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mariagamil

Newbie
Jul 26, 2013
3
0
Me and my family are currently residing in the United States of America since 2006 and became US Permanent Resident last August 2010.
Hi,

Me and my family got our approval for permanent residence in Canada early of 2010 and we first landed in Canada last March 20, 2010 in Calgary, Alberta. Me and my family have to come back to the USA because I still have work there and is still under a contract. We only stayed there for a week and have not come back in Canada since our first landing.

By the time, we got our US Permanent Residence which was last August 2010 and decided to stay here in the USA permanently. Just recently I came to know from my friend that with my case I need to surrender my Canada permanent residency in your office. Also, me and my family together with my sister are planning to have a vacation in Canada this coming August 10, 2013 and I’m worried if there could be some issues when we are at the Canada Border.

By the way, the permanent residence card will expire on 4/30/2015.

Can I use my green card when i cross to Canada?
Our Canada PR is already out of status since we are out of canada for 3 years and 5 months already, what should we do to this?
Should we surrrender them?

Appreciate your help on this.
Thanks.
 
When you enter Canada, the immigration officer may see on his computer that you are a PR and they may ask you if you meet the residency requirements and tell you that you must renounce your PR. If they do, you can offer to renounce it but you don't have to if they don't ask.
 
We did not meet the residency requirement since we are already out from canada for 3 yrs and 4 months now.

If they do ask to renounce our PR, do we have a choice not to?

Thanks,
Maria
 
Green card or not, as soon as they swipe your passport, it will definitely show all of your Canadian PR details in their system.

The border officer can't force you to renounce your PR. They can report you for not meeting the residency obligation; CIC will then give you 30 days to appeal and show reasons why you should keep your PR status. Having a good job in another country is not a valid reason, so they would revoke your PR if this happens.

Or you can voluntarily surrender your PR. If you live permanently in the US, you will never be able to meet the residency obligation and will potentially always face issues when you come to visit Canada.
 
Thank you for your quick replies.

One more question. If we will surrender or renouce our Canada PR, we can still enter Canada using our US Green Card right?

Thanks again.
 
Yes, if you renounce your PR, you will have the status of visitor and a US green card holder is visa exempt to Canada.
 
mariagamill - were u able to travel to Canada without any issue? Did you have to surrender your PR at border?

Thanks!