Reminder: for PRs who have breached the PR Residency Obligation and who present reasons for the absence in an effort to persuade IRCC to allow the PR to retain PR status based on H&C grounds, IRCC MUST CONSIDER any and all reasons the PR presents (and factually supports).
IRCC cannot (and generally does not) decline to consider any of the reasons offered. The weight given the reason, and whether it is considered a negative reason or a positive reason, varies greatly. H&C cases are complicated. There are few definitively negative or positive factors. There are virtually no factors which carry a definitive weight.
That makes sense... thank you!
Also, my mom read somewhere that if I am studying abroad and my pr would expire during that time, I would be able to renew it based on the fact that I am out of the country for education. Is that true?
That is not true. If you don't fulfil your 2/5 years, you might lose your PR. There is such a thing called humanitarian and compassionate reasons, but picking up an education somewhere else doesn't count for that.
There are many discussions about potential H&C reasons justifying absences in breach of the PR Residency Obligation in the conference specifically about PR Residency obligations.
With isolated, rather particular exceptions, H&C cases in PR RO breach cases are always tricky, almost always difficult, and subject to variable influences and variable outcomes even given very similar circumstances.
For example, there is almost nothing which can be said to absolutely not count in favour of H&C relief . . . even things which are almost always a negative factor can sometimes have a favourable influence, like choosing to stay abroad for a job. See decision by Justice Shore in Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness v. Nkanagu 2018 FC 56
https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/309488/index.do
In this case a key positive factor, weighing in favour of H&C reasons allowing the PR to keep PR status, was that the reason for his absence was to work in Europe and provide for his family due to his inability to find work in Canada. The conventional wisdom is that an absence to work will weigh against, not in favour of H&C relief. This case illustrates that it is NOT nearly that simple, that there is no fixed rule. Every case depends on the particular facts in that case.
For further discussion of that case and the variable influence of particular factors, see discussion linked in the following:
. . . . whether circumstances compelling a PR to remain abroad to work can be a positive H&C factor tipping the scales in favour of a successful H&C case
Standing alone, an absence which breaches the PR RO because the PR was studying abroad is PROBABLY a weak reason. BUT it will count. How much and whether it counts enough, however, depends on many, many other factors and circumstances.
The more common and relatively predictable case is where the PR has already begun a course of study abroad, such as where a dependent of the primary applicant for PR lands with a parent but returns to resume a course of study abroad, and that course of study takes so long as to preclude compliance with the PR RO by this individual. There is no guarantee, far from it, but a case like this typically results in H&C relief despite the breach.
At the other extreme, an individual who obtains PR status as an individual applicant spends only a short period of time in Canada before going abroad to study and it is five or six years before this individual attempts to return to Canada, and this individual has no family in Canada. Odds for this individual are NOT good. IRCC will, as it must, taken into consideration the reason for staying abroad, that is to study, but in the absence of other positive H&C factors this case has a rather poor prognosis.
In between the variables are many. The outcomes will vary greatly. IT DEPENDS.
Bottom-line, however, it is VERY RISKY to go abroad and stay abroad so long as to not comply with the PR RO, regardless the reason (even to stay with a terminally ill parent). Again, H&C cases are always tricky, almost always difficult, and there is NO guarantee even with strong H&C reasons, and the odds are middling at best if there is a substantial breach due to studying abroad.
