Need to go out of Canada without PR Card. Need Advice!

[IndiJones]

Me and my family are Canadian PR and we need to go to the US due to a family medical emergency. My wife's nephew was run over by a car and now he's in critical but stable condition. We'll go by car from Toronto through Buffalo to Philadelphia. We have applied for US visa. The problem is that currently we don't have PR cards with us. They expired and I sent them for renewal in February that will take at least until mid October to get them back according to cic website. I also lost our Record of Landing (ROL) documents. I applied for a certified copy in July that will take at least 2 more months to get. I talked to the cic call center and the agent told me that we don't need PR card or ROL to enter US if we go by car. But we need to have a Temporary Permit (visa) from the Canadian Consulate in the US to enter Canada. We're planning to drop by the Consulate in Buffalo at the HSBC Center on our way to Philadelphia. Now the waiting time for such permit is shown as 1 month in the website. We're thinking of getting back in about 2 weeks time. Is there any way we can expedite this matter so that we can get the visa in about a week? Any suggestion will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[matthewc]

I have no idea why they told you you'd need a "Temporary Permit (visa)"... if that's what they said, it's wrong. They might have been suggesting you need a Travel Document, which is proof of your PR status issued by the Canadian consulate to a PR to enable them to re-enter Canada, BUT...

If you're returning by car, you won't need actually need that. As long as you are ready for a delay at the border when you re-enter Canada. As a PR you have the right to enter Canada - the issue is that they will need to confirm your status. They can look up and verify your PR status in the computer system using your passport. If you have ANY of your family's confirmation of PR / record of landing documents, that will help. Alternatively, look carefully in your passport for the stamp they put there when you became a PR. That should have the COPR number written in below. If you landed using a previous passport, bring the old one if you have it.