Only 1 year remaining before PR expiry

[NNB18]

Hi,
Has anyone tried permanently moving to Canada with only one year remaining in their 5yr PR term? My PR card expires in little over a year, and I have stayed only for a few weeks so far in Canada.
What did CBSA question at the PoE ?
Were you issued a A44 at entry ?
Did you have to appeal ?
I was going theough a divorce and hence i could not move early as I planned. Will they consider my situation for H&C ?

 

[armoured]

Short form answer (you will see other stories here about what has happened):
-They will ('must') consider all reasons for H&C - but how much weight they put on the reasons is up to them, and whether or not they consider them sufficient reason to be lenient is uncertain.
-Since you have a valid PR card, you have a significant advantage, in that they may or may not decide at border to assess whether you are in compliance or not - in other words, there's a chance you will be waved on through with no officer interview.
-With an officer interview, it can go anywhere from a question or two and wave you through to a mild warning to be careful about your residency obligation to the formal write-up.

Any assessment of your 'chances' is just a guess - any percentage probabilities before you go also, and what % probability before is irrelevant once the thing happens (to borrow the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment language, once the 'examination' by the officer is complete, the cat is either alive or not).

I see you've looked at other threads on how this goes. Main advice is fairly simple - the sooner you return to Canada the better, some preparation beforehand about your H&C reasons helps, be ready to speak briefly and directly about what the issues were.

As for your reason: 'I was going through divorce' on its own sounds a bit weak - as once separated, you could have just left. I don't mean that this needs a super-long sturm und drang novel, but some reasons about why the process meant you could not leave before.

Having 'only' one year out of compliance - I have no opinion on how this'll be interpreted. We can say that at least sometimes PRs in this situation in first five years don't have any issues.

If you are let through - the safest thing will be to stay in Canada until you are in compliance (i.e. two years). Having been admitted once doesn't 'cure' the non-compliance.

 

[Besram]

Hi,
Has anyone tried permanently moving to Canada with only one year remaining in their 5yr PR term? My PR card expires in little over a year, and I have stayed only for a few weeks so far in Canada.
What did CBSA question at the PoE ?
Were you issued a A44 at entry ?
Did you have to appeal ?
I was going theough a divorce and hence i could not move early as I planned. Will they consider my situation for H&C ?

As mentioned by @armoured, you probably have a fairly decent chance of being let into the country without a report for failure to meet the residency obligation. But it's by no means certain. People in your situation have been reported and lost their PR status as a result.

The challenge for you is more of a practical nature. Once you enter Canada without being reported, the safest thing to do is to remain in Canada until your are back in compliance with the RO. This means no travel, including to your home country.

If you follow this guideline, it means you will have to uproot your life in your home country before leaving, considering you won't be able to return for ~2 years+ to tie up any loose ends. But are you really prepared to do that, not knowing if you will be reported or not?

You could of course just test to see if you are reported, then return to your home country and wrap up your life there. But then you face the same dilemma again - will they let you in again without being reported ? We do know that the more often you cross the border, the higher the risk becomes that you will be reported. Especially if you have been let off the hook with a warning the previous time.

So: if you're set on coming to Canada and giving this PR thing a red hot go - give it a try.

But: if you have a good life in your home country (especially employment), you may not want to risk it all for the somewhat uncertain prospect of being able to rescue your PR status.

Only you can make that decision. Having flexible employment arrangements with your current employer can make this a whole lot easier.

 

[NNB18]

Thank you for your replies!