PR Card Renewal/Accompanying Canadian Citizen

[shevas2003]

I am a Canadian PR(since 2004) with an expired PR card since 2009. I had to accompany my Canadian citizen spouse in US since 2005. We are planning to relocate to Canada sometime soon. My husband & child both are Canadian citizens but since we have resided in US for the last 17 years, this move will take sometime. I am visiting Canada to renew my US visa by road in my private vehicle. I have never had an issue visiting Canada by road even though my PR card was expired but this time I am thinking since I will be in Canada for a few weeks, can I apply for the extension of my expired PR card? Since my years out of Canada count towards the fulfilling of residency obligations due to accompanying a Canadian spouse? What is the process and can I give our friend or family member’s address for the renewed PR card to be delivered?

[SettlementOrgMod]

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your questions with us.

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) establishes residency requirements and obligations with respect to each 5-year period after becoming a permanent resident.

As set out in section 46 of IRPA, a person loses permanent resident status

(a) when they become a Canadian citizen;
(b) on a final determination of a decision made outside of Canada that they have failed to comply with the residency obligation under section 28;

Under section 28(2) of the IRPA, a permanent resident has the following obligations,

(a) a permanent resident complies with the residency obligation with respect to a five-year period if, on each of a total of at least 730 days in that five-year period, they are

• (i) physically present in Canada,
• (ii) outside Canada accompanying a Canadian citizen who is their spouse or common-law partner or, in the case of a child, their parent,
• (iii) outside Canada employed on a full-time basis by a Canadian business or in the federal public administration or the public service of a province,
• (iv) outside Canada accompanying a permanent resident who is their spouse or common-law partner or, in the case of a child, their parent and who is employed on a full-time basis by a Canadian business or in the federal public administration or the public service of a province, or
• (v) referred to in regulations providing for other means of compliance;

…

You can look to section 61(4) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) in order to determine if you have met the definition of “accompanying” a Canadian citizen:

For the purposes of subparagraphs 28(2)(a)(ii) and (iv) of the Act and this section, a permanent resident is accompanying outside Canada a Canadian citizen or another permanent resident — who is their spouse or common-law partner or, in the case of a child, their parent — on each day that the permanent resident is ordinarily residing with the Canadian citizen or the other permanent resident.

Therefore, it is likely that your time abroad in the United States would count toward your residency requirements as you would likely be deemed to be accompanying your spouse and child.
Once you are outside Canada without a valid PR card, you must have Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) if you want to travel back to Canada on a commercial carrier as set out in Section 259 of the IRPR:

However, if you are returning to Canada by land, you can return with an expired PR Card. Note that you may experience difficulties returning to Canada.

You can apply for a new PR card during your time in Canada. Please complete the application form carefully.

In terms of the delivery address for your PR card, the Operation Manuel ENF 27 indicates that,

“On occasion, it may be appropriate for clients to provide the address of a third party (friend, relative, service provider or a paid representative) in Canada in order to facilitate processing and issuance of the PR card following their arrival in Canada, as new immigrants may not have a permanent address. However, where there are clear indications that the initial entry into Canada is only of short duration and the client provided a third party address for the purpose of forwarding the PR card outside of Canada, these cases should be flagged with an info-alert indicating that the client is outside Canada.”

The current processing delays are 117 days as per Immigration Canada’s website. If you will have a permanent address in Canada before processing is completed, you should update the address in the system by submitting a webform.

You may wish talk to a qualified immigration lawyer about this or contact Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) directly to see if they have any information they can provide you.

Finally, we noted that Canada has implemented travel restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 that you must comply with. Up to date restrictions can be found here: https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid.

We hope that the information we provided is helpful to you. We would also recommend you to seek legal help from a lawyer or a licensed consultant familiar with Canadian immigration to find more information about your particular circumstances.

Please let us know if you have further questions.

Sincerely,

Your Settlement.Org team

Disclaimer:
This document does not contain legal advice. This document was prepared with the assistance of PBSC Western law student volunteers. PBSC volunteers are not lawyers and they are not authorized to provide legal advice. This document contains general discussion of certain legal and related issues only. If you require legal advice, please consult with a lawyer.