PR Card Renewal & Citizenship Obligations - Mr Leon..Please reply, Thanks

[savio.dcruz]

I hold an Indian passport & a landed immigrant to Mississauga, Ontario since May 2011. I got into Canada just for two weeks for the landing immigration formalities after which I had to get back to work in the middle east during this time I was working with a company known as TPD based out of Middle east.
In September 2011, TPD was taken over by HB US based Oil & Gas service company.
Due to work mostly in the middle east I was told that I would be unable to meet up the number of days in Canada towards my PR card renewal and Citizenship eligibility.
My PR card would expire in May 2016 and I visit Canada only twice a year for 2-3 weeks only as most of my work is Out of Canada.
I was advised that If I had a HBC Canadian contract then the number of days outside of Canada that is my assignment to HBC Middle east would be counted towards the renewal of my PR card where I had to make 730 days ??
I am not sure whether this contract can be used to be eligible towards the number of days for my citizenship of 1095days ??
I have been paying high taxes since September 2011 after I had signed my HBC Canada contract assignment to Middle east until now where I have come to a point where I might have to move to another country or department for which I might have to move my contract out of Canada.
I tried to apply for the T626 overseas tax credit but HBC Canada came back to me saying the below and I was not eligible towards the tax benefit;

''Be employed in connection with a contract under which the specified employer carried on business outside Canada on a resource, construction, installation, agricultural, engineering or prescribed activity (or for the purpose of obtaining such a contract). - This is where you do not qualify as HB Worldwide Ltd. (Co 7049) working in ME, where you work, is not a foreign affiliate of Canada, therefore, you are not working for a "Specified Employer" in 2012 ''

Please let me know if I would be eligible towards the PR renewal & citizenship with my current HBC Canada contract assigned to ME and the days counted this way since September 2011 until now ?

What if I move away from my current HBC Canada contract to another local contract in the middle east, Will I loose the number of days that I had acquired so far ?

Thanks & Best Regards,

 

[Leon]

Immigration is pretty strict on what they consider to be a Canadian employer and generally they require that you were working for the employer in Canada already and were transferred to a full time overseas position. Not that you went overseas and looked for a Canadian employer to work for.

You can read the manual on PR residency requirements:

6.5. Employment outside of Canada

The Regulations enable permanent residents to comply with the residency obligations while working abroad, provided that:

* they are under contract to or are full-time employees of a Canadian business or in the public service, where the assignment is controlled from the head office of a Canadian business or public institution in Canada; and

* they are assigned on a full-time basis as a term of their employment or contract to a position outside Canada with that business, an affiliated enterprise or a client.

Therefore, you can try it but there is no guarantee that they will accept it. If you leave this company, you will not lose the days you have worked for them although as I just said, there is no guarantee that they will accept the employer.

Any days spent working for a Canadian employer outside Canada can only be counted towards the PR residency requirements, not towards citizenship.

Note that as you landed in 2011 and you are allowed to be outside Canada for up to 3 years in any 5 year period, if you want to keep your PR, you can return no later than May 2014 and stay for 2 years straight and fulfill your residency obligation.

 

[egyo]

@ Leon My PR renewal application (we sent it as a regular application in April but ten days ago we asked for urgent processing due to a family emergency) has been transferred to the local office for further review. Could you please let me know if it is a good idea to contact the local office via fax about my file and the need to have urgent processing? We have family emergency in our home country and need to leave ASAP? Thanks

 

[Leon]

If you have the local office fax number, you can try. Otherwise, you can call the call centre.

If you really must leave, you can leave without a PR card and apply for a PR travel document to return. Processing a travel document can sometimes take weeks but they are usually valid 6 months so if you are not planning on staying more than 6 months, you can apply for a travel document right away as you get there.

 

[egyo]

Thank you so much. I am a little bit worried about facing troubles due to traveling with PR in hand. i have read a post by someone who traveled and applied for a travel document then got reported and has a hearing soon. He said his case was straight forward with more than two years of residence in Canada. I am very confused in this regard.