Is Permanet Residency like a single-entry visa?

[toby]

I understand that once a newly-approved Permanet Resident enters Canada , he or she is supposed to apply for a Permanent Residency Card. Until the card arrives, the new PR should wait in Canada, because without this card, there might be problems leaving Canada and trying to re-enter.

What I don't understand is, why isn't the permanent residency visa inserted into the passport sufficient to allow re-entry?

[whoopi83]

From what I've read on cic.gc.ca and you do not need to apply for your first PR card; this is automatically sent to you as part of the immigration process providing you gave an address on entry or have updated the call centre with your address details within 180 days of entry.

As to entry and exit prior to receiving the card itself, see this manual.   http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/enf/enf27-eng.pdf sections 5 & 7 particularly 7.2 and 7.3. 

[Leon]

They give you permanent residency to come and live in Canada.  If you just want to visit, it would be much cheaper and easier for you to just get a multiple entry tourist visa.

In the case that you need to land before you are able to move and you don't have time to stay long enough to receive your PR card, you can still leave and come back.  Requirements are different depending on your situation.  If you are coming back to Canada by car, you only need your landing papers.  If you are visa exempt and coming back by plane, you would probably be ok also with the landing papers but if you are not visa exempt, you would have to apply for a PR travel document at a Canadian embassy.

In the old days, before PR cards, your landing papers were always good enough for re-entry and people kept this huge legal sized piece of paper folded up inside their passports.  Because they had the passport number on it, some people had problems, not in Canada but in other countries trying to board a flight to Canada because the foreign authorities noticed that the old passport number on the landing documents didn't match their new passport they were using for travel.  Some people even advised travelling with the old cancelled passport as well as the new one.  Really, I think PR cards are better, even if you have to wait a bit.