PR Card Expired in 2009! Married in Canada to Canadian Citizen. Living Abroad.

[CanadaBound8412]

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well. My wife and I have a question regarding moving back to Canada. We have talked to people from immigration, read forum posts and tried to get answers from the Immigration website. Getting answers to specific situations is a tough thing to stitch together in regards to which documents need to be filled out or which road to take. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will give some information on our situation now.

My wife moved from Switzerland in 1995. We met in 2001, lived together and were married in Canada in 2006. In 2006, shortly after our marriage she moved back to Switzerland and I stayed for another 2.5 years in Canada. In 2009, I also moved to Switzerland to be with her. We have now lived in Switzerland together for the last 4.5 years. My wife's PR card was valid until 2009 and now we are interested in moving back to Canada. My question is, is what steps are we required to take to allow her to come back and live as a permanent resident again. After many inquiries to many different people, a lot of the information proved to be misleading and confusing. We are hoping someone could give us some concrete information as to the steps needed for her to come back to Canada. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[chx]

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (S.C. 2001, c. 27)

28.
(1) A permanent resident must comply with a residency obligation with respect to every five-year period.
(2) The following provisions govern the residency obligation under subsection (1):
(a) a permanent resident complies with the residency obligation with respect to a five-year period if, on each of a total of at least 730 days in that five-year period, they are
(i) physically present in Canada,
(ii) outside Canada accompanying a Canadian citizen who is their spouse or common-law partner or, in the case of a child, their parent,

So, your wife is still a permanent resident! Great.

Search the CIC site for "Application for a Travel Document (Permanent Resident Abroad)" (sorry I can't link) and it's very clear there:

If your card expires while you are outside Canada and you will use a commercial vehicle like a bus or plane to return to Canada, you must apply for a travel document.

Document Checklist [IMM 5627] (PDF, 121 KB) May 2013
Application for a Travel Document (Permanent Resident Abroad) [IMM 5524] (PDF, 167 KB) January 2012
Use of a Representative [IMM 5476] (PDF, 55 KB) April 2013
Instruction Guide [IMM 5529]

You will find these in the Document Checklist:

Evidence of your permanent resident status in Canada, such as:
• an expired permanent resident card

If you are accompanying a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, these may include:
• marriage licence

 

[CanadaBound8412]

Thank you chx for your reply. I have another question as to what happens after we go back to Canada what steps do you have to do once you are in the country in order for us both to be able to live and work there?

 

[CanadaBound8412]

Another question is on the form it asks for your permanent address in Canada, what do we write there if we don't have an address over there?

 

[Leon]

Thank you chx for your reply. I have another question as to what happens after we go back to Canada what steps do you have to do once you are in the country in order for us both to be able to live and work there?

You don't have to take any steps, you are a Canadian, right? Your wife has a SIN so she can work. However she will need a PR card because it will be asked for when applying for health care, drivers license etc. She may be able to get around it by showing her landing papers.. or not.. so it's better that you apply for a PR card as soon as you arrive.

Another question is on the form it asks for your permanent address in Canada, what do we write there if we don't have an address over there?

Write N/A (not applicable). Since she is visa exempt to Canada, she could actually book a flight without a travel document and without telling the airline that she is a PR with an expired card. Once she arrives in Canada, she should however say to immigration that she is a PR.

 

[CanadaBound8412]

thanks again for your help. Now I have one more question/problem she had a Social Insurance Number card but has since moving to switzerland lost it, she knows the number in her head but will that cause us problems from the get go as well?

So in other words what you are saying is that technically go there with a booked return flight, not use the return flight, and apply for a new PR card right off the start?
How long does it take to get a PR card renewed?

 

[CanadaBound8412]

Sorry but I was just on the website seeing how it would be to renew the PR card for our situation, and ran into a problem concerning what you said about being able to get health insurance and a drivers license.

One (1) primary identity document

A copy of one of the following:

your valid passport or travel document, or
the passport or travel document you held at the time you became a permanent resident (including your passport’s page that was stamped when you arrived in Canada and became a permanent resident), or
the certificate of identity or travel document issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada or a foreign country.
Note: The copy should show the document type and number, issue and expiry date, your name, photo and date of birth.
Under exceptional circumstances, if it is impossible for you to obtain any of the above you must provide a:

copy of any identity document issued outside Canada before you came to Canada,
or
statutory declaration signed by you attesting to your identity and a statutory declaration also attesting to your identity signed by:
a person who knew you before you came to Canada (such as a family member) or
an official of an organization representing people from your country of nationality or former residence.
Format: Clear and legible photocopy

Two (2) secondary identity documents

A copy of two of the following:

your Record of Landing (IMM 1000) or Confirmation of Permanent Residence (IMM 5292 or IMM 5688), or
your valid provincial driver’s license or valid provincial photo-identity card, or
your valid University/College photo student card, or
your most recent Income Tax assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency within the past two years.
Format: Clear and legible photocopy

The ID she could / would have would be passport and drivers license, but if you say the drivers license can't be renewed w/o PR card it goes against each other. She wouldn't have University student card or income tax assesment. So drivers license is the only ID she could bring? What do you do there?

 

[Leon]

I'm not saying it can't be done but they will almost certainly ask for it. Then you will ask them if they will accept her landing papers/expired PR card instead of a valid PR card and remind them that there is no law in Canada that states you must have a valid PR card in order to live in Canada.

Do you know what province you want to go to? You can look up their drivers license authority and health care and contact them now and ask them what you will need.

 

[CanadaBound8412]

Just to review so you understand better, I am a Canadian citizen and she is swiss with a expired PR card but meets the residency obligation by accompanying me abroad in Switzerland. Now the issues we have are she knows her SIN but has lost her actual card, all she really has is her expired PR card, and expired Manitoba Drivers license. either way we go about it either by getting the travel document or just going there without travel document with return ticket a problem comes up with the renewal of PR card in the fact that we need three pieces of ID#1 being passport #2 PR Card and #3 drivers license and as you said before you need a PR card to renew your license, but then you need a valid license to apply for a renewal of PR card. Could you explain that to me.
What would you advise go with travel document or not?
Sorry about all the questions don't mean to harass you, we appreciate your help. Its all just a little confusing

 

[chx]

Get a travel document. You have no reason not to except a little lost time. That will actually help with getting her PR card renewed.

 

[Leon]

She should also have her record of landing. If she has lost it, she needs to apply for a verification of status.

According to http://www.mpi.mb.ca/en/DL/DL/Identity/Pages/acceptable-documents.aspx if you are in Manitoba, the record of landing should be enough to get a license if accompanied by her passport and something showing that she lives in Manitoba like a utility bill. It is also possible since she had a drivers license there before that they have a record of her PR status because they state on there that they keep scanned copies of documents you have provided before.

The health care in Manitoba will ask for a copy of the PR card, see http://www.gov.mb.ca/health/mhsip/index.html but it is possible that they will accept an expired card. You can phone them and ask.

She can go to Service Canada and ask for a new SIN card.

Even though getting all these things in order may be a hassle, there is nothing much you can do about it at this point. You will just have to deal with it after your move.

I agree that getting a travel document is a good idea in her case. It will be one more document that she can use to prove her PR status and might be accepted by someone. In some countries, the processing times are very long but they shouldn't be in Europe. The travel documents are usually valid for 6 months so you can apply for it a bit beforehand as well.

 

[CanadaBound8412]

Okay thank you both for your answers. It gives us some clarity on the issues we had.Thanks again take care