PR Card Renewal – Will I Face Issues? (Soft Landing 2020 → Met RO by Dec 2025)

[b007]

Hi everyone,

Looking for quick guidance on my upcoming PR card renewal.

• PR card expires: May 2026
• Residency obligation: I will reach 730 days by December 2025
• Timeline:
  
  • Soft landing in March 2020
  • Returned to Canada in Nov 2023
  • Entry allowed on H&C (officer’s discretion) – officer noted humanitarian grounds
• Since then, I’ve been living in Canada continuously except for occasional short US trips (no days lose). No long absences planned.
  

Questions:​

1. Do you anticipate any challenges in my PR card renewal given that my 2020–2023 gap was resolved at the border under H&C?
2. What supporting documents should I gather now to clearly show I’m meeting the residency obligation by Dec 2025?
3. Any travel precautions I should take before applying for renewal in Jan 2026?
   

Thank you!

 

[armoured]

1. Shouldn't be. Note, this doesn't mean it'll get processed super-fast - but no obvious reasons to be particullarly worried, as long as 730 days (certain) plus a bit of buffer.
2. No different than in the instructions.
3. Not sure I understand - not really.

 

[b007]

1. Shouldn't be. Note, this doesn't mean it'll get processed super-fast - but no obvious reasons to be particullarly worried, as long as 730 days (certain) plus a bit of buffer.
2. No different than in the instructions.
3. Not sure I understand - not really.

Thank you @armoured

 

[NNB18]

Hi everyone,

Looking for quick guidance on my upcoming PR card renewal.

• PR card expires: May 2026
• Residency obligation: I will reach 730 days by December 2025
• Timeline:
  • Soft landing in March 2020
  • Returned to Canada in Nov 2023
  • Entry allowed on H&C (officer’s discretion) – officer noted humanitarian grounds
• Since then, I’ve been living in Canada continuously except for occasional short US trips (no days lose). No long absences planned.

Questions:​

1. Do you anticipate any challenges in my PR card renewal given that my 2020–2023 gap was resolved at the border under H&C?
2. What supporting documents should I gather now to clearly show I’m meeting the residency obligation by Dec 2025?
3. Any travel precautions I should take before applying for renewal in Jan 2026?

Thank you!

Hi did you enter by air/land ?
What all questions did the officer ask in secondary inspection ? Was it quick or very detailed ? Did you have to show H&C documents as proof
Thank you

 

[b007]

Hi did you enter by air/land ?
What all questions did the officer ask in secondary inspection ? Was it quick or very detailed ? Did you have to show H&C documents as proof
Thank you

By Land.
It was detailed interview.
I was not meeting Residency Obligation so they allowed me on H&C but I didn't apply through H&C stream.

 

[NNB18]

By Land.
It was detailed interview.
I was not meeting Residency Obligation so they allowed me on H&C but I didn't apply through H&C stream.

Thanks! I’m in same boat.
Im 6mnths short of RO (1 have only 1.5yrs left on PR card). I will prepare my H&C docs for entry

 

[Ponga]

• Since then, I’ve been living in Canada continuously except for occasional short US trips (no days lose). No long absences planned.

​

The fact that you have made `occasional' trips to/from the U.S. and were NOT reported by a CBSA officer (creating a 44(1) report) is BEYOND lucky, IMHO.
At anytime you could have been given the 44(1) report which would have been the first step towards revoking your PR status.

 

[b007]

The fact that you have made `occasional' trips to/from the U.S. and were NOT reported by a CBSA officer (creating a 44(1) report) is BEYOND lucky, IMHO.
At anytime you could have been given the 44(1) report which would have been the first step towards revoking your PR status.

I didn't get 44(1) reports. Officer allowed me to enter based on officer’s discretion.

 

[abff08f4813c]

PR card expires: May 2026
Soft landing in March 2020

How come your PR card expires in May 2026 if you got PR in March 2020? That's over six years validity for a single PR card.

Returned to Canada in Nov 2023
Residency obligation: I will reach 730 days by December 2025
I’ve been living in Canada continuously except for occasional short US trips (no days lose).

Also, how come you only reach 730 days in December 2025 (which is when you started this thread) if you didn't lose any days from your US trips? (I'm guessing like same-day US trips - since a partial day in Canada counts as a full day.)

730 days from November 1st, 2023 is October 31st, 2025. 730 Days from November 30th, 2023 is November 29th, 2025.

The fact that you have made `occasional' trips to/from the U.S. and were NOT reported by a CBSA officer (creating a 44(1) report) is BEYOND lucky, IMHO.
At anytime you could have been given the 44(1) report which would have been the first step towards revoking your PR status.

In general, this is correct. If you are a PR that has not yet met RO, then typically everytime you have to re-enter Canada there is a brand new risk of a section 44(1) report.

So OP was luckily in one of the following ways:

- These were all same day trips, and each time the border officer looked at the record of the original H&C reasons given back in Nov 2023 and decided to be merciful each time. Perhaps there was an additional consideration - like the trips were all related to OP's job or something.

- OP renewed PR card based on H&C and got it approved. In this case CBSA wouldn't give the report (but OP was still lucky to be able to renew the PR card early.)

One last possibility:

- OP miscalculated when RO would be met, and the trips all happened after the correct earlier date of meeting RO. For example, OP got in on November 1st, 2023, met RO on October 31st, 2025, and then made the short trips to the US only after Halloween this year.

I didn't get 44(1) reports. Officer allowed me to enter based on officer’s discretion.

This can happen - but what's luck is that each time a different officer decided to use their discretion to let you back in. Just being unlucky once would put your PR at risk - you have to win the game of luck every single time in order to beat it. That said, trips that don't cause you to lose any days feel like they'd be among the ones where officers would most likely use their discretion in your favor. I wonder if you had cleared this approach with an immigration lawyer or consultant before trying it...