Landing and Leaving Again

[Fencesitter]

Hi all,

Something that I thought was pretty easy seems as though it might be a bit more complicated.

If my wife and I fly to Vancouver to complete the landing procedure, then return to China, will that be a problem? I had planned to ask my parents to courier the PR card after it arrives at their address. But now I worry that the immigration officer might think we lied (when we land in Vancouver) because he/she might think we are staying in China....which we are most certainly NOT! I want to stay a bit longer so that we can save more money (I get a fat bonus at the end of my contract and I could use that money to help with our relocation expenses).

I have read that others have done it before, but I can't seem to find anything on the CIC website stating whether it's legal or not to send a PR card outside of Canada.

There is always the option of applying for a returning residents document, but after looking at all the forms and documents needed, I don't really want to do it...feels like I would be applying for the PR all over again.

Anyone have any current information or advice??

Thanks!

FS

 

[steaky]

No problem if you and your wife fly to Vancouver to complete the landing procedure and return to China.

 

[CharlieD10]

There are no rules or regulations regarding sending the PR cards out of the country. Without something explicitly barring one from doing so, the implication is that it is legally done.

You won't find anything saying you can't return to China to wrap up your affairs in the Regulations, either. If you read as many Residency Obligation appeal case summaries as I do, you will see that the judges all concede that there are many instances and circumstances where persons must return to their former countries to take care of matters left pending when they emigrated. I have never seen any of them condemn such actions on the part of PRs. Where they get ticked off is when people come to Canada, claim the benefits of being PR and then forget their residency obligation or seek to use fraudulent means to get out of them (companies started solely so the PR can claim they were working abroad for a Canadian company and thus should be exempted from meeting the residency obligation, for example).

Don't worry so much about it, it has been done before by others I know of from this forum, and they were perfectly fine doing so. Like you, the poster's wife was the foreign national, they returned to her home country to wind up their business and came back to Canada a few months later and are now quite settled into their Canadian life. You will be fine.

 

[Fencesitter]

Ok, cool.

Is it better to come clean and let the immigration officer at the POE know that we are turning around and flying back to China to take care of unfinished business? Or should I stay quiet? I don't really want to say too much, as this could give the immigration officer cause to be a jerk.

Basically, we will probably need to land before March 1, 2013. We plan to fly to Vancouver, complete the landing procedures, then return in a day or two. We will continue living in China for about 5 months, then leave for good in early August 2013 (I get my bonus on August 10). If we were to leave for good before March 1, 2013, I'd end up losing about USD$10,000, as I could easily save that much if I stayed for the entire year.

I guess we will just do the Vancouver thing and then come back...we could really use the extra money as we are not bringing much with us...we're basically starting over again, so we need to buy a lot of stuff!!

My parents will courier to PR card via Fed Ex or some other decent courier (the fastest method possible!). Once we have the PR card, no problems getting back into Canada, right? I mean will the immigration officer look at the last exit stamp when we left Vancouver and ask how we were able to get the PR card if we were not living in Canada?? This is something I have thought could possibly cause problems when we arrive in Canada for good in the summer of 2013.

FS

 

[BCgirl2012]

Exit stamp? Canada doesn't stamp passports on exit.

 

[Fencesitter]

Oh, I didn't know that. There is an exit and entry stamp for China, so when we return in the summer of 2013, the immigration officer could potentially ask about it, no? Or if my wife presents her PR card when we arrive in 2013, the immigration officer will just let her in without hassle?

Thanks,
FS

 

[truesmile]

Yep, no hassle with a PR card in hand . . . at least not about 'status' here (in Canada).