Hello Dpenabill, thanks for your detailed information. Do you have a chance to commend my recent queries and some members' opinions.
Key factors: My son left Canada in July 2020 and I left in Sep 2020. I applied citizenship before leaving. I waited until notice for ceremony and traveled back to Canada in June 2022 and returned to China in AUGUST 2022 after I got citizenship. My son is attending university in China since he left Canada and usually stays in university dormitory during program time and joins me during vacations (about 3-4 months each year).
Some members think my son is actully not living with me and he left Canada before I got citizenship, thus his time outside Canada since I became citizen should not be counted inyo his RO.
I guessI time since August 2022 could be counted into my son's RO. And I assume he might have fewer chances to be reported if he returns to Canada through USA border before his 22 birthday.
It is much appreciated if you could give some suggestions. Thank you.
I suspect you will not like what I can offer . . .
Short Response: The safe approach, the ONLY actually safe approach, is to NOT breach the PR Residency Obligation. That means (1) getting to Canada before the fifth year anniversary of the day of landing without spending more than 1095 days outside Canada, and (2) anytime after the fifth year anniversary of landing, being sure to have been IN Canada at least 730 days within the previous five years.
I have already posted that here, in this thread, in a slightly different way, in response to your queries.
Potential exceptions . . . alternatives . . .
There may be exceptions, such as the credit toward RO available to a child accompanying a citizen parent abroad. Is your son a "
child" still? Or has he been living separate enough from you to be considered emancipated?
From the perspective of a total stranger bureaucrat. And as others have questioned, was he "
accompanying" you abroad? Merely being in the same place for a period of time is neither "
accompanying" (what the statute specifies as qualifying for the credit) nor "
ordinarily residing with" (what the regulations and some enforcement guidelines say).
There may be a safety net, such as a child eligible to be sponsored for PR. Here too, is your son a "
child" still? Or has he been living separate enough from you to be considered emancipated?
Again, from the perspective of a total stranger bureaucrat. The prospective timing also appears likely to loom large. And there is more to sponsorship eligibility than being a citizen.
Going against my general rule, to NOT offer advice, if he was 17 and clearly just boarding at school, and you were living in Canada, whatever the risk CBSA or IRCC officials might see things differently, total stranger bureaucrats they are, if he was soon to complete an important educational program, I'd lean toward taking the risk.
But he is 20, nearly 21. You've been living apart for considerable periods of time. And now you are not even in Canada (making sponsorship more difficult, if things got to that). There are various contingencies at play. And we know, we know with certainty, that if keeping PR status is the priority the one safe, for sure approach to do that is for him to come to Canada to stay in time to avoid breaching the PR RO.
Any other approach is taking risks. And what is at risk is status to live in Canada.
If you are looking for reasons to take the risk of losing PR status, to play the odds, that's what bookies do. Not my forte. Not close. And spoiler alert, no bookies are likely to lay odds for this kind of gambling, too many loose ends and wild cards.
Some Contextual Observations:
I make a concerted effort to offer information and NOT offer advice. At the risk of being exceedingly repetitive, the information side of this is straight-forward: unless your son comes to Canada BEFORE failing to comply with the PR Residency Obligation, he will risk losing PR status.
I especially try to steer wide of giving risk-assessment advice. There are simply way, way too many elements and contingencies to suggest parameters of acceptable risk for individual cases. For that sort of advice, generally I'd suggest paying to have a lawyer review the details and offer an opinion . . . EXCEPT, my sense is the lawyer's advice will be to COMPLY with the PR RO. So, in regards to this, you can probably save the money, skip the lawyer, and assume the lawyer's advice will be that: comply with the PR RO (if keeping PR status is a priority).
I am NOT a Canadian lawyer. Have not even talked to a Canadian lawyer in a professional capacity in over a decade. I rarely see or talk to the one family-friend who is a lawyer, and it has probably been around a decade since we had a very general conversation about applications to the Federal Court for a Writ of Mandamus. He was just a clerk then, not yet fully licensed to practice law.
Notwithstanding my lack of familiarity with Canadian lawyers, I have a rather strong sense that my thinking is not far off from most lawyers about this: identify the applicable rules, identify how the rules apply to the individual, and explain what the individual needs to do to comply with the rules.
That is different from the scenario in which a PR has already breached the RO, or due to other more compelling priorities must breach the RO. That situation is not about deciding whether to take the risk. That is about what can be done to minimize further risk and try to save status given the situation. Generally, nearly always, first order of business is to get to Canada to stay as soon as possible. This sort of scenario typically brings up questions about how to best prepare for what might happen, for example, upon next arrival at a Port-of-Entry.
These two different decision-making contexts should be kept separate, approached differently. Deciding whether it is worth taking risks is very different from deciding how to navigate risks after-the-fact.
NONE of which is to suggest that your son's odds of H&C relief are too low, if he remains abroad to complete his education, to take the chance. Nor is it to suggest what the odds are.
I do not know. What I do know is that to breach the RO is to risk losing PR status. For many PRs that would be a risk not worth taking even if the odds are good.
