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Australian citizen with Canada PR. Residency obligations not met.

Nash_Ca

Newbie
Feb 19, 2021
1
0
Hi All,

I am an Australian citizen with Canada PR currently living in Australia. My Canada PR was granted against my Pakistani passport. Now i am planning to move to Canada before my PR visa expires , however, i do not meet the residency obligations. Is it advisable to land in Canada using my Australian passport (i.e. visit visa) to avoid being reported at the airport. Can i live there as a PR (after landing as an Australian visitor) until i meet my residency obligations after which i can apply for a PR card renewal.

Your expert comments/legal advice would be highly appreciated. Really need some clarity on this before i go ahead with the plan.

Thanks in advance.
 

armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
15,227
7,755
Do NOT try to enter on a different passport or etc without declaring your PR status. It likely will not work and potentially has serious consequences.

You have not given any details about how long it has been since you were in Canada, when you became a PR, how long you lived in Canada, etc. In other words, just how much out of compliance you are.

Is your PR card currently valid?
 

harirajmohan

VIP Member
Mar 3, 2015
6,149
1,660
Category........
Visa Office......
Sydney, NS
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
29-May-2015
Doc's Request.
30-Dec-2015 ReminderEmail(PCCs, NewPassport via cse 31-Dec-2015)
Nomination.....
SK 22-Apr-2015
AOR Received.
11-Aug-2015
Med's Request
23-Dec-2015
Med's Done....
20-Jan-2016
Passport Req..
26-May-2016 (BGC In Progress 25-May-2016)
VISA ISSUED...
PP Reached Ottawa:27-May-2016, Received:10-Jun-2016
LANDED..........
PR: 09-Jul-2016, PR Card: 17-Aug-2016
Hi All,

I am an Australian citizen with Canada PR currently living in Australia. My Canada PR was granted against my Pakistani passport. Now i am planning to move to Canada before my PR visa expires , however, i do not meet the residency obligations. Is it advisable to land in Canada using my Australian passport (i.e. visit visa) to avoid being reported at the airport. Can i live there as a PR (after landing as an Australian visitor) until i meet my residency obligations after which i can apply for a PR card renewal.

Your expert comments/legal advice would be highly appreciated. Really need some clarity on this before i go ahead with the plan.

Thanks in advance.
Visitor status is not equal to PR status.
So i dont get your logic on coming as a visitor and living like a PR.
If you come as a visitor then you depart as a visitor within the given number of weeks. You would never automatically gain PR status hence you cannot accumulate residency days as a PR to meet the PR obligation.
 

Buletruck

VIP Member
May 18, 2015
6,667
2,521
Couple of issues. First is the current travel restrictions. You won’t be allowed to travel as a visitor until those are lifted. The only option is to travel as a PR. Second is the requirement to obtain an eTA. As a PR, you aren’t eligible for one, and if you leave out your status while applying (assuming the system doesn’t already tell you your not eligible), you have wilfully committed misrepresentation, which can result in a loss of your PR status, regardless of when it’s discovered or your residency obligation. Probably not the best plan.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
52,959
12,759
As others have said you don't have an option you must travel with your RO and hope you're not reported. If you didn't meet your RO to get Australian citizenship that came with risks.
 

RocketCity

Star Member
Mar 15, 2013
123
12
Category........
Visa Office......
BIQ Montreal
NOC Code......
U062
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
21-11-2012
Nomination.....
26-02-2014
AOR Received.
09-05-2014
Med's Request
09-05-2014
Med's Done....
19-05-2014
Interview........
26-02-2014
Passport Req..
RPRF Request 02-03-2015, PPR Request 10-03-2015
Couple of issues. First is the current travel restrictions. You won’t be allowed to travel as a visitor until those are lifted. The only option is to travel as a PR. Second is the requirement to obtain an eTA. As a PR, you aren’t eligible for one, and if you leave out your status while applying (assuming the system doesn’t already tell you your not eligible), you have wilfully committed misrepresentation, which can result in a loss of your PR status, regardless of when it’s discovered or your residency obligation. Probably not the best plan.
What if he were a US citizen? I don't think there is an ETA requirement for US citizens.

Edit: This will probably be me in a few years. In fact, I'll have to renounce my current citizenship.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
52,959
12,759
What if he were a US citizen? I don't think there is an ETA requirement for US citizens.

Edit: This will probably be me in a few years. In fact, I'll have to renounce my current citizenship.
You are required to declare your PR status. The system should also cross reference your name and birth date. In general not a great idea to try and mislead CBSA
 

dpenabill

VIP Member
Apr 2, 2010
6,252
3,018
Hi All,

I am an Australian citizen with Canada PR currently living in Australia. My Canada PR was granted against my Pakistani passport. Now i am planning to move to Canada before my PR visa expires , however, i do not meet the residency obligations. Is it advisable to land in Canada using my Australian passport (i.e. visit visa) to avoid being reported at the airport. Can i live there as a PR (after landing as an Australian visitor) until i meet my residency obligations after which i can apply for a PR card renewal.

Your expert comments/legal advice would be highly appreciated. Really need some clarity on this before i go ahead with the plan.

Thanks in advance.
I am NO expert. I cannot and do not offer legal advice.

There are a lot of comments above I disagree with.

First, some nomenclature: a Canadian PR does not have a PR visa. A person with a PR visa is NOT a Canadian PR. The time period in which a PR visa must be used to come to Canada is short, almost always less than a year but usually much shorter than that. Once a person with a PR visa comes to Canada and "lands," they become a Canadian PR . . . they are then a Canadian.

