I have Canadian PR status through refugee protection and moved to a third country a few years ago . . .
I've since become a citizen of that safe country, which is one of the grounds for cessation of refugee status.
Spoiler Alert: There is a real cessation problem looming and it is not likely to get resolved unless you renounce PR status (which would enable you to then pursue PR status anew, such as through a family class spousal sponsorship).
That said, before engaging in any transactions with CBSA or IRCC (so, before traveling here, and for sure before applying for a PR card or a PR TD), it probably would be best to have a reputable Canadian lawyer with immigration experience, and familiarity with cessation of protected status, review your situation in depth (so not a free consultation) and give you advice in detail. (Difficult logistics for someone outside Canada duly noted.)
Except . . . if all you need is to make one trip to Canada, and then it would be OK if you lose your PR status after that, crossing a land border is easy (for any PR physically in the U.S. or otherwise capable of traveling via the states).
[see queries posed by @canuck78]
That's not really related to my questions
Yes, I'm planning to take all the documents related to our relationship, his Canadian citizenship, and anything else I'll need when I apply to renew my PR card. Let's hope they won't report me right at the borders
I'm worried that applying for a PRTD from abroad could put my PR status at risk if my case is reassessed.
Because you are no longer in need of protected status, having acquired citizenship from another country, your PR status (as you clearly apprehend) is at risk. Big time.
But beware, cessation is unlike enforcement of the Residency Obligation, which depends on the PR initiating a transaction in which immigration officials assess the PR's status including an examination of RO compliance. A big difference is that a RO breach can be cured by staying in Canada long enough (as long as there are no inadmissibility proceedings pending), while there is no cure for cessation based on availment of another country's protection. But perhaps the biggest difference is that for cessation there is no H&C relief available, none, period (so far anyway, albeit there may still be some lingering litigation challenging this).
That said, you might be able to slide by. I do not know how diligently IRCC or CBSA screen for cessation, or how zealously they enforce the cessation provisions. So I do not know your chances if you try to slide by. However, if you try to slide by, be sure to be totally honest in your interactions with CBSA and IRCC. Do not attempt, for example, to conceal (to make a misrepresentation by omission or otherwise) the fact you have obtained citizenship in another country. That would only compound and complicate things, negatively.
Meanwhile, if you try to slide by and are lucky enough to slide by, no matter how many times you engage in transactions with IRCC or CBSA and are lucky enough to slide by without getting tangled in proceedings to cease your status, cessation will continue to hang over your head (there is no undoing your acquisition of citizenship, your availment of another country's protection). So, even if you slide by in a Port-of-Entry screening once, or twice, or many times, cessation remains a looming issue, so the risk continues, and the risk is even higher when you apply for a PR card, and even if you slide by that (to be clear, sliding by after applying for a PR card seems unlikely), the risk is for sure much higher if you apply for citizenship.
Cessation will not go away unless you are no longer a PR. (You are already no longer a person in need of protected status.)
Let's hope they won't report me right at the borders
So far you have not shared any information, in this thread, suggesting there is a reason for CBSA or IRCC officials to prepare an inadmissibility report against you. So, if by "
report" (as in you "
hope they won't report me right at the borders") you mean a 44(1) Report for inadmissibility, there is not much if any need to worry about that.
In contrast, a referral for cessation is very much in the cards; and actually this is likely sooner or later, and to be clear, likely to happen (at the least) by sometime later if not as soon as when you are next examined at a PoE. Be aware, if the cessation referral does not happen during the PoE examination, an application for a new PR card will most likely do it.
And the bad news is there does not appear to be any defense.
So, sorry, but for all practical purposes the cessation train has left the station . . . even if the trip is long and it does not reach its destination (termination of your Canadian status) for a long while, that train is not turning around, it's not going back.
To have PR status long term (and in particular to become eligible for Canadian citizenship) you will probably need to renounce your PR status and start anew.
You could try to navigate all this, try to slide by, wait for there to be a cessation referral, wait for that to result in cessation proceedings (it could take years to even commence an action . . . or it could happen very soon after a PoE examination), try to defend against cessation (even though it does not appear you have any viable defenses), and not pursue PR anew unless and until you have definitively lost PR status. You might be able to keep PR status for years this way.
Among many problems with this approach is that if you fail to renounce PR status in time to avoid cessation, it will become far more difficult and time consuming to get PR anew even through a family class sponsorship. Unlike losing PR status for a RO breach, which results in becoming a Foreign National who will ordinarily then be admissible (and thus potentially eligible for PR anew, such as if they are eligible to be sponsored by a Canadian spouse), the loss of PR status due to cessation results in becoming a Foreign National who is inadmissible, so not eligible for even temporary resident status let alone PR.
@canuck78 does not reference the cessation issue specifically looming over your head (based on
subsection 108(1)(c) IRPA and
subsection 46(1)(c.1) IRPA), oddly referring instead to reavailment of home country protection factors (which do not appear to be relevant to you) while overlooking the blatantly obvious availment of another country's protection. Nonetheless, it appears
@canuck78 could see that the circumstances of your query (about crossing the border) scream cause for concern. After all, there really is no difficulty getting into Canada when a PR can travel to Canada via a land border crossing with the U.S. (So,
where's the beef? One asks.)
That is, if your concern really only was about being able to physically enter Canada, that would be nothing to be concerned about.
But you clearly apprehend otherwise. Unfortunately there are real reasons for that.
Summary:
If your real concern is about saving your PR status despite no longer being a person in need of state protection, since you have acquired state protection from another country (by becoming a citizen), again sorry, you crossed that bridge and there's no going back.
I do not know what the odds are at the PoE. Given how long it has been since you were last in Canada, and that your PR card is expired, you are for sure at risk of a referral to Secondary and will likely face elevated scrutiny in that examination. There also appears (based on lots of anecdotal reporting) to be an increased risk of more scrutiny at a PoE because you are a PR-refugee. But the best that goes is you slide by this time.
Sooner or later, no matter how long it takes, it catches up. At the latest (at the best) the gig will almost certainly crash when (if) there is an application for citizenship, that is unless IRCC screws things up and even lets the cessation issue slide pass (it can happen, but that's not a good bet, not close).
