Since the processing time for the citizenship is up to 12 months, is it required to renew the PR card.
There is no requirement to renew a PR card. Many PRs do not bother. Often depends on whether they are anticipating travel abroad. As
@bellaluna observed, a PR will be allowed to enter Canada even if they do not have a currently valid PR card . . . BUT a PR (with some exceptions) needs either a valid PR card or a PR Travel Document to board an airline flight coming to Canada from abroad.
But it is not the case that the citizenship application processing time "
is up to 12 months."
Citizenship application processing can be up to . . . well I recently referenced a case in which a citizenship application is still pending after more than TWENTY YEARS . . . literally, an application made in 1999 is still pending. And all the Federal Court has so far decided in the case, just this January, where the applicant has applied for Mandamus, is what information in the Certified Tribunal Record is to be shared with the applicant.
Current processing times appear to be headed toward TWO years for many if not most applicants, with it going significantly longer for more than a few. For those who encounter non-routine processing, many are likely to see their processing timelines in the range of two to three years, and more than a few going longer than four. At some point in the
not-too-distant future, the processing timeline should shorten considerably, eventually getting back to six months to a year, for most. BUT for now, 18 months to two years is optimistic.
Which brings up this . . .
I am planning to travel outside the Country this year . . .
Travel abroad is no big deal. As noted, to fly back to Canada, yes, either a valid PR card or a PR Travel Document is needed. But generally traveling abroad has little or no impact on a PR applying for citizenship.
But in this forum more than a few refer to "travel" abroad when they are actually talking about going abroad for an extended period of time. Moving abroad after applying for citizenship is different than merely traveling abroad. There are numerous topics here in which this is discussed in depth.
