dabas said:
How would CIC / CBSA recognize that the PR is entering on a foreign passport say from EU if this passport and associated citizenship were never declared nor linked to the PR and were obtained after landing and after becoming a citizen of a country different from his orginal citizenship linked to his immigration file?
Technical (though slightly oversimplified) discussion ahead:
Many databases are relational in nature - in other words, they link one thing to another.
Ideally, there is something that serves as the "primary key" that identifies a single record. This is something unique, that only one row will have. Some things are unique within a specific context (for example, there will be only one extension 412 in a building, or room 715). Others are unique in a more global context (such as phone numbers). This is part of why there's been a transition from usernames (which are unique only in a given site) to email addresses to login (which are universally unique).
Social Insurance Numbers serve as a unique identifier in Canada. They are stable (unchanging), and un-shared. They are a good way to identify a particular person, and that makes them a good way to link something to a person in a database.
What if you don't have a primary key? Well, you have to try to make one if you want to identify a record.
Let's use an example - specifically, credit files.
In Canada, you don't need to give a SIN to get credit. If you don't give them one, they will try to find you in their records. They search using your name, address, and birthday.
Whenever records get sent to them, they try to find someone that matches. If you move, they won't know the difference between John Smith at one address and a different John Smith at another address. If you update your address with your bank, though, the credit reporting agency is notified, and they can link the old and the new address together.
Or, if you give them a SIN, it can follow you anywhere, even if your name changes.
Credit reports are similar to what what is done with immigration and criminal records.
When your data is checked in the immigration system, they first check if there's a watch out for you. If your name is on a high priority list, or your card #/passport # is flagged, you get stopped.
They can also refer you for a more thorough examination. This is where fuzzy matching gets involved.
During this more thorough examination, they do a search for information matching yours. They search worldwide criminal histories, by name and approximate birthday. If a match shows up, they take the time to figure out if it's you - looking at your family, your travel history, even calling the government if necessary. This is a time consuming process and is prone to errors, so they generally don't do it unless there's something suspicious about you.
With immigration status, they do things similarly, but in a different direction. Unlike criminal history (where they assume it's you, then prove it's not), immigration starts from the assumption you don't have status (then they try to validate otherwise).
In other words, if I go to the border and present a document they aren't aware of (like an enhanced ID), if there is a hit on a watchlist, they assume I'm a suspect. They also assume that I'm a visitor unless I give them information to the contrary. The computer won't automatically match records for them unless the primary key is present, because without some matching ID, they aren't certain there is a match.
Now, if you have multiple passports, it is technically possible to come in and pretend to be a visitor. From a computer standpoint, you are a new person, and they won't know.
From a human standpoint, it's another matter. If they go searching, they can find you by name, birthday, and place of birth (which is on almost all passports). Unless your name is something like "Ahmed Muhammed", there will likely be very few people with the same exact name, the same exact birthday, and the same exact country.
There will likely be a few if you have a common name (which is why they won't automatically assume) - they don't want to be treating people as permanent residents who don't have it.
Misrepresentation is not something to mess around with. All you need is to get pulled into secondary (which happens very commonly if you don't have a return ticket), and you can end up losing PR and banned from the country.
