Some tips for new PRs

This is my fourth year in Canada as a PR and about to apply for my Citizenship. I would like to post some tips here - mostly things I learned through my mistakes and experience.

1. Save all documentation:- This is particularly important if you are planning to apply for your Citizenship at the end of three years. Save every documentation - phone bills, credit card statements, bank statements etc. When I came to Toronto, I stayed with a friend of mine and worked remotely for my employer in NYC. I was mostly on a housing hunt at that time and been going back and forth between US and Canada via road. I made my payments mostly in cash - for groceries mostly as I was staying with my friend and didnt need any other services like phone or internet. But I did buy an IP phone service and lost all the paperwork related to that. So stupid of me!!!

2. Leave a paper trail:- If you happen to stay in Canada and if you are staying with a friend or family, there is a good chance that you won't have much documentation to show your residency here. So its better you use your credit cards to make payments and not use cash. This is the mistake I did. Later when you apply for your citizenship, these statements will support your claim that you lived in Canada.

3. Record every entry and exit in Canada:- I never thought about this during my initial days and when it was time to prep the paperwork for my citizenship, I was suddenly faced with the daunting task for figuring out the exact dates of my departures and entries in Canada. Thanks to rshree's advice to track back through credit card statements and some old photographs that I took during my stay with my friend, I was able to piece together my trip details. But it took a lot of time and effort and plenty of mental strain. So keep track of every trip you make outside Canada.

4. Never discard your COPR:- COPR is a very important document. You should keep it even after you get the PR card. This might come handy in many situations including your application for Citizenship.

5. Always keep your expired passports with you. Especially the one with the immigration visa:- This is very important in many situations like your Citizenship application where they need to look at your older passports for travel details.

6. Always file your taxes. Even if you dont have an income:- This is another proof that you been living in Canada for that specific year. Will be helpful when you apply for Citizenship.

thank you

I fully agree with this.

After PR, people usually do not pay attention or keep such documents handy as they forget or don't know that it may come in handy when applying for the citizenship.

So to the newly arriving immigrants/people, pay attention and keep/save all the papers, don't throw any away....you may need them for citizenship process!

really helpful for my friends. Thank you sarin_j.

Nice and valuable experience shared. Thank u for the same.