Canadian Permanent Resident Status/Card
How to maintain your Canadian Permanent Resident ( PR) status?
Permanent Resident card is a document, which confirms your immigrant status in Canada and allows you to freely exit and enter Canada. It is issued with 5 years of validity to individuals after landing with an immigrant visa in Canada. In order to maintain your PR status, you must physically reside in Canada for at least 730 days during the last 5 years before the expiration date of your PR card ( exceptions exist). Renewing the PR card is normally straightforward when you reside most of the time in Canada and travel to other countries from Canada for short period of time. However, there are cases when individuals face difficulties to renew a PR card or restore lost PR cards.
Some of the reasons for PR card application processing delays, refusals and loss of status are listed below:
- Incomplete and/or inconsistent application forms and lack of supporting documents to prove your physical residence in Canada;
- Loss of travel passport (s), in which your exit and entry stamps are recorded, etc.
- Misrepresentation and fraud
- You will also lose/return your PR card when you become a Canadian citizen
- If you commit a serious offence, you will leave Canada permanently
In order to submit your application for renewal or restoration, you must be physically in Canada. If your card expires while you are outside Canada, you will need to apply for Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) to the closest Canadian Embassy and submit your application for PR card renewal after arriving in Canada. Processing officers at the Embassy have discretion to issue or refuse your application. In case your application is refused, you can appeal the decision and face a lengthy judicial review process. There are cases when families are separated for several months due to the delays in processing PRTD of family members outside Canada. To avoid such complex issues we advise our clients to maintain the validity of PR cards and start collecting travel and residency related supporting documents from the date of becoming a permanent resident of Canada and most importantly to have coloured copies of all pages of passport (s); Have passport stamps translated, printed and notarized…
Contact us today to receive a case-specific document checklist to support your application for PR renewal or PRTD.
