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I'm currently working in the USA on an H1B visa and have received a job offer from my current company for a position in Canada. I'm planning to permanently relocate to Canada with my family in February 2026. Our situation is as follows:
[summary: soft landing PR; short RO; coming to Canada to settle with secure job offer in Canada]
Main Concerns:
Border Entry?
Post-A44(1) Prospects?
Appeal Process?
Recent Experiences?
I appreciate any insights, experiences, or advice you can share. I am in the process of deciding whether to accept this offer and permanently settle in Canada, but this residency requirement issue is significantly impacting my decision. Your experiences would help me make an informed choice about this important career and family move.
There are significant risks, no for sure guarantee you will be able to keep PR status, but the system is still remarkably flexible and lenient enough the odds in your favour are probably still quite good. If you are issued a Removal Order at the border, and thus need to appeal, you can increase your chances considerably if you can afford to pay for a lawyer's assistance; that investment tends to pay better the sooner you get the help. (Meaning, if you are issued a Removal/Departure Order at the border, or if there is a 44(1) Report prepared but for some reason the interview/hearing is postponed, best to get a lawyer right away, if you can afford it, even though filing the appeal itself is easy enough to do without a lawyer.)
Meanwhile you are rapidly approaching a definitive, and probably difficult decision-point. In making this decision, sorry, you are not going to know the odds beyond wild ballpark odds, what you limited to recognizing that there is a real risk you will lose PR status but good odds you can save it. You will not know what the odds are with anywhere near enough precision to make a calculated decision based on them.
That said, based on your scenario it appears the odds are good enough that if keeping Canadian PR status is a high priority for you, then pursuing a path that gives you the best chance of doing that, saving PR, is probably well worth taking . . . a big factor is what alternatives you have.
(Note re future in the states: U.S. news tends to scare me, so I cannot say I have paid close attention, but I have the impression that non-citizens of that country could be facing some radical changes in their status there, even if they have citizen children . . . it ain't Canada . . . and it does not have anywhere near the family unification policies and values Canada has . . . and, frankly, even if that Trump-guy does not scare you, the operatives behind the throne, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan, among a cabal of others pushing a harsh immigration regime, very much should.)
In regards to saving PR, beyond the risks there are also some logistical hurdles. Status for the younger child for example. Managing and affording health care for that child in the meantime. If this child is heathy, however, those logistics should be manageable and will be something to address later, if and when you have relocated to Canada, not what drives making the decision about whether to make the move and try saving your PR status.
Can I keep renewing my child visitor visa every 6 months until I complete my RO? Is it possible. If not, what are my options to be visa compliant for child?
Operational Objectives:
I have already made this seem more complicated and problematic than it really is. Unless YOU in particular have a more promising future elsewhere, it appears you have an opportunity to pursue a future in Canada that is worth pursuing, even though there is some risk it will not work out.
Thus, even though your main decision-point is whether to pursue your opportunities in Canada, or not, assuming you choose to make the move and try to save your Canadian status, the real decision making will be oriented to getting prepared, making the move, and dealing with contingencies as they happen.
@canuck already offered a fair amount of information. I agree with it but there is much, much more as well.
If you do not have access to guidance/advice about this from a qualified Canadian immigration lawyer, to give you some instructions about how to approach this, then probably the best approach would be to come as soon as you can
and be prepared to tell YOUR genuine story to border officials if they probe your RO compliance. I am guessing, for example, that you had a plan to settle in Canada in time to avoid breaching the RO, and then this or that happened, and there was one thing and then another, perhaps the difficulty securing adequate employment in Canada stalled things, among other real-life hurdles that delayed getting here to settle, but you got the Canadian job, now, and you are ready and eager to settle here now, permanently. If that is your story, tell it. Whatever is YOUR story, tell your version (contrary to what many seem to believe, generally the true story is the best story).
If there is a Removal Order . . . if the border control screening leads to a Removal Order, you can enter Canada, you have 30 days to appeal, see a lawyer to discuss options, prospects, and logistics including costs, and decide whether to pursue an appeal and whether to settle here pending the appeal (with hopes riding some expectation of winning).
If the border officials waive you through (fair odds that will happen), come and stay and, as
@canuck suggested, best to avoid making any immigration applications until you have stayed long enough to get into RO compliance (or at least be well settled here, a year or so perhaps) . . . which brings up the child who is non-Canadian . . . who I assume you plan to sponsor for Canadian PR status through a family class sponsored PR application process. As a U.S. citizen there are fair odds the child is either waived through (so entitled to stay six months) or issued a Visitor Record (or a visa, more likely a VR, either way valid for however long it is issued for, typically for six months or less for visa exempt travelers), but as
@canuck further noted, the presence of the child is a circumstance likely to draw some attention elevating the risk of RO enforcement actions.
Cannot say for sure, but if you can honestly say, to border officials, that your plan is to pursue sponsoring the non-Canadian child, and that you will proceed to do that once you have settled, the main thing is whether or not the family is otherwise waived through, or is subject to inadmissibility proceedings for the RO breach. Either way, you will be allowed to enter Canada, most likely along with your child, and once in Canada you can proceed to figure out how to handle things going forward.
The actual status of things at that stage will be very different depending on whether:
-- you have been waived through the border, or
-- subject to inadmissibility proceedings resulting in
-- -- a positive H&C decision on the Report, which would allow you to then enter Canada with no worry about losing PR status, or
-- -- a negative decision on the Report resulting is being issued a Removal/Departure order (but still allowed to proceed into Canada), which can be appealed, or
-- -- the interview/hearing on the Report is postponed, so you enter Canada in the meantime subject to what happens when there is a hearing/interview and review of the Report, typically but not always within days or weeks
So assuming you try to come to Canada to stay (I would, I did, happy to be here), other than being prepared to handle RO enforcement questioning at the border, which might happen, might not, most of the decision making will happen later, when you know how it went at the border.
Disclaimer: My comments are not based on any personal experience as a PR in RO breach (I have not been outside Canada a total of more than 500 days since I became a Canadian PR nearly 17 years ago, let alone more than 1095 days within the last five).
