Jerry1410 said:
Dear All
My PR Card will shortly expire. I met the RO by staying with my Canadian Citizen wife abroad.
I have applied for renewal on 1st of June 2015.
Does anybody have any experience with renewing PR Cards in a similar situation.
Did this go smoothly or you faced any delays.
Thank you for your replies.
I have had no personal experience in this. My observations are based on following the reported experiences of others, over the course of many years, including however CIC information reflecting a trend, over the years, for CIC to be more strict in applying and enforcing PR related conditions and obligations.
I concur in the observation by
scylla that so long as you submitted proof of compliance with the PR Residency Obligation there should be no issue regarding compliance with the PR RO.
But there are potential pitfalls in these scenarios which warrant at least a word of caution, so I also offer the following, more detailed observations:
The instructions in the application are fairly straight-forward when read in conjunction with the part of the guide regarding the residency obligation, so if you followed those, that will suffice. To be clear, however, for proof of compliance based on
accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse abroad, it is important to include:
-- proof of relationship (usually copy of marriage certificate)
-- proof of spouse's Canadian citizenship (usually copy of passport; could be copy of certificate of citizenship)
-- proof of cohabitation (technically proof of cohabitation for at least a duration sufficient to meet the PR RO . . . but of course showing cohabitation generally eliminates any questions about genuineness of the relationship)
So if you provided this proof, there should be no Residency Obligation issues.
But of course you must also meet the other eligibility requirements as well.
PRs Whose Primary Residence Continues To Be Abroad:
No idea if this is at all relevant to your situation.
If you have returned to live in Canada, and are living in Canada,
IGNORE what follows.
As noted, the PR relying on the exception for accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse abroad must also meet the other eligibility requirements for a new PR card.
This includes applying from
within Canada.
I mention this because those PRs
who encounter problems while applying for a renewed/new PR card, and who are relying on the exception for accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse abroad, tend to be those who are in part playing games with CIC in an effort to obtain a new PR card despite not really living in Canada when they make the application for the new PR card -- this ranges from those PRs returning to Canada briefly for purposes of making the application and again later to obtain the PR card, to those who come to Canada and stay long enough to obtain the card. Obviously the latter are less likely to encounter problems than the former.
CIC appears to
NOT be particularly strict in how it approaches PRs living with a Canadian citizen spouse (for good reason: they are valid, genuine PRs and should be afforded ready recognition as such), so this is not a problem encountered much by PRs who are genuinely at least staying in Canada when they apply to renew the PR card, and it is not always a problem even for those who are playing games a bit . . . but
problems do arise when it is apparent, or when CIC perceives, there is any deception in the declaration of residential address, which happens with sufficient frequency there are somewhat regular reports (and unwarranted complaints) by
surprised PRs running into secondary review or delays.
Thing is, many PRs living abroad with a Canadian citizen spouse want a current PR card for convenience. In contrast, CIC's approach is that such PRs should rely on obtaining a PR TD for return trips to Canada.
The nature and extent of the
problems encountered vary. For PRs whose application is entirely accurate, and the PR is in Canada to pick up the PR card if CIC requires a counter pick-up or an interview, the problems may be no more than some delay or a longer delay, such as that involved in going through secondary review although ultimately getting the new PR card. If, however, CIC perceives deception in the application (declaring a residential address where the PR does not really reside for example), obviously that can lead to more serious problems, ranging from rejecting the application to potential prosecution of consequences for making misrepresentations in an application to CIC.
