Extending Permanent Residency

[Mosho]

Hello!

My family (parents and siblings) and I immigrated to Canada 4 years ago. We immigrated together, as for as Canadian immigration is concerned, but I was still serving in the Israeli military, and had 2 years left. I managed to go visit them 1-2 months every year since, even while in the military. After I was relieved from the military I enrolled in a University here in Israel. I could have moved to Canada, but did not want to leave my grandfather here in Israel, essentially alone.

He passed away in 2011, and I am in my third year at my University, which has a student exchange program with U of T among other Canadian instituted, which is where I would like to continue my studies, or even move there while still working towards my Bsc. So I have less than 1 year left until my 5 years with the PR are up, but I have only stayed in Canada around 8-10 months.

My family will surely get their Citizenship soon and are not planning to move back to Israel any time soon.

That's pretty much my story.

Should I be able to get an extension?

Thanks!

[steaky]

I suggest you to move back to Canada so that your PR is not in question and you might qualify for Canadian citizenship as soon as one of your parents gets their citizenship:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/citizenship-for-minors-with-pr-cards-but-not-residing-in-canada-t94931.0.html;msg1251649#new

[Mosho]

Thanks!

If my parents can get citizenship only after 5 years have passed from when they immigrated, that would mean my own card will have already expired, since we immigrated together. Is that fine with the Canadian authorities?

[Leon]

Mosho, there are residency requirements that every PR has to meet.  That is living in Canada for at least 730 days out of your first 5 years as a PR and any rolling 5 year period after that.

If you have only stayed in Canada for 8-10 months and have 1 year left, you can not meet these requirements.  Your best chance to keep your PR is move to Canada asap and do not leave again until you have your 730 days in Canada within the past 5 years.

This will mean your PR card must expire but while you are in Canada, that is not a problem.  Once you meet the residency requirements again, you can apply to renew your PR card.  Immigration rules forbid them from digging into your past further than the past 5 years.

I think steaky is confusing you with a minor child.  Your parents gaining or not gaining citizenship will have absolutely no effect on your case if you are 18 or older (I assume you are, having served in the army and been to university).

[Mosho]

Thanks Leon.

That will definitely not happen unfortunately. Or is a very long long shot.

Don't I get any benefits from having my family already live there? from having such circumstances?

[toby]

Mosho, there are residency requirements that every PR has to meet.  That is living in Canada for at least 730 days out of your first 5 years as a PR and any rolling 5 year period after that.

If you have only stayed in Canada for 8-10 months and have 1 year left, you can not meet these requirements.  Your best chance to keep your PR is move to Canada asap and do not leave again until you have your 730 days in Canada within the past 5 years.

....

Leon:  What are the chances a border officer will figure out that he cannot meet the PR requirements,  and deny him entry to Canada, or at least require him to prove he meets the requirements by the fifth anniversary of landing?  if he is given this (I forget the technical term), subsequent days in Canada don't qualify for his 730-day quota.
 

[Leon]

That will definitely not happen unfortunately. Or is a very long long shot.

Don't I get any benefits from having my family already live there? from having such circumstances?

So you are saying you do not wish to move to Canada at this point?  Do you really want this PR?  The question is how badly do you want it?

You have a couple of more options: 

1) If you wait until your PR card expires, then apply for a travel document which will be denied and therefore lose your PR, your parents could sponsor you again if you are still a full time student at that time, financially dependent on your parents and not married and not living in a common law relationship.

2) Try to renew your PR card claiming you were staying outside Canada taking care of your sick grandfather.  This is a bit sketchy as you would have to prove that he was sick and also you would have to explain if your main reason being outside Canada was taking care of him, why did you not move back as he died.

Leon:  What are the chances a border officer will figure out that he cannot meet the PR requirements,  and deny him entry to Canada, or at least require him to prove he meets the requirements by the fifth anniversary of landing?  if he is given this (I forget the technical term), subsequent days in Canada don't qualify for his 730-day quota.

Being reported on entry seems to be rather uncommon.  Being given a stern talking to is more common.  First they only know his entry dates when his passport is stamped and they don't know his leaving dates if his passport is not stamped.   He has been coming to Canada every year so they will likely have no idea how long he was gone.  Second, even if they know, they can not deny him entry, at the most report him and he would be able to appeal.  However, being reported doesn't seem to be that common.  If he says he had to stay to take care of his sick grandfather who just died, they will very likely say ok, just show proof of that when you apply to renew your PR card.  However, if he waits to renew until he meets the residency requirements again he would not even have to show that proof. 

[Mosho]

So you are saying you do not wish to move to Canada at this point?  Do you really want this PR?  The question is how badly do you want it?

You have a couple of more options: 

1) If you wait until your PR card expires, then apply for a travel document which will be denied and therefore lose your PR, your parents could sponsor you again if you are still a full time student at that time, financially dependent on your parents and not married and not living in a common law relationship.

2) Try to renew your PR card claiming you were staying outside Canada taking care of your sick grandfather.  This is a bit sketchy as you would have to prove that he was sick and also you would have to explain if your main reason being outside Canada was taking care of him, why did you not move back as he died.

I do want the PR, but my university requires me to do the last semester there, and I guess I don't feel the PR card is worth delaying my degree by a year. But I will look into this with my university.

Regarding option #2, who do I explain this to? My grandfather was the main reason I enrolled in Israel, and that is a 4 year obligation, so even after he passed away I could not just pack and leave, but that's why I am looking into the exchange program.

Thanks.

[Leon]

Regarding option #2, who do I explain this to? My grandfather was the main reason I enrolled in Israel, and that is a 4 year obligation, so even after he passed away I could not just pack and leave, but that's why I am looking into the exchange program.

You can not apply to renew your PR card while you are outside Canada so once you have graduated and are ready to return and I suppose your PR card will be expired by then, you apply for a travel document to go back to Canada and state as your reason for being outside Canada so long that it was because you were taking care of your grandfather.

However, I don't think you have a good chance because you chose to continue to stay outside Canada after he died.  If your university has an exchange program with universities in Canada, I would assume you would be able to transfer to one of them so I don't think they will accept that as a excuse that you absolutely had to stay outside to complete your degree.

[Mosho]

You can not apply to renew your PR card while you are outside Canada so once you have graduated and are ready to return and I suppose your PR card will be expired by then, you apply for a travel document to go back to Canada and state as your reason for being outside Canada so long that it was because you were taking care of your grandfather.

However, I don't think you have a good chance because you chose to continue to stay outside Canada after he died.  If your university has an exchange program with universities in Canada, I would assume you would be able to transfer to one of them so I don't think they will accept that as a excuse that you absolutely had to stay outside to complete your degree.

The exchange program doesn't happen just like that, I have already filed the request and it needs to be approved, but the earliest semester I can attend is winter 2012, starting October this year. As soon as he passed away I started working towards participating in the program.

So I will probably travel to Canada after the next semester (Spring, starting in a month)  is over, around August. I will have just a few months left on my PR card and if everything goes through I will be going to U of T. So it will expire with me being a student in Canada, and having only about a 365 days in the past 5 years in Canada.

[Leon]

Then you can apply to renew it while you are in Canada stating the same reasons.  However, it could take a long time.  Cases where you don't meet the requirements are always more complicated.  It could possibly take more than a year to renew and so you might be in the situation that you want to go back to your university and still don't have your PR card.  If you apply for a PR card with special circumstances like that and then leave, it really does not look good for your case.