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Unfulfilled RO but not yet expired

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sarahj View Drop Down
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    Posted: 03 Dec 2015 at 1:17pm
I first landed in 2012 with my family. For various reasons, I have opted to study overseas while my family stayed and are fulfilling their residency requirement. I am not. My PR card says it's valid until 2017 but if you count the days I've stayed in Canada and the remaining days left before PR expiry, it's obvious that I'm not gonna keep the residency requirement. I know that and I guess I'm letting go of my PR since I have decided to finish my study here in the US anyway.

The thing is, I want to go home to my family for Christmas. Will I have trouble at the border because of this potentially unfulfilled residency (although PR card should still be valid until 2017)? I will obviously have a roundtrip ticket with me, so I have no plans of illegally overstaying in Canada (just a holiday visit!). And the way I understand it, I am still a PR (for those whole 5 years) except i wouldn't be able to renew it at the end of the 5 years because of unfulfilled residency obligation. Right now, I just wanna use it like sort of like a visa to enter Canada and be able to visit my family.
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ski View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ski Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2015 at 1:45pm
You do not have your PR "until 2017".

If at any point of time when you attempt to enter Canada it is determined that you are in breach of your RO, you will lose your PR at that very moment, and there will be no more "visa to Canada" to use, regardless of the validity of your PR card.

The validity of your PR card is the same as the validity of your drivers license. 

If you get caught while driving drunk, your license will be suspended no matter the expiration date of the plastic.

Same here. You are already in breach of RO (= drunk).

Any attempt to enter the country while in breach of RO is equal, in this parallel, to drunk driving. As soon as you get caught, you lose your license.
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dpenabill View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dpenabill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2015 at 4:08am

Originally posted by sarahj sarahj wrote:

I first landed in 2012 with my family. For various reasons, I have opted to study overseas while my family stayed and are fulfilling their residency requirement. I am not. My PR card says it's valid until 2017 but if you count the days I've stayed in Canada and the remaining days left before PR expiry, it's obvious that I'm not gonna keep the residency requirement. I know that and I guess I'm letting go of my PR since I have decided to finish my study here in the US anyway.

The thing is, I want to go home to my family for Christmas. Will I have trouble at the border because of this potentially unfulfilled residency (although PR card should still be valid until 2017)? I will obviously have a roundtrip ticket with me, so I have no plans of illegally overstaying in Canada (just a holiday visit!). And the way I understand it, I am still a PR (for those whole 5 years) except i wouldn't be able to renew it at the end of the 5 years because of unfulfilled residency obligation. Right now, I just wanna use it like sort of like a visa to enter Canada and be able to visit my family.



With a PR card valid until sometime in 2017, and you are still within the first five years of when you became a PR, if you are referring to coming to Canada this month (for Christmas), the risk of encountering a Residency Examination at the POE is probably fairly low even if technically you have already been absent from Canada for 1095 days since you became a PR. Extent of the actual risk depends on additional factors, but the most salient one is how much over 1095 days you have been abroad. Among the other significant factors is whether or not, and how often, and for how long, you have been coming to Canada in the meantime.

1095 days absence is the critical threshold during the first five years. At the point you have been absent 1095 days, you are then in breach of the PR Residency Obligation UNLESS you have sufficient H&C grounds to justify the retention of your PR status.

Depending on a range of factors, including your age, the extent to which you come to Canada in the meantime, among others, even if you exceed the 1095 day threshold, you may indeed be able to persuade a POE officer that you deserve to retain PR status. An intent to return to live in Canada would probably help.

The observation that you do not have your PR to a certain date in the future is correct. You are a PR. You continue to be a PR unless and until there is an adjudication that you are inadmissible resulting in an enforceable Removal Order. That cannot happen at the POE upon your return to Canada. You could be reported for being in breach of the PR RO, and issued a Removal Order, but that Removal Order would not be enforceable at that time, and so it is not true you would lose PR status at that time. Indeed, you would continue to have PR status and be entitled to enter Canada, and you would have thirty days in which to file an appeal. If you appealed the Removal Order, you continue to be a PR pending the outcome of the appeal.

But, unless you are already significantly over 1095 days of absence, since landing, there is a very good chance that the worst that will happen at the POE later this month is that you are admonished about the PR Residency Obligation.

Come December 2016, the terrain looks different particularly if you continue to be abroad for extended periods of time.

The more you visit Canada in the meantime, and particularly the longer you stay, the lower the risk of a Residency Examination and 44(1) inadmissibility report so long as you continue to have a valid PR card.

Nonetheless, it would be prudent to put together an explanation about why you have been abroad and have not returned to live in Canada sooner, with the hopes that your reasons will persuade whoever might decide whether you will be reported for inadmissibility, or issued a Removal Order, that your reasons justify allowing you to retain your PR status.

In the meantime, so long as you continue to carry a valid PR card, and are not subject to an enforceable Removal Order, and have not otherwise been fully adjudicated as to have lost PR status, you can return to Canada assured that for that trip, at the least, you will be allowed to enter Canada. The extent of your stay may be limited, and you could be subject to process for terminating your PR status (a process which could take many months if you appeal) but you will be allowed to enter.


Bureaucracy is what bureaucracy does, or When in doubt, follow the instructions. Otherwise, follow the instructions.



BTW: Not an expert, not a Can. lawyer, never worked in immigration
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