PR Renewal less than 730 days

[emkay848484]

Hello everyone,
my PR will expire next year and I have done less than 730 days inside Canada however I am married to a Canadian and we have been living together for around 2 years outside Canada.
my questions:
1- Will I be able to renew my PR since we are living together outside Canada?
2- in my case, do I need to be in Canada to renew my PR even if we both live outside Canada?
3- Do you recommend me to use an immigration lawyer to renew my PR or my case is simple?

Rgards
MK

 

[armoured]

Hello everyone,
my PR will expire next year and I have done less than 730 days inside Canada however I am married to a Canadian and we have been living together for around 2 years outside Canada.
my questions:
1- Will I be able to renew my PR since we are living together outside Canada?
2- in my case, do I need to be in Canada to renew my PR even if we both live outside Canada?
3- Do you recommend me to use an immigration lawyer to renew my PR or my case is simple?

Rgards
MK

You might want to ask this question in the residency obligations part of the forum.

My rough answers (not an expert):
1. You've phrased this strangely but the question I think you mean is 'will my time with spouse abroad count as residence for residency obligation purposes.' And the answer to that is, it depends and no-one can tell you in advance, depending on such factors as whether you left together, back to home country or some third country, and possibly who-accompanied-whom. (Or in some sense, if it resembles the case of "Citizen leaves for a job abroad temporarily and expects to return", it will probalby be easier.
2. No, you'll really have to apply and renew within Canada. Hence the question becomes, will you both be returning to reside in Canada?
3. I don't have an answer. It will likely be a lot easier if actually returning to Canada.

 

[alice17]

Hello everyone,
my PR will expire next year and I have done less than 730 days inside Canada however I am married to a Canadian and we have been living together for around 2 years outside Canada.
my questions:
1- Will I be able to renew my PR since we are living together outside Canada?
2- in my case, do I need to be in Canada to renew my PR even if we both live outside Canada?
3- Do you recommend me to use an immigration lawyer to renew my PR or my case is simple?

Rgards
MK

Hi MK,
1-Assuming your spouse is not employed FT by a Canadian employer, you unfortunately wouldn't be able to use this route to renew your card.
2- Yes you do. PR card renewals are only done inside Canada for now. IRCC doesn't send the PR cards to a non-Canadian address, and they typically don't allow third parties receive the cards on your behalf.
If possible, I would suggest coming back before the card expires and "demonstrate" that you'll be able to meet and comply with the residency requirements.
3- You could apply for the renewal without an immigration lawyer/consultant. It might be helpful to have one walk you through what to expect with the border officers.

 

[emkay848484]

Hi MK,
1-Assuming your spouse is not employed FT by a Canadian employer, you unfortunately wouldn't be able to use this route to renew your card.
2- Yes you do. PR card renewals are only done inside Canada for now. IRCC doesn't send the PR cards to a non-Canadian address, and they typically don't allow third parties receive the cards on your behalf.
If possible, I would suggest coming back before the card expires and "demonstrate" that you'll be able to meet and comply with the residency requirements.
3- You could apply for the renewal without an immigration lawyer/consultant. It might be helpful to have one walk you through what to expect with the border officers.

Thanks for your reply. Regarding point 1 my wife is Canadian citizen

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your reply. Regarding point 1 my wife is Canadian citizen

It depends on who accompanied whom.

IRCC applies the "who accompanied whom" rule when determining if time outside of Canada spend with a Canadian citizen spouse can be counted towards the residency requirement for PR.

- If the primary reason you are outside of Canada is due to your job and obligations and your spouse accompanied you, then the time will not count.
- If the primary reason you are outside of Canada is due to your spouse's job and obligations (e.g. you were in Canada, your spouse got a job offer outside of Canada, and you both decided to leave), then the time will count.

 

[armoured]

I'd note that in some cases PRs living abroad with Canadian citizens ('accompanying') have applied for PRTDs instead and received relatively long-dated multi-entry, and just renewed them as needed.

My understanding is that the formal determination of 'accompanying' or not is somewhat unpredictable, in the sense that often IRCC does not look at this so carefully - but sometimes they do. They may ask for detail of 'who-accompanied-whom', or take the situation at face value.

That's why the question of which country (home country or some third country) may be relevant - if both PR and citizen 'return' to home country of PR, it will effectively not look like one-accompanied-other (on some foreign venture), but that the PR simply never settled in Canada and attempting to use the 'accompany' rule to maintain PR status.