Canadian PRs traveling back to Canada with a newborn (US Citizen)

[6SigmaMBB]

Dear Leon & other Experts-

I needed some advice on the situation I am currently in. Below are the details:

My wife and I 'landed' in Canada in Aug 2010 and had to return back to our home country without receiving our PR Cards. Since then, we have had our 1st baby, who was born in the USA. We are now seriously planning on moving to Canada to settle down for good.

My understanding is that my wife and I can get a 'travel document' which will help us travel back to Canada. Is that correct? If yes, how easy is it to get one from Canadian consulate in India?

More importantly, I need advice on our baby. Do we need to apply for his PR before we travel? Or, since he is a US citizen, can we travel on his US passport, and then apply for PR from Canada? what is the right thing to do?

Appreciate your response at the earliest.

Thx

 

[Sweden]

you need to get in touch with the Canadian embassy and get a travel document. See CIC website for that - it shouldn't be too difficult.
Regarding your baby... you have to be in Canada to sponsor him/her as you are both PRs, and not citizen.
One way to do it is to have one parent return and file as soon as back in Canada, and have the second parent travel later with the child.
Since the baby has a US passport, you could indeed go, and cross the border on his US passport for him, and your travel documents for yourself and your wife.
There is always a risk that the baby will be refused entry, but that's not too common. You can explain that you will apply for PR as soon as you can, and start preparing everything already, and hope that the baby will be let in on 6 months tourist visa - then it can be extended. Children can only be sponsored outland, so your case would go through Ottawa (responsible for US citizen).

Good luck,
Sweden

 

[6SigmaMBB]

Thanks Sweden.

Not sure what this means: "Children can only be sponsored outland,..." -Could you please clarify??

Best,
6Sigma

 

[Rob_TO]

Here is link on info and application form for travel document: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/travel.asp

Applying for your baby outland, just means he will not get implied status as with an inland application. So if you come back to Canada to live with your baby, since he has a visa-exempt USA passport you will need to keep renewing his visitor status every 6 months (or however long the immigration officer here gives him visitor status for) until he gets PR approval.