Travelling to Canada by car with expired pr card

[armoured]

This is all very helpful!

Would you all be able to confirm that this thread applies to me as well?

US citizen / Canadian PR
Land crossing in my own vehicle at Niagara
Expired PR card - already applied for renewal

Just planning to go to the states for a few days and want to make sure I won't run into trouble at the border returning to Canada.

Any extra documents I should carry to prove my PR status?

Thanks!

Expired PR card will be sufficient. If you have other Canadian docs (driver's license, health card, whatever) will help to show that you are a factual resident (and more likely in compliance with the residency obligation). I assume your vehicle is Canadian plated, so that'll also help make the case.

Note, as a US passport holder, much of the discussion above does not apply in that you could also board a flight without a PR card, but tangential to your question.

 

[weilkevin]

Expired PR card will be sufficient. If you have other Canadian docs (driver's license, health card, whatever) will help to show that you are a factual resident (and more likely in compliance with the residency obligation). I assume your vehicle is Canadian plated, so that'll also help make the case.

Note, as a US passport holder, much of the discussion above does not apply in that you could also board a flight without a PR card, but tangential to your question.

Thank you!
And I appreciate the additional note about traveling by air.

 

[armoured]

Thank you!
And I appreciate the additional note about traveling by air.

Good luck, let others know how it goes.

Just to be clear, if you're in compliance with the residency obligation, the main 'risk' is that you might get sent to secondary, i.e. it would just take somewhat longer. That's why it's helpful to demonstrate you're actually/factually resident. Can't hurt to mention you've already applied for the PR card renewal - depending on how long ago you applied, the renewal app might already be in the system.

 

[weilkevin]

My crossing was a breeze. I had prepared to show all of my proof of residence but needed nothing more than my expired PR card. The officer asked if my card was reported lost or stolen recently. I told them, "no, it is expired. I've applied for a new card but it hasn't arrived yet." That was sufficient for them.

Thanks all for the advice!

 

[deadinside]

My crossing was a breeze. I had prepared to show all of my proof of residence but needed nothing more than my expired PR card. The officer asked if my card was reported lost or stolen recently. I told them, "no, it is expired. I've applied for a new card but it hasn't arrived yet." That was sufficient for them.

Thanks all for the advice!

Glad to know that it went smoothly for you. However, I can't help but wonder if you had a passport of a country that requires a visa to travel to Canada. Also, not to be racist or anything, but I think the probability of being sent to secondary increases exponentially if you're not the right ethnicity, gender or nationality.

It's more like how car insurance works. Males aged 18-25 pay more than males aged 35-45, all other things being equal.

 

[armoured]

Glad to know that it went smoothly for you. However, I can't help but wonder if you had a passport of a country that requires a visa to travel to Canada. Also, not to be racist or anything, but I think the probability of being sent to secondary increases exponentially if you're not the right ethnicity, gender or nationality.

It's more like how car insurance works. Males aged 18-25 pay more than males aged 35-45, all other things being equal.

If by this analogy with car insurance - where young males RIGHTFULLY AND LAWFULLY pay more than other groups based on the fact that they are demonstrably less safe drivers - you mean to imply that other ethnicities, genders and nationalities actually do present some higher risk (of something or other, I suppose?) - than yep, you are pretty much being racist, sexist and probably other things.

Or just very bad at analogies.

 

[deadinside]

If by this analogy with car insurance - where young males RIGHTFULLY AND LAWFULLY pay more than other groups based on the fact that they are demonstrably less safe drivers - you mean to imply that other ethnicities, genders and nationalities actually do present some higher risk (of something or other, I suppose?) - than yep, you are pretty much being racist, sexist and probably other things.

Or just very bad at analogies.

I really hate for this to be true. But I have lived on this planet for more than 3 decades and I think I have a general idea of how biased humans can be. I speak this as a brown immigrant living in America. On paper - racism is outlawed. On paper. That's the keyword. Hell, I've experienced more racism FIRST HAND in Canada that in Red states in the US. Now ofcourse, we're getting better as a society on the whole but we're not quite there yet fully. We humans are tribal species and so there will always be a general distrust of the "other".