Spinner said:
Hi,
I am a permanent resident married to a Canadian citizen who has been living abroad with my spouse for over 5 years. My PR card has expired and I am planning a visit to Canada. It looks like I might not have the time to apply for a travel document before I travel to Canada but I have a return plane ticket and a valid visa back to New Zealand. I will be travelling with my spouse and child who are both Canadians but I will be the only one with a return ticket as I have to come back to New Zealand to take care of the sale of our house. My passport is visa free to Canada.
Am I going to have difficulties at PoE because I don't have a travel document?
Thank you for your help
You should have no problem at the PoE. Assuming you reach a Canadian PoE.
The question is whether you will be allowed to board the flight to Canada without either a valid PR card or PR Travel Document.
Thus in many respects I concur in the post by
Rob_TO.
However, since you are a PR, eTA really has nothing to do with you. PRs do not require eTA. PRs are not eligible for eTA even if they carry a visa-exempt passport.
The question, then, is whether you might be allowed to present your visa-exempt passport and be issued a boarding pass, obviously without eTA but given the leniency period for enforcement of the eTA requirements.
While I tend to frame this question differently than
Rob_TO, if indeed the airline does not recognize you are a Canadian PR, your visa-exempt passport may result in your being allowed to board the flight.
To my view that is a
big IF. My sense is that they will know (regardless what you disclose). It is nonetheless still possible, even if they know, that during the leniency period they will allow you to board the flight, especially since you have a return ticket.
There have been no credible or reliable reports about what is happening when PRs attempt to board a flight to Canada using a visa-exempt passport since the eTA requirements came into force on March 15, 2016 (see
regulation 7.1 IRPA regulations), given that the actual enforcement of the eTA requirement is currently subject to a
leniency period. Except for it still being during the leniency period, it is most likely that you would be denied boarding unless you present either a valid PR card or PR TD.
We really do not yet have much of a clue, let alone know, what is happening during the leniency period.
Moreover, what happens in an individual situation may be due to the particular circumstances of that situation. In other words, airlines may already be in a posture to deny boarding to a PR in your situation generally, but in your specific situation it might be they have the discretion to allow you to board the flight anyway.
Or, perhaps, during the leniency period they will allow any PR presenting a visa-exempt passport to board.
Or, perhaps, when your passport number is put into the system (the IAPI system operated by CBSA), the airlines will be alerted you need to present a PR card or PR TD to be cleared for boarding, and will deny boarding unless one these prescribed documents are presented.
During this leniency period we just do not know for sure.
To be clear, however, we know what the rules are. The rule is highlighted at the top of the webpage titled "Understand permanent resident status."
see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/about-pr.asp
If you elect to attempt to board the flight by just showing your visa-exempt passport, please let us know how that goes.
