What is meant by "or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation"?

[jaywhy13]

I'm applying to renew an expired PR Card. It expired one month ago. In the Appendix A section it says we can provide any 2 of the following:

• employment records or pay stubs;
• bank statements;
• Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Notice of Assessment for the five (5) years immediately before the application
• evidence that you received benefits from Canadian government programs;
• rental agreements;
• club memberships;
• or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation

I'm a little unclear on the details. If I'm submitting Bank Statements, do I need to submit the entire statement for every single month for the 5 years, or would the first page alone suffice? Can I submit Mortgage Statements instead of Rental Agreements? What other documents falls into the "or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation" category? Is the Residency section from the CRA page applicable here?

 

[steaky]

I'm applying to renew an expired PR Card. It expired one month ago. In the Appendix A section it says we can provide any 2 of the following:

• employment records or pay stubs;
• bank statements;
• Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Notice of Assessment for the five (5) years immediately before the application
• evidence that you received benefits from Canadian government programs;
• rental agreements;
• club memberships;
• or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation

I'm a little unclear on the details. If I'm submitting Bank Statements, do I need to submit the entire statement for every single month for the 5 years, or would the first page alone suffice? Can I submit Mortgage Statements instead of Rental Agreements? What other documents falls into the "or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation" category? Is the Residency section from the CRA page applicable here?

I suppose bank statement includes mortgage statements. The first page should be suffice. Examples of other documents: Doctor / Dentist visits in the past years

 

[armoured]

I'm a little unclear on the details. If I'm submitting Bank Statements, do I need to submit the entire statement for every single month for the 5 years, or would the first page alone suffice? Can I submit Mortgage Statements instead of Rental Agreements? What other documents falls into the "or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation" category? Is the Residency section from the CRA page applicable here?

The way to look at this is they are looking for documents that demonstrate you were resident, or evidence of your residency. Ignore "proof" for now, which they seem to mean here only in the sense of evidence.

Follow the instructions - if they ask for two different statements, that's what they ask for. They did not ask for 60 months of evidence.

What is 'any other documents?' Other documents, unspecificed, that would evidence your residency, in the sense of physical presence. That could really be anything - if your thing is shot-putting and your membership of the shotputting club's training sessions every morning has a document (like an attendance record), maybe that.

More seriously, things like school records or training certificates might be decent evidence. Again: doesn't have to be somethign that covers all the 730 days required for residence, but things that evidence some physical presence in Canada. Employment docs as well.

One caveat: CRA 'residency' section - I don't know that page well, but note that CRA's use of residency - tax residency - has a specific definition that is distinct (and doesn't technically, if I remember correctly, require physical presence in Canada). Saying you were tax resident does not answer the question, and I think given the other options available, maybe not use that page. (They do let you submit NOAs so I'm not saying tax documents are irrelevant)

 

[jaywhy13]

Follow the instructions - if they ask for two different statements, that's what they ask for. They did not ask for 60 months of evidence.

That sounds counterintuitive. Are you saying I could submit a single bank statement that only covers one month, and one other document (e.g. Notice of Assessment)?

Also, your comment about "Follow the instructions" ignores the ambiguity in the phrasing and the lack of specificity. It says submit any 2 of the following, and it says "bank statements" (plural). It doesn't specifically say one bank statement for a month or the most recent month.

 

[armoured]

That sounds counterintuitive. Are you saying I could submit a single bank statement that only covers one month, and one other document (e.g. Notice of Assessment)?

Yes.

Also, your comment about "Follow the instructions" ignores the ambiguity in the phrasing and the lack of specificity. It says submit any 2 of the following, and it says "bank statements" (plural). It doesn't specifically say one bank statement for a month or the most recent month.

Okay, ignore my comment about follow the instructions - which I wouldn't normally say except that these instructions are new and ambiguously - read poorly - written. I believe the plural usage here is general - you could certainly provide two bank statements (from different months), for example.

Note that the current version (I wonder if it changed again recently) of the Appendix A now reads "You must provide copies of 2 pieces of evidence that can show residency in Canada in the five (5) years immediately before the application, such as: ."

My emphasis to show that they now say pieces of 'evidence.' Two pieces. So I think it does 'follow the instructions' but if you want to disagree with that, fine.

Yes, later it reads