NEED SUGGESTION> PR OBLIGATION

[arnoldlev]

Hi all,

I was granted my PR card in 2014 and it will expire in Sept 2019.
Since I landed until now, I have probably only accumulated 1-2 months being in Canada; and that was without work.

I am currently living in Indonesia, where I was born, because my girlfriend is still living & studying there.
The plan is to marry my girlfriend and then bringing her with me back to Canada.
However, I realized that planning marriage isn't easy and it takes time.

I know ideally I need to be in Canada by Sept 2017, but I'm not sure if I can get married or move by then.

I have read that some people go back after the 3 years (that means they can't meet the 730 days out of 5 years).

Do you think it will be okay if I get back by early 2018 (let's say Jan / Feb) ?
or should I not take the risk and be back by Sept 2017 ?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Please share also if anyone has experienced this.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Arnold Limantono

 

[Bs65]

Firstly whether you worked or not in your 1-2 months in the country is not relevant.

If you decide to leave it until Jan/Feb 2018 to return then you risk being reported on landing for failing to meet residency, nobody on this forum can say whether you will or will not only the CBSA officer at immigration will decide whether to report you. There is a slim chance that given you accumulated 1-2 months and only go over 3 years out by couple months you may get away with it but difficult to say or obviously guarantee.

Whether you decide to risk Jan/Feb 2018 or 4Q 2017 you will still need to stay in the country without leaving for 2 years to reset your residency obligation. The only sure thing is that as a PR you will still be entitled to enter the country what happens after is the unknown if entering after 3 years out.

As for marriage being a PR does not give your spouse any immigration status you would need to sponsor your spouse separately and to do that you would need to be resident in the country. The process for spousal sponsorship has recently changed so suggest you read up on that to see what options available for a spouse to accompany you either initially or later once you have landed yourself. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse.asp

The decision when to return is really yours, take no risk and return in Sept 2017 or hold out to Jan/Feb 2018 and possibly risk being reported and possibly lose PR eventually even though in either case you would need to stay for 2 years without leaving. Personally I would take the risk element out but of course this leaves some decisions to make on the marriage schedule.

 

[zardoz]

Hi all,

I was granted my PR card in 2014 and it will expire in Sept 2019.
Since I landed until now, I have probably only accumulated 1-2 months being in Canada; and that was without work.

I am currently living in Indonesia, where I was born, because my girlfriend is still living & studying there.
The plan is to marry my girlfriend and then bringing her with me back to Canada.
However, I realized that planning marriage isn't easy and it takes time.

I know ideally I need to be in Canada by Sept 2017, but I'm not sure if I can get married or move by then.

I have read that some people go back after the 3 years (that means they can't meet the 730 days out of 5 years).

Do you think it will be okay if I get back by early 2018 (let's say Jan / Feb) ?
or should I not take the risk and be back by Sept 2017 ?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Please share also if anyone has experienced this.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Arnold Limantono

Please note that the date of expiry on the PR Card is irrelevant when calculating the residency obligation requirements. You must accumulate 730 days in Canada based on the date that you landed as a PR. Therefore, if, for example, you landed in July 2014, you must use July 2017 as your reference and not Sept 2017.

 

[Rob_TO]

Do you think it will be okay if I get back by early 2018 (let's say Jan / Feb) ?

Definitely not. You will be in violation of the residency obligation. 2 things will happen, neither of which are good.
1. You will be reported for not meeting RO when trying to enter Canada, leading to your PR being revoked.
2. You make it into Canada without being reported, but since you do not meet RO you must wait 2 full years before you can attempt to sponsor any new family members.

or should I not take the risk and be back by Sept 2017 ?

You should not take the risk, and aim to be back living permanently in Canada before you're in violation of the RO. Basically once you have been outside Canada for 3 years after your initial PR landing, you will be in violation of RO. As mentioned the date your PR card expires is not relevant to meeting the RO.

 

[dpenabill]

I concur in all the responses above.

But especially in the response by Rob_TO.

For emphasis: once a new PR has been abroad for 1095 days since landing (and still within the first five years of the day of landing), the PR is in breach of the PR Residency Obligation and is subject to being reported as inadmissible on the grounds of breaching the PR RO. And is NOT eligible to sponsor a family member.

It is further worth a reminder that the PR who is abroad for three years, without spending at least some time in Canada in the meantime, is obviously, blatantly in breach of the PR RO. Odds of being reported then are very high. And once a PR has been outside Canada this long, the PR will remain in breach, remain subject to being deemed inadmissible (and losing PR status altogether), and remain ineligible to sponsor a spouse, for at least two full years after coming to Canada to stay even if not reported when arriving during the return to Canada.

Here's the rub: many, many new PRs have more modest plans which entail their returning to settle in Canada within three years of the date they landed, but many of those who cut it close run into this or that contingency which delays their actual return to settle and stay in Canada. Stuff Happens And they run into trouble keeping their PR status.

It is risky to cut it close. A plan to go beyond cutting it close, to not return to Canada until already being in breach of the PR RO, is to effectively not plan on keeping PR status at all, but rather is to just hope that somehow the rules are not enforced.

Note: in the past, in the more distant past now I'd guess, there was a good deal of leeway toward PRs still within the first five years, despite a formal breach of the PR RO. There has been little evidence that CBSA or IRCC continue to be so liberal. But even if CBSA is still liberally allowing new PRs to return to stay in Canada despite an apparent breach of the PR RO, to not report the PR upon arrival, the margin is probably fairly small, and in particular may be very small if any for the PR whose last time in Canada was three plus years previous (again, this is an obvious breach, and so a PoE officer would essentially have to turn a blind eye to the law to not report the individual, at least in the absence of compelling H&C reasons). And, as Rob_TO pointed out, even if the PR is allowed into Canada without being reported, that PR would not be eligible to sponsor a spouse for another two full years, during which time the PR could not travel abroad without again risking being reported and losing PR status.

Thus, as Rob_TO said, a plan to delay returning to Canada until early 2018 would definitely NOT be OK. If you really want to keep PR status it would be a foolish gamble.