caution regarding anecdotal reports of this sort: Just because a hundred (even a thousand) people report doing something without encountering a problem does not mean it is not in some way restricted, or even prohibited. Only experiences corroborated by and consistent with known regulatory context are at all a reliable indicator of what is
lawful.
That is, just because it is easy to do something (have more than a few drinks and drive home for example; pad business expense deductions in a tax return) without encountering a legal problem, can be as much about how easy it is to get away it, not so much about whether it is lawful.
A gray area?
I suspect some others say this is a "gray" area because there are other considerations, including the laws of the country into which something is mailed, also including provisions governing the possession and use of PR cards, including provisions governing the use of undisclosed representatives, as well as provisions governing the veracity of information given to CIC (such as the address where an individual is or will be
residing).
Remember, what can be lawfully mailed
within or from Canada does not necessarily answer the question what can be lawfully mailed internationally, exported from Canada and imported into
another country. There are multiple elements in play:
what can be lawfully sent into (imported into) another country, and
the requiremed means for importing that thing into another country. These are
NOT governed by Canadian law, but by the law of the respective country into which the item is sent.
I doubt anyone here knows the importation laws of every country in the world, so no one here can definitively say, categorically, that it is lawful to mail an official government
Travel Document abroad, a document which does
not belong to the PR but is the sole property of the Government of Canada (which the PR, and
no one else, is given permission to possess and use) abroad.
In particular, there are countries which explicitly make it a criminal offence to import certain types of Travel Documents through the mail (some which prohibit the importation of TDs through any means other than specifically enumerated means, such as on the person entitled to use the document, or through official government courier/diplomatic services).
I am unsure of the extent to which the restrictions governing possession of a PR card are relevant to this issue, but here too there is probably a distinction between what is technically provided and what is, as a pragmatic matter, generally the practice. Technically no one other than the PR is supposed to hold or possess the PR card. Practically of course there is leeway. In between, though, is what many will refer to as a
gray area. But this may loom as a more significant matter in the destination country, which may have stricter laws regarding possession of official Travel Documents, or which may more strictly enforce such laws.
CanV said:
Just because the guy is a lawyer and has his contact info and membership number below whatever he said doesnt make him an expert, more like a bad expert.
To be clear: the individual giving information in the referenced link is
NOT a lawyer. Immigration consultants are not lawyers.
(While lawyers are authorized to act in the capacity of an immigration consultant, most individuals and businesses representing themselves to be an "immigration consultant" are
not lawyers.)
It is an important distinction. I have a lot, lot more respect for information and advice obtained from a lawyer than I would from an immigration consultant.