I interpret your post to indicate you have a PR card which is about to expire, not a PR visa.

What others have said that I do agree with is that the plan is flawed to the extent that it is LIKELY the PoE examination will screen you as a Canadian PR. Regardless what travel document you present in facilitating the trip to Canada, or present in the course of being screened by PoE officials, it is LIKELY your status as a Canadian PR will be noted and that you will be screened accordingly.

Another thing implicit in many of the comments above with which I emphatically agree, is the absolute need to be truthful with Canadian PoE officials. Making misrepresentations may be somewhat easy to get away with, but the downside RISKS are high and the consequences can be quite severe. And misrepresentations made to PoE officials in the process of obtaining entry into Canada will FOREVER jeopardize status in Canada, even if the PR gets away with it for now . . . and I mean forever, even ten or forty years AFTER becoming a citizen.


STATUS upon ENTRY:

You cannot enter Canada with the status of a "visitor," since you are NOT a foreign national. Only a foreign national can enter Canada with the status of a visitor.

That does not mean a PoE official cannot mistakenly waive you through and allow you to enter as if you are a visitor, based on the belief that you are a foreign national.

If that happens, that does not affect what your actual status is. That is, the officer may have thought you were a qualified visitor, but you are nonetheless a PR.

Thus, for example, the following is simply wrong:
If you come as a visitor then you depart as a visitor within the given number of weeks. You would never automatically gain PR status hence you cannot accumulate residency days as a PR to meet the PR obligation.
Of course there is no such thing as gaining PR status based on days present in Canada. I GUESS that @harirajmohan is actually referring to how it is that PRs who are not in compliance with the RO, but who are allowed to enter Canada without getting reported, can stay in Canada and when they have stayed long enough to be in compliance with the RO, they are no longer in breach, no longer at risk for losing PR status.

In contrast, if for example you are able to travel to Canada and upon arrival you present a valid travel document (like an Australian passport), and you are waived through without being screened as a PR, then you would be among those who can indeed simply STAY, and if you stay long enough to be in compliance with the RO, your PR status will be secure . . . well, secure in the sense that you cannot lose it for a breach of the RO.

But NOT so secure if . . .

The flaw in that plan, as others have highlighted, is that it is very unlikely you will be able to make the trip and go through the PoE screening without being examined as a returning PR . . . UNLESS you commit some sort of misrepresentation along the way to deceive Canadian officials as to your status.

I do not intend to mine the details of the process to identify particular aspects of the procedures which might reveal ways in which to navigate this process, while minimizing the risk of being screened as a PR, but without making misrepresentations. I am not in habit of condoning let alone encouraging any gaming of the system.

I disagree that there is a direct obligation to disclose PR status to PoE officials UNLESS asked. But as a practical matter, one way or another the probability is very high that in the process of traveling to (including obtaining authorization to travel) and entering Canada there will be questions asked which compel directly disclosing one's PR status or which will at least require responses that will very likely trigger further questions and inquiry leading to revealing the traveler's PR status. That is, in a technical sense I disagree with those who say that a PR must "declare" his or her PR status, but as a practical matter, the traveler's obligation to be honest and truthful (and this includes not deceiving by omission) will almost certainly mean, at least practically, the traveler must reveal (disclose) PR status.

(And, as @canuck78 notes, it is highly likely that they system will identify you as a PR anyway based on vital statistic data.)

And as I and others caution, misrepresentations made to obtain entry into Canada are serious and even if gotten away with temporarily, they remain a RISK for the rest of the individual's life. Even if the individual later becomes a Canadian citizen. (For a long time such things were not much of a risk; that has changed and continues to change. An individual's history hangs over them far more so and for far longer these days.)
 
Last edited:

Copingwithlife

VIP Member
Jul 29, 2018
3,864
1,867
Earth
Hi All,

I am an Australian citizen with Canada PR currently living in Australia. My Canada PR was granted against my Pakistani passport. Now i am planning to move to Canada before my PR visa expires , however, i do not meet the residency obligations. Is it advisable to land in Canada using my Australian passport (i.e. visit visa) to avoid being reported at the airport. Can i live there as a PR (after landing as an Australian visitor) until i meet my residency obligations after which i can apply for a PR card renewal.

Your expert comments/legal advice would be highly appreciated. Really need some clarity on this before i go ahead with the plan.

Thanks in advance.
Your plan is a mess
You don’t qualify for a visitor visa regardless on what passport you’re traveling on.
Be that Pakistan, Australia or Tim Buk Tu
Why would that be ? You’ve already mentioned it . You have PR.
You decided it seems to get PR then citizenship in Australia at the expense of maintaining PR in Canada . So if you put another country ahead of Canada, it would appear you valued that before Canada
You made a choice , now you’ll have to deal with the consequences.
Reiterating, your plan is a mess.
 

Buletruck

VIP Member
May 18, 2015
6,667
2,521
What if he were a US citizen? I don't think there is an ETA requirement for US citizens.

Edit: This will probably be me in a few years. In fact, I'll have to renounce my current citizenship.
Again, the issue arises at the POE and a question along the lines of “what is your purpose for coming to Canada”. With that, anything other than you are a PR entering for whatever purpose could be deemed misrepresentation. It’s not just lying that counts as misrepresentation, but also withholding relevant information.