PLEASE HELP!! - PR Card issues

[rishabshanker]

Hi All,

I landed in Canada on 15th April 2011 and stayed there till 1st June 2011, however due to the postal strike I did not get my PR card in hand within the stipulated 35 days. I have now returned to India and have recently received a letter at my relative's house in Canada from CIC. The letter states that I have to appear in person at the CIC office in Canada to collect my PR card. I have the following doubts

1. The letter was sent on 15th June 2011, it states that I have a 6 month time period within which I should go in person to the CIC office, is this 6 month period calculated from date of landing or date of the letter?

2. I can travel to Canada from India by applying for a travel document here, however does naybody have any idea on howlong a travel document is valid for?

3. Has anybody else received a similar letter from CIC? if so have you collected the card and what happened at the CIC office?(interview? waiting period? etc)

Any help on this front is greatly appreciated as I have to plan my travel fast

Thanks
Rishab

[Leon]

I have heard people say that travel documents are valid for 3 months and I have also heard 6 but when you apply for it, I am sure you can list your preferences of when you want to make that trip.

If your letter is dated June 15th and they are giving you 6 months, I would assume 6 months from that date.

There is however a 6 month period from the time of landing in some other cases, that is if your PR card had not been mailed to you for some reason but you come to Canada within 6 months of your landing, you can call for your PR card to be mailed to you and they will do it.  Obviously not in your case because they have already sent you a letter offering another solution. 

If you miss picking up this PR card, nothing bad will happen to you.  You would lose your chance of your first free PR card but when you come to Canada using a travel document, you can apply for a PR card.  It would be treated more like a renewal application so you would be given an appointment to pick it up at the CIC office.  Also the processing times for those is currently 4-5 months.

[rishabshanker]

Thanks Leon,

Do you know of any other such cases on this forum? maybe I could network with them. Also I was wondering, now if I do land in Canada next month to pick it up at the CIC office would they just hand it to me across the counter or would there again be a waiting period before I get it ?

Thanks
Rishab

[Leon]

I can not tell you if they would just hand it to you across the counter or not because this is an unusual situation.  However, the letter does not give you an appointment to pick it up, it just says you must pick it up within 6 months so I assume that they will hand it to you across the counter.  Could your relative whose address you used drop by the CIC office for you to ask about that?