Hello
I’ve been asked to go in person to ircc office to validate if my PR should be 5 years or 1 year. I have applied renewal on the basis of accompanying citizen spouse.
does anyone know if I will get the PR card immediately after the interview? Since I’m overseas I need to schedule my return flight and I hope only need to visit the office once.
As long as there are no admissibility issues, and you appear at the time scheduled, this typically means you will be delivered a new PR card that will be valid for five years. This appears to be a standard notice for in-person card pick-up subject to an interview to verify identity, presence in Canada, and essential facts as to PR status. That said, if there are any admissibility issues, what then happens can vary, ranging from being issued a PR card valid for one-year to not being issued a new card while there is further processing (what that might involve will vary depending on what the issues are).
Since IRCC maintains the view that to be eligible for a new PR card, a PR must be IN Canada, and you are outside Canada, your PR card application appears to be irregular. At the very least, this procedure is in part oriented to verifying identity and that you are present IN Canada. As
@canuck78 noted, "
It is pretty standard for people living abroad to be required to pick up their card in person." And, actually, IRCC prefers PRs living outside Canada rely on obtaining a PR Travel Document for purposes of traveling to Canada rather than obtaining new PR cards.
It is possible that some of the other questions posed by
@canuck78 are relevant, questions largely related to qualifying for the accompanying-Canadian-citizen-spouse-abroad credit, but as long as your application included the proof required to document qualifying for the accompanying-Canadian-citizen-spouse-abroad credit (proof of relationship, proof of spouse's citizenship, and proof of cohabitation abroad), at most there might be some questions related to verifying this information . . . assuming, however, you were living together with your Canadian citizen spouse
IN Canada before the move abroad, including for some period of time after you became a PR.
So far I have not seen anecdotal reports about PRs in similar scenarios being asked for proof that they were IN Canada on the date the application for the PR card was made. So, despite the fact that the PR must be in Canada to properly make a PR card application, we have not seen how IRCC is policing this since it made the change to the application forms somewhat more than a year ago (since June 2022 the PR card application requires a PR affirmatively represent they are IN Canada in order to complete the rest of the application for a PR card). If this issue comes up when you appear for your in-person card pick-up, please take note of what is asked and report about it here, to help the forum better understand how IRCC is approaching these situations where, despite the clear policy resistant to issuing PR cards to PRs living abroad, many PRs (similar to you) nonetheless continue to apply for PR cards rather than rely on PR Travel Documents.
