eTA advice urgently needed please.

[stevewbruce]

Hi all, hoping someone here can help us. I'm gonna try keep this short.

My wife is a Canadian citizen living in UK.
I am a have permanent residence status for Canada but obviously living in the UK too.
Our 12 year old son is a Canadian / UK - dual citizen but has travelled on UK passport as there was really no need to get the second passport yet.
Our 6 year old daughter is UK citizen as we havent got round to applying for Canadian citizenship yet.

We were going back to Canada as we've done dozens of times before, for the summer. First time sice the lockdowns. We applied for eTA's for all but my wife.
Daughter's not a problem.
My son's has been refused due to him not needing one - he now needs to travel on a Canadian passport only. presumably the UK wants him to come back on a UK passport? I was under the impression that you should enter and leave on the same passport.
Mine, they say they want further info but when I go onto the site and register it still tells me they are looking in to it and will get back in 72 hours. I'm guessing that they will say I am a permanent resident and therefore can not be issued an eTA. My permanent resident card expired in 2018, we were going to see about getting it renewed when we were in Canada over the summer as they can only get posted to an address in Canada.

We are due to fly in 11 days and it looks like only my wife and daughter can go. I'm sure this can be sorted as simply as getting travel doc's for us both but as no where is doing in person appt's still, the V.A.C. in london (spoke to a guy in Mumbai) said I would have to post paper work to them which they forward to somewhere in Canada apparently, process and send back. My hopes of getting that done in 10 days are pretty low even if I had the faintest idea how to do it. The guy on the phone didn't either.

I suppose my question is does anyone know of a quicker way to do this or has anyone had similar problems in the past?


Any help would be amazing.

Steve

 

[scylla]

Hi all, hoping someone here can help us. I'm gonna try keep this short.

My wife is a Canadian citizen living in UK.
I am a have permanent residence status for Canada but obviously living in the UK too.
Our 12 year old son is a Canadian / UK - dual citizen but has travelled on UK passport as there was really no need to get the second passport yet.
Our 6 year old daughter is UK citizen as we havent got round to applying for Canadian citizenship yet.

We were going back to Canada as we've done dozens of times before, for the summer. First time sice the lockdowns. We applied for eTA's for all but my wife.
Daughter's not a problem.
My son's has been refused due to him not needing one - he now needs to travel on a Canadian passport only. presumably the UK wants him to come back on a UK passport? I was under the impression that you should enter and leave on the same passport.
Mine, they say they want further info but when I go onto the site and register it still tells me they are looking in to it and will get back in 72 hours. I'm guessing that they will say I am a permanent resident and therefore can not be issued an eTA. My permanent resident card expired in 2018, we were going to see about getting it renewed when we were in Canada over the summer as they can only get posted to an address in Canada.

We are due to fly in 11 days and it looks like only my wife and daughter can go. I'm sure this can be sorted as simply as getting travel doc's for us both but as no where is doing in person appt's still, the V.A.C. in london (spoke to a guy in Mumbai) said I would have to post paper work to them which they forward to somewhere in Canada apparently, process and send back. My hopes of getting that done in 10 days are pretty low even if I had the faintest idea how to do it. The guy on the phone didn't either.

I suppose my question is does anyone know of a quicker way to do this or has anyone had similar problems in the past?


Any help would be amazing.

Steve

It's impossible for you to get an eTA since you are still a PR. This was never going to work. The only way the eTA would be possible is if you first renounce your PR status. Since your PR card has expired, you need to apply for a PR Travel Document in order to be able to board a plane and fly to Canada. The link to the PRTD process is here and you are frankly short on time to get one approved. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...rvices/new-immigrants/pr-travel-document.html

Your son needs to travel on a Canadian passport. He can't travel on the UK passport alone. There's zero chance an eTA can be approved for him and he doesn't qualify for a PRTD as a citizen. I don't know how quickly you can get a Canadian passport for him but that's what you need to do if you want him to be able to travel. I can't comment on the UK wanting him to enter and leave with the same passport. He should simply take both passports. Tons of people have more than one passport. Having two passports won't stop him from traveling. But he definitely needs to be holding a valid Canadian passport to fly.

 

[stevewbruce]

Thanks for your reply Skylia, you kindof confirmed my fears. You don't know of type of travel doc that my son would be eligible for?

