Greeting everyone,
I have a similar question along the lines of PR card validity,here’s my situation :
My PR card is set to expire in the November of 2024,I am planning to travel to Canada by September 2022 and do not plan to travel outside the country after that.In this case I will have completed the Residency Obligation mandated by the Canadian authorities (730 days in the last 5 years) while i am in Canada.Also to point out that i stayed in Canada for 10 days when i made the soft landing for initiating the PR card formalities so i am assuming they too will be counted towards the Residency Obligation required in Canada(that would make it 740 days).
My questions :
1.) Can i apply for a pr card renewal in the month of October/November in the year of 2024?
2.) When i apply for a renewal,could my application be rejected or questioned even if i have met the Residency requirements?
3.) When i travel to Canada in the September of 2022,can i be questioned by the border officers?
Any inputs to these questions would be really helpful.
Thank you!!
I fully agree with the comments posted by @armoured.
Additionally . . . Other than this is not an appropriate venue to get personal advice, and more specifically, I am not qualified to offer personal advice, it is probably way too early even for an expert to answer these questions. A lot can happen in a year (between now and September 2022), and a lot more can happen in three years (between now and fall 2024). Including changes in policies and practices, even changes in the law itself. But especially in regards to both what your plans are and in regards to what you actually do, and when.
I realize you are likely looking for guidance based on the circumstances and assumptions you describe, to get some idea how things will work when you make a move to Canada, and not necessarily formal advice. Nonetheless, it needs to be noted, with some emphasis, no one can reliably predict, let alone definitively state how things will go for you a year and three years from now. The variables and contingencies are many.
Some Further Observations:
Obviously your plan is
cutting-it-close (as some of us describe it). That involves a range of risks. There are, for example, many forum participants here who had comparable
cutting-it-close plans oriented to arriving in Canada by the summer of 2020, more than a few of whom are still abroad and now making inquiries about whether Canada will give them a break on enforcing the Residency Obligation because the Covid-19 global pandemic interfered with their plans. Spoiler alert: there is no change to the RO because of the pandemic; moreover, there is no formal policy to give relief for failing to meet the RO because of the pandemic.
While the impact of the pandemic is unusual and hopefully there will not be any repeat performances of such broadly disruptive events any time soon, it illustrates the fact that
stuff-happens, and for the PR remaining abroad to the point of
cutting-it-close, if there is something that delays making the move that will put the PR in breach of the RO and at risk of losing PR status. This forum sees more than a few such cases, ranging from delays due to particular financial or employment situations, to a need to remain abroad because a parent is suddenly seriously ill, or there is a car crash or other cause of injuries, or personal medical conditions, interfering with the PR's plan to move.
Stuff-happens.
There is a lot of discussion about H&C relief for when a PR has what some might describe as "
good reasons" for failing to return to Canada in time to meet the RO. This does not constitute anywhere near the open door many seem to think. The RO, as is, is specifically intended to give PRs sufficient flexibility to accommodate almost any reason, thus including any "
good reason," for being outside Canada for an extended period of time. So a "
good reason" generally is NOT good enough to overcome being in breach of the RO.
Caution: You say you "
do not plan to travel outside the country" after coming here. If you are real close to spending 1095 days outside Canada by the time you come, that means you will NOT be able to travel outside Canada without breaching the RO for the next two years. This too is the kind of
plan many have which tends to run into real life stuff.
thank you for the informative response @armoured,this surely helps!!
Just to get my dates accurate so that I can have a more precise information pertaining to my question : I made my soft landing to Canada on October 8,2019 and stayed in Canada until October 20,2019 post which i flew back to my home country.
Coming to my question again,i understand that if i travel to Canada permanently again in the month of September,2021 I would still be able to complete the Residency Obligation and once i submit my pr for approval,i am hoping there would not be too much trouble?
Another query that i have along a different tangent : Can i apply for pr renewal after it has expired while i am in Canada?
Can i apply for renewal just a month before the card expiry?
Hoping to hear from you soon,thanks again
If you arrive in Canada before you have been outside the country more than 1095 days since October 8, 2019, you are still in compliance with the RO.
A PR does not need to be in Canada for 730 days during the first five years to be in compliance, so long as the PR has not been outside Canada for more than 1095 days (stated differently: as long as the PR has not been outside Canada for more than 1095 days during the first five years, there are still enough days left on the calendar for the PR to spend 730 days in Canada by the fifth year anniversary of landing).
Currently a PR can apply for a new PR card nine months prior to the expiration date for the PRC. That has more often been six months but it appears it is currently longer because of the slow processing over the last year and a half.
As noted above, the more you are
cutting-it-close, the more there are risks. Among the risks is that a PRC application could encounter non-routine processing and thus take longer than most PRC applications. For example, some PRs have seen their PRC application bogged down in Secondary Review for up to a year.
Reminder: getting a new PR card does not restart the RO clock. As of October 8, 2024, your RO compliance will always be based on counting the number of days IN Canada during the five years prior to the day officials are making that calculation. Each day is a different calculation.