Which passport?

[pandaforever]

I have 2 passports (i.e. 2 citizenships). I initially landed in Canada on passport 'A'. I am returning next month. Since I do all my travels on passport 'B', does it matter which passport I use to enter as a PR? Or is it better to keep all the immigration stamps in the one passport (that is passport 'A')?

I once heard that Canadian immigration only keep arrival records and not depature records. Any truths in this?

 

[scylla]

Will you have your PR card with you when you re-enter Canada?

Canadian immigration does not conduct a departures check. However they have access to departures data from airlines (i.e. airline manifests). If you are traveling by car, Canadian immigration shares information with US immigration. Long story short, there's a good chance they may know when you left the country and it would be a very bad idea to misrepresent the facts.

 

[pandaforever]

I will have my PR card when I re-enter. And I plan to enter Canada with PR card every time. Therefore, does it matter which passport I use? Or should I stick to Passport A since this is the passport I used for my initial landing?

If immigration does not conduct departure check (i.e. no stamp on your passport when you leave) - how would they know if someone overstayed, say on their visitor's visa?

 

[scylla]

If you have a valid PR card, then I don't think it matters which passport you travel on.

As I mentioned in my first post, immigration has access to airline information (i.e. flights, dates, destinations, lists of passengers). This typically allows them to see when someone left Canada. Before my husband was a PR, he traveled a great deal back and forth between Canada and the US/other countries by air. He was called to secondary inspection once and the immigration officer had a complete list of his recent departures (some were to the US - some to overseas locations). He didn't give them this information and (as you said) there were no departure stampts in his passport. All the same, immigration knew exactly when he had left thanks to airline records. One of his departures was a land border crossing into the US. They had a record of this too (presumably his passport was scanned when he entered the US and US immigration shares information with Canada). So it's best to assume they know everything and not to lie.