Permanent Resident Renewal

[jerrypeng1888]

Hello:

I received my Permanent Resident Card in October 2010 through my Mum who is a permanent resident.

I stayed here for 3 weeks and decided to go back to Manila I was I was still a student and I wanted to finished my studies.

I graduated in march 2014 and worked for about a year before deciding to come to Canada in June 2015.

My Permanent Resident card will expire in Oct 2015.

Will I still qualify to renew my permanent resident card even if I did not stay in canada for 2 years during the 5 years?

If not, what happens when my Permanent Resident Card expires.

Also, what other options do I have if I want to stay in Canada for good.

Thank you for your help and God bless.

jerry

[SettlementOrgMod]

Hello Jerry,

Thank you for sharing your situation with us.

As you may know, in order to maintain your permanent residency, you must meet certain residency obligations to maintain your status as a permanent resident.

To meet these residency obligations, you must be physically present in Canada for at least 730 days (2 years) in every 5-year period.

This means that you can spend a total of up to 3 years outside of Canada during a 5-year period.

Basically what happens is that, each time you enter Canada, Citizenship and Immigration may calculate 5 years back from the date you have entered or re-entered Canada to see if you have fulfilled your residency obligation.

You can find information on the process that is followed when entering Canada in this Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) ENF 23 - Loss of Permanent Resident Status manual.

Here is an excerpt from the manual on what happens at the port of entry here:

"7.8 Examining Permanent Residents at a POE (Port of Entry)

When a permanent resident appears at a POE for examination, the officer must confirm that the person is a permanent resident. Officers must remain cognizant of the fact the Act gives permanent residents of Canada the right to enter Canada at a port of entry once it is established that a person is a Permanent Resident, regardless of non-compliance with the residency obligation in A28 or the presence of other grounds of inadmissability.

Port of entry officers (POE) can refuse entry to a Permanent Resident only when the person has already lost the status in accordance with the provisions of A46 (such as when a final determination has been made that they have failed to comply with the residency obligations or when a removal order comes into force).

In other words, once a permanent resident’s status is established, the person may enter Canada by right and the immigration examination under IRPA concludes.

If an officer has concerns that a permanent resident has not complied with the residency obligation of A28, the officer should advise the permanent resident when the examination is concluded that they are authorized to enter Canada; however, the permanent resident may wish to answer additional questions so the officer may determine whether their concerns are well founded or not.

In cases where:

• permanent resident status is established;
• the permanent resident refuses to provide any further information and enters Canada;
  and
• the officer believes, on a balance of probabilities that the person is in non-compliance with the residency obligation, officers may report the person, pursuant to A44(1). if there is sufficient evidence to support an inadmissibility allegation. In the absence of sufficient evidence to support the writing of an inadmissibility report, officers may enter any available information into FOSS (date of entry, last country of embarkation, current address in Canada etc.).

It is important to note that in terms of loss of permanent residency, a person does not lose it until a final determination has been made.

According to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) ENF 23 - Loss of Permanent Resident Status manual,

It is important to note that a permanent resident does not lose their status under A46(1)(b) until there is a final determination of the decision made outside Canada that they have failed to comply with the residency obligation under A28.

Permanent residents are not finally determined to have lost their permanent resident status until the right of appeal has been exhausted.

The onus is on each individual permanent resident to make sure they are meeting their Permanent Resident requirements.

If you have family members in Canada, you may want to have them call the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Call Centre directly for some information on what your options are and what the process will possibly be when you are returning to Canada.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions and if there is any follow up to your question/situation.

=====
Anna
Settlement.Org Content and Information/Referral Specialist, CIRS
Settlement.Org