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your reply Skylia, you kindof confirmed my fears. You don't know of type of travel doc that my son would be eligible for?

I'm not sure what you mean by a travel document for your son. He needs to be holding a valid Canadian passport to board the plane. That's the only document he needs and it's mandatory for him to be able to fly.

So to recap... You need a PR Travel Document. Your son needs a Canadian passport.

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your reply Skylia, you kindof confirmed my fears. You don't know of type of travel doc that my son would be eligible for?

One additional comment. Your son could also look into getting a temporary Canadian passport. I am not familiar with this process and don't know the ins and outs of how this works (or whether approval is a slam dunk). Here's the link: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...cuments-non-canadians/temporary-passport.html

 

[stevewbruce]

One additional comment. Your son could also look into getting a temporary Canadian passport. I am not familiar with this process and don't know the ins and outs of how this works (or whether approval is a slam dunk). Here's the link: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...cuments-non-canadians/temporary-passport.html

I'll look in to that.

Thanks

 

[armoured]

My wife is a Canadian citizen living in UK.
I am a have permanent residence status for Canada but obviously living in the UK too.
Our 12 year old son is a Canadian / UK - dual citizen but has travelled on UK passport as there was really no need to get the second passport yet.
Our 6 year old daughter is UK citizen as we havent got round to applying for Canadian citizenship yet.

We were going back to Canada as we've done dozens of times before, for the summer. First time sice the lockdowns. We applied for eTA's for all but my wife.
Daughter's not a problem.

A few small things to add to @scylla's comments above (with which I mostly agree):

-I believe your only option in short term is to travel through USA and enter at a land border. Both you and son would be able to enter there with ID (even expired PR card). [Your son might be able to get a temp or emergency passport in time but wn't be easy.]

-Because, as noted, you're a PR until the status is revoked/renounced. PR cards or PRTDs are needed to board a plane, but once at a port of entry (the passport officer inside Canada), you will be let in as long as they can identify you as a PR/citizen. (Son too) Since they identify you as someone they won't issue an ETA, they apparently can identify you as a PR based on your passport.

-As a PR not in compliance with residency obligation, they might wave you through or they might 'report' you (which starts the process of revoking your PR status, subject to appeal).

-You might have a basis to claim that your time abroad 'accompanying' your spouse makes you compliant. No harm in trying, i.e. claiming this - at a land border they might not want to deal with this if you're just coming for a visit and wave you through, tell you to apply for a prtd next tmie and make a note to your file. The formal app for a PRTD would likely prompt a more serious analysis whether it meets the test for 'accompanying spouse' (I doubt anyone knows how that will go).

-Your son probably visited before without trouble because their systems just weren't complete (and ETA process was new-ish). Your daughter is only escaping this issue because her citizenship hasn't been documented yet (you've not yet submitted the paperwork). But as a citizen (presumptive), she should apply and get the passport.

-Yes, you should enter and leave a country using the same passport - but Canada has no exit controls. (What you show the airline is a different matter). Most countries expect or require that their citizens will enter (and exit if exit controls) presenting as and identifying themselves as citizens. But to leave UK: if they / you are all citizens, you depart and enter UK with UK passports, if you need to show Canadian passports to enter Canada, you show your Cdn passports to the airline. The airlines do not care if you have >1 citizenship, just that you can show you can enter the country they are flying you to (because if you can't, they may get fined or have to pay to remove you).

Note: technically on arrival your daughter should probably be identified to passport officers as a child of a citizen for whom application not submitted. While technically this might be a bit of an issue, I don't think they usually make a big deal of it for young children coming to visit from eg uk or usa.

Some of this a bit simplified (eg alirine regs differ by country).

 

[stevewbruce]

Thanks for your reply too Armoured. Much appreciated. Might have found a solution for my son which I'll post here incase anyone else has the same issue. As my son is a citizen he should be able to travel on a Special Authorisation form which can be filled out 10 days before travel. Fingers crossed that works, atleast the wife can take the kids away.

 

[armoured]

Thanks for your reply too Armoured. Much appreciated. Might have found a solution for my son which I'll post here incase anyone else has the same issue. As my son is a citizen he should be able to travel on a Special Authorisation form which can be filled out 10 days before travel. Fingers crossed that works, atleast the wife can take the kids away.

Good catch i always forget about that process.