Necessity of PR Card as American?

[armoured]

Just this week I was flying back from Europe and at the airport before boarding, we needed to show our ArriveCan, our immunization, etc.. Someone ahead of me in line was asked by the airline service person to show his PR as he was a non-Canadian citizen but a permanent resident.

It is of course normal that a visa waiver citizen (eg most EU passport holders) would need to show a PR card OR an ETA, and the PR card holders can't get an ETA.

There was a sort-of catch-22 during covid, that only PRs, citizens and some limited other travellers were allowed to travel to Canada. So visa-waiver citizens could not get ETAs at all - because most types of travel were suspended. (I think that was how this worked)

But this was the first time (as far as I'm aware) that US citizens needed 'something more' than just showing their passport - some covid-related exemption, or ... a PR card to show they were residents.

So yes, during covid, effectively what some US citizen-PRs found was that now they did need a PR card. Now those specific covid restrictiions have been removed, so US citizens travelling for any reason should be able to board a plane (subject to whatever the rules are about vaccinations today).

Now a comment: I do NOT know how ArriveCan requirements fit in here. I'm not in this situation and can't experiment. Arguably a US citizen-PR without a PR card could just not enter the PR info into ArriveCan (just US passport info) - but one, I don't know if that will work, and two, I don't know if you're breaking any rules by doing so.

This is where things could get sticky. These airline workers don't understand the nuances of the situation. As I was a visitor, I didn't need to show my PR card. However, on this past trip I officially immigrated and now my status has changed. I am anticipating possibly having an issue with the airline next month when I travel back from a trip to Scotland.

Honestly one option is to not mention the PR status to the airline. Same caveats roughly as above.