Would appreciate some advice please

[USCANADA]

Hi everyone,
My husband got his Visa for permanent recidency in Canada. He will land in June this year. He has a temporary job in USA until november,2011. So we will come back after landing to the USA. My questions are :

1)If the officer decide to hold the PR card , what will happen ? We are going to give my parents address in Canada (that's where we are staying) but if they decide to hold PR as we are not going permanently, what usually happens ? We will probably stay not come back to canada before november,2011 unless he gets a job in Canada before that date. Anyone can provide a link in cic.gc.ca that talks about it ? Please give me much detail on this topic.

2) Where do you apply for SIN card ? Do you need PR card to apply for SIN ?

3)We are landing in Alberta. What is the Alberta rule on getting medical card ? Do we need to stay 3 months to qualify to apply.


Please please help in this regard as I am haveing tension. Thanks

 

[AllisonVSC]

I don't think there are any restrictions requiring you to remain in Canada once you land. You may want to remain in Canada until the PR card comes in the mail which will take about one month, but as a PR you can come and go as you please as long as you maintain the residency requirements. You do need your PR card to re-enter Canada.

When you get your COPR the embassy will send you documents explaining how to get SIN, health card, etc. To apply for your SIN card you need your COPR which is attached to your passport. You do not have to wait for your PR card to apply. You can do this at a Service Canada center.

You will need your immigration docs to get your health card too. I am not sure where in Alberta you need to go (I landed in Ontario). Check out the following link for more info
http://www.programs.alberta.ca/Living/Dynamic.aspx?N=770+354&id=1825

Hope this helps.

 

[USCANADA]

Hi, thanks so much for your reply. I am hoping they won't hold the PR but if they do what happens ? You don't become a permanent resident. Is there a deadline to re-enter Canada or your permanent residency will be cancelled ? I like to prepare for the worse so asking. Please anyone can enlighten on this subject. Thank you

 

[mitamata]

What do you mean by "hold the PR"? I have never heard of such a thing.

When your husband enters Canada with the visa in his passport, he will become a PR. Done. There's no holding it. They will ask for an address where they can send the PR card, which needs to be in Canada.

In order to remain a PR, one needs to be in Canada for 2 years out of every 5 years. Meaning the longest one can stay out of Canada is 3 years at a time. So your plan to stay out until November 2011 is just fine, as long as he spends most of his time after that in Canada.

 

[USCANADA]

Hi,
i meant if you are not going parmanently then the officer might say they will mail PR card when we are ready to live in canada permanently. If they do that how long do we have to come back to maintain his permanent resident status.

 

[USCANADA]

anyone ?

 

[matthewc]

I'm really not sure where you got the idea they can "hold" the PR card / status. That doesn't happen. Once you have the PR visa, and enter Canada, you become a PR. The only situation when they wouldn't mail the card out straight away is if you don't have an address to give them:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLIsh/inFORMation/pr-card/arriving.asp

Even if they don't mail the card, because you didn't give them an address, you are still a PR (you just don't have the card).