Not fullfilled RO but valid PR card at the entry

[yayay]

Hi,

I recently got my PR card renewed. When I applied, I had just enough time spent in Canada to meet RO. Now, I have to leave the country for a few months. When I come back to Canada with my new PR card later this year, I won't meet the RO requirements.

Could this be a problem? If so, Is it too risky? I know this isn't a common case but I haven't heard of someone with a valid PR card being questioned about their residency when they arrive in Canada.

 

[Besram]

Hi,

I recently got my PR card renewed. When I applied, I had just enough time spent in Canada to meet RO. Now, I have to leave the country for a few months. When I come back to Canada with my new PR card later this year, I won't meet the RO requirements.

Could this be a problem? If so, Is it too risky? I know this isn't a common case but I haven't heard of someone with a valid PR card being questioned about their residency when they arrive in Canada.

Having a valid PR card is independent of you meeting the residency obligation. If you do not meet RO at the time of re-entry, you are definitely at risk of losing your PR status. The only way to avoid this is not to travel until you have accumulated sufficient days in Canada such that when you return you will still be meeting the RO.

The real question is whether or not you will be questioned about your RO at the time of re-entry. There is no doubt that your risk is lower than someone without a PR card, but people with valid PR cards do get questioned at the border and there are Canlii cases on record of people losing their PR status in such a scenario.

The fact that your PR card was recently renewed may work in your favour because an officer might consider that your RO was recently reviewed as part of you PR card application. At the same time, the VO processing your PR card might have flagged that you are close to missing your RO and left a file note that could be visible to border officers.

In short, nobody can give you a clear answer on your risk for being reported. It depends on too many factors, including which officer screens you, how long you will have been outside of Canada when you return, your degree of establishment in Canada, etc. etc.

If you can avoid travelling, you should.

 

[armoured]

I recently got my PR card renewed. When I applied, I had just enough time spent in Canada to meet RO. Now, I have to leave the country for a few months. When I come back to Canada with my new PR card later this year, I won't meet the RO requirements.

I don't disagree with the points above, but details matter - most specifically how long you will be away and how much out of compliance you will be.

-Math: when you applied, you had just enough time. Then you got your pr card after ... 60 days? Now you want to leave for ... 60 days? How many days are you going to be out of compliance? *

Because while all of the above is, repeat, true - it's going to look quite a bit different if you are one day out of compliance vs one year. And I think many here would say that even 60 days is generally not a compliance issue the CBSA officers are going to bother with (which is, repeat, not a guarantee - just an observation). All things being equal.

Next, if they do decide to look into your non-compliance, you will (must) be given a chance to state reasons (that may be considered for humanitarian and compassionate consideration - or lenience, if you will). This is also going to be evaluated in the context of the length of the non-compliance ("I didn't feel well and didn't want to flyand took a while to rebook my flight" might be very good for a couple weeks, not so good for a couple years).

While there are probably some cases where it went as far as revocation of PR status - I'd guess that there are not very many where the extent of the non-compliance was less than, say, 90 days (or at least very few without some other story behind it (like previous problems with IRCC).

That said: there are a lot more where the intent of the PR was to leave for 'a couple of months' and then ... things happened, and years later they have more serious issues with their PR status.

Point being: there is some risk. It may or may not be large, but does depend on circumstances (that are only really known to you). Only you can decide.

*Yes, I'm aware that if some of the days from before were from period right after landing, some days may be dropping out of the most-recent-five-years calculation. Just illustrating.