Should I renew my PR Card now?

[Tony23]

Hello,

I got a PRTD on H&C grounds in October... I am right now in Canada, working and studying for more than a month. However, my PR card is (obviously) expired. I really don't know if I should renew it right away or wait for 2.5 years because I am afraid to jeopardize my status as a PR. The reason is that despite I got a PRTD and my status was checked by a visa officer in an embassy. The guys in immigration at the airport were not really nice and apparently they didnt even know what a PRTD was. So as you can see, I'm a little scared.

On the other hand, I lived in Canada for more than 600 days but that was 7 years ago... Will those days still count? Or I have to start from scratch?

I hope you can help me

cheers

 

[Leon]

If you got TD on H&C grounds, immigration should renew your PR card barring that you get an incompetent immigration official processing your case or something like that.

However, if you stay until 2 years from your last arrival, you will be 100% safe to renew because you will meet the residency requirements again. Days stayed 7 years ago count for nothing. Only the past 5 years count.

 

[Tony23]

So it is safer not to renew it?

I am not afraid of not getting a PR Card... I am afraid of being deported...

 

[Msafiri]

Why do you need to renew it?

 

[Leon]

You are definitely not getting deported for not having a PR card. You can look high and low for such a law and you will not find one because there isn't one. It is not mandatory to have a PR card for a PR to live in Canada.

It is safer to wait until you have 2 years before you apply to renew. That way, there is no way they can refuse.

 

[Tony23]

Why do you need to renew it?

Because the visa officer at the airport told me to. But I really don't know what to do. Some people here is telling me that it wouldn't look good to go and renew the PR Card within 2.5 years after it's been expired for 5 years now. I was also told that it could probably take me like 10 years to get my citizenship. Because I'd have to wait 3 more years after I replace my PR Card. I don't know everyone in here is giving me different and unclear answers. I honesty don't know what to do or what to believe anymore. I am afraid of getting a driver's licence. I probably wouldn't even be able to get into a plane and flight to Toronto because I mean, what kind of document am I going to show? My passport with my expired PRTD?

Thanks anyways for taking your time on answering my question, though.

 

[Tony23]

One more thing, you guys always recommend to wait 2.5 years to renew the PR Card but you don't really take into account that the PR Card Renewal Application states that you should list your stays in Canada from the day you became a PR. So, if you became a PR in 2004 and you renew it in 2014 what exactly are you going to tell? "Meh, I just didn't feel like renewing my PR Card in 2009 so I'm doing it now"?

 

[Rigly68]

Where does it say that you have to list your stays since you became PR? On the application it asks for the last 5 years.....?

 

[keesio]

One more thing, you guys always recommend to wait 2.5 years to renew the PR Card but you don't really take into account that the PR Card Renewal Application states that you should list your stays in Canada from the day you became a PR. So, if you became a PR in 2004 and you renew it in 2014 what exactly are you going to tell? "Meh, I just didn't feel like renewing my PR Card in 2009 so I'm doing it now"?

From what I understand, the PR card is a bit like a passport. It is not mandatory to have (though it is the best government ID that a PR can have and not having one can be a pain sometimes). Its main purpose is for you to be able to take a commercial transportation back to Canada from another country if you are a non-visa exempt national. If you do not travel much, it is not really needed, just like how some Canadians don't even have a passport because they never travel outside Canada. If the PR card expires, and you have no plans at all to leave Canada, your excuse of "meh, I just didn't feel like renewing my PR Card in 2009" is actually a valid one.

 

[Leon]

From what I understand, the PR card is a bit like a passport. It is not mandatory to have (though it is the best government ID that a PR can have and not having one can be a pain sometimes). Its main purpose is for you to be able to take a commercial transportation back to Canada from another country if you are a non-visa exempt national. If you do not travel much, it is not really needed, just like how some Canadians don't even have a passport because they never travel outside Canada. If the PR card expires, and you have no plans at all to leave Canada, your excuse of "meh, I just didn't feel like renewing my PR Card in 2009" is actually a valid one.

Exactly. There is no obligation to renew your PR card when it expires. You can easily wait for decades and then decide you want to renew it. You only have to fill out your info for the past 5 years and nobody will ask you why you did not renew it earlier.

 

[Tony23]

I just want to know what do you think about this:

I just called CIC and talk to an agent and he told me that if I apply for the PR Card a visa officer will have to determine my status as a permanent resident and that the safest thing was to apply in 2.5 years after I have fulfilled the residency obligations.

So, I guess that means that definitely if I apply for a PR Card I can lose my status as a permanent resident and eventually get deported.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[zardoz]

The thing about an H&C issued PRTD (code RC-1) is that it rather trumps the residency obligations when applying for a renewed PR card. A visa office has already made the H&C determination and this is considered as something that allows a PR card to be issued. In your position, I would have immediately applied to renew the card based solely on the current H&C determination. It would almost certainly have been granted.

See http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/enf/enf27-eng.pdf for more information.

 

[Tony23]

The thing about an H&C issued PRTD (code RC-1) is that it rather trumps the residency obligations when applying for a renewed PR card. A visa office has already made the H&C determination and this is considered as something that allows a PR card to be issued. In your position, I would have immediately applied to renew the card based solely on the current H&C determination. It would almost certainly have been granted.

I have read that already and it doesn't mention anything about H&C on regards to a PR Card and I would have applied but I don't even know what to do with the "residency obligation" section. How are you so sure that I won't get my resident status revoked?

 

[zardoz]

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5445ETOC.asp#appendixA

Humanitarian and compassionate grounds

If you are unable to meet the residency obligation, CIC will consider any compelling humanitarian and compassionate factors in your individual circumstances that may justify the retention of permanent resident status.

CIC will notify you if this additional assessment is required.

Your RC-1 coded PRTD is evidence that you have already been considered for H&C, and approved.