The risk of denying the renewal of the PR card.

[C2008]

Hi everyone,

I landed in the summer of 2006, stayed for 2 months, got my PR card and left Canada to work in the Gulf region, and I'm planning to move back to Canada permanently in the summer of 2009.

My questions are:
1) Since I will fulfil the 2 years obligations of residency from 2009 till 2011, is there any risk that they might refuse to renew my PR card for any reason? (Actually I don't want to take the risk of resigning from my company in the Gulf for nothing).

2) I didn't pay any yearly income taxes (since I'm working outside Canada) will that affect the renewal of my PR card.

3) Since I'm not planning to leave Canada for 3 years (between 2009 and 2012) (till I get the nationality), do I have to renew my PR in 2011, or I can just let it expire, and apply for nationality in 2012.



Thanking you in advance.

[Leon]

As long as you are not gone from Canada more than 1095 days in a 5 year period, you do not lose your PR status.  I don't think that tax matters when you are living somewhere else but I don't know that for sure.  I don't really know either if you have any obligation to renew your PR card when it expires as long as you are not planning to travel outside the country.  The only reason I can think of is if you have to prove to someone that your PR status is still valid, having a valid PR card would certainly help.  Also if you have some emergency reason to leave Canada like a death or illness in your family, if you don't have a valid PR card, they are not supposed to let you back in.

Also, after you live in Canada for 3 years and apply for citizenship, it does not fall into your lap immediately so without the PR card, you can not leave Canada even on vacation until your citizenship is through and you have your passport.  I waited 2 yrs. 4 months from the time I applied for my citizenship until I took the citizenship test.  It's now been about 2 weeks since I took the test and I am waiting to hear the results and when my ceremony is.

[C2008]

I waited 2 yrs.

Hi Leon,

wow, why its taking that long!, is that general for everyone applying for citizenship, or only your case?

[Leon]

I don't know what the normal time is since I don't know anybody else who applied at the same time.  On their website, they say the whole process is supposed to take 12-15 months but between getting the AOR and taking the test is supposed to be 8-10 months.  My AOR is dated March 1 2006 and my test was on June 25 2008.  They never asked for any additional documents from me and there is no reason why my application would take longer than normal unless it just fell behind a file cabinet or something.  I had absolutely no problems with the residency conditions because I had already been PR for 4 years when I applied and had barely left the country except for a couple of short vacations.

I never phoned them about it since I was not in a rush but I do know somebody who works in a passport office and she told me that immigration is way backlogged on everything and waiting for citizenship for a long time was quite normal.  At some point you application is sent to the immigration office closest to where you live so that would make a difference where you live, how many people are applying there and how backlogged they are at that particular office.

[C2008]

I don't know what the normal time is since I don't know anybody else who applied at the same time.  On their website, they say the whole process is supposed to take 12-15 months but between getting the AOR and taking the test is supposed to be 8-10 months.  My AOR is dated March 1 2006 and my test was on June 25 2008.  They never asked for any additional documents from me and there is no reason why my application would take longer than normal unless it just fell behind a file cabinet or something.  I had absolutely no problems with the residency conditions because I had already been PR for 4 years when I applied and had barely left the country except for a couple of short vacations.

That means someone has to wait at least 5 years to get the Canadian citizenship, that's really quite long, and at the end you would be paying 40% taxes.

[Leon]

I checked their website since then and it says somewhere on there that the average processing time for citizenship is 13.3 months.  If that is correct or why I waited so long I have no idea but I was told by a woman who works in a passport office back when I had only waited 18 months that it was quite normal to wait that long without hearing anything.  My case history right now on their website says that they received my appliation on February 23 2006 and sent me an AOR the same day.  This is not correct because my AOR is dated March 1st 2006.  They also say that my casefile was transferred to the Edmonton office on June 10 2008 but that is the same day they sent me a letter to appear for the citizenship test so I think that date must be wrong too.  Whenever I've checked on the website for the past year or so, my status has been IN PROCESS and according to their classification you are not supposed to get that status until your file is already sent to your local immigration office.  The status should say RECEIVED until then.

If my case is normal, yes, it would be more than 5 years to get citizenship, if you were to land as a PR already, not leave Canada for one day in 3 years, apply right away for citizenship and if you waited as long as I have, it would take you at least 5 and a half years.  I sent in my application on February 18 2006 and if they are right about there being 3 months between test and ceremony, I will not have the ceremony until end of September this year so that is actually more than 2 and a half years.  Plus maybe there are not right about 3 months until ceremony, maybe it's 6 or something else.

What do you mean about 40% taxes though?  There is no difference in taxes between being a citizen or not being a citizen as far as I know.  Normally my total deductions on my paycheck are between 25 and 30% including EI, CPP, health insurance and union and then the 5% GST and then house tax etc. but there are taxes everywhere.  If you know a place with less taxes where you would like to live, why immigrate to Canada?

[C2008]

What do you mean about 40% taxes though?  There is no difference in taxes between being a citizen or not being a citizen as far as I know.  Normally my total deductions on my paycheck are between 25 and 30% including EI, CPP, health insurance and union and then the 5% GST and then house tax etc. but there are taxes everywhere.  If you know a place with less taxes where you would like to live, why immigrate to Canada?

Thank you for correcting me, I thought it was 40%, and yes here in the Gulf there is no taxes, so someone can save a lot, but people here are not happy because of racial discrimination and hot weather, however, on the other hand, Canada offers you everything, but as I hear from time to time, its hard to save money, I'm really confused between the two directions!

[Leon]

Well, hard to save money or not, it depends on how much you make and how you live.  In Alberta, there are people who go up north and work on the oil rigs.  They make a lot more up there without having many places to spend it so either they can have a lot of money saved up or they go to town and party it away.  There are also people in Canada who work for minimum wage and don't have enough to make ends meet and there are also people who live in areas where there is unemployment and they can not find full time work throughout the year.  Still, you have a lot of opportunities if you want.