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Refusal of application to renounce permanent residency

JonnyPep

Newbie
Feb 25, 2017
2
0
I applied for an Electronic Travel Authorization and received a response that I am still a permanent resident of Canada. I went to Canada in 1981 and returned to the UK permanently in 1983. I filled in the required forms in order to renounce my PR status and sent all the required documentation electronically through the IRCC website. I have been notified that a review of my ETA application has revealed that I am a Canadian Permanent Resident and am unable to apply for an ETA. The letter states that as a Canadian PR I will need to present a valid PR card or a PR Travel Document. I haven't got a PR card and have not lived in Canada since 1983.

Can I apply again to the High Commission of Canada in London to renounce my Canadian PR status or do I have to go through the process of applying for a PR travel document, bearing in mind that despite the decision from the IRCC, I do not qualify as a permanent resident not having lived in Canada for over 30 years?
 

scylla

VIP Member
Jun 8, 2010
92,541
20,360
Toronto
Category........
Visa Office......
Buffalo
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
28-05-2010
AOR Received.
19-08-2010
File Transfer...
28-06-2010
Passport Req..
01-10-2010
VISA ISSUED...
05-10-2010
LANDED..........
05-10-2010
When did you send the application to renounce your PR status? These take some time to process. You might just have to wait a bit before applying for an ETA again.
 

zardoz

VIP Member
Feb 2, 2013
13,304
2,166
Canada
Category........
FAM
Visa Office......
London
App. Filed.......
16-02-2013
VISA ISSUED...
31-07-2013
LANDED..........
09-11-2013
JonnyPep said:
I applied for an Electronic Travel Authorization and received a response that I am still a permanent resident of Canada. I went to Canada in 1981 and returned to the UK permanently in 1983. I filled in the required forms in order to renounce my PR status and sent all the required documentation electronically through the IRCC website. I have been notified that a review of my ETA application has revealed that I am a Canadian Permanent Resident and am unable to apply for an ETA. The letter states that as a Canadian PR I will need to present a valid PR card or a PR Travel Document. I haven't got a PR card and have not lived in Canada since 1983.

Can I apply again to the High Commission of Canada in London to renounce my Canadian PR status or do I have to go through the process of applying for a PR travel document, bearing in mind that despite the decision from the IRCC, I do not qualify as a permanent resident not having lived in Canada for over 30 years?
You are unfortunately confusing PR card validity with PR status. They are not, and never have been the same thing. You are STILL a Permanent Resident until you formally lose that status. Application for a PRTD used to be the recognised mechanism for losing your PR status. The revocation option is relatively new. You can use either method. Until you do however, you are stuck and can't obtain an eTA.
 

Bs65

VIP Member
Mar 22, 2016
13,190
2,419
If the OP applied for an ETA usually they get a letter/email back informing them that they appear to be a PR and they are offered the option to either renounce PR which they can do by downloading the form and the uploading through MYCIC once they have linked to the ETA application or apply for a PRTD which obviously not having lived in Canada since 1983 is a non starter.

Its is not clear at least to me from the OPs post whether they have taken the first option or not but if so worst case this might take just a couple of weeks at which time they will get an email saying the ETA has been approved.

There are a lot of people in this situation who were long ago PRs and despite many of those people pre-ETA having travelled to Canada numerous times since without any issues or even being reported at the border only now are they finding things are more complicated. I guess some of these people thought at the time was an easy entry to the country not realising even as failed residency PRs they were still entitled to enter as PRs .
 

JonnyPep

Newbie
Feb 25, 2017
2
0
Option 1 was taken in that the application was sent to the website to renounce the PR status. Even with all the information supplied that I had not lived in Canada since 1983, the response was that I was still a PR and therefore my application for an eTA was withdrawn and that I should apply for a Permanent Resident travel document!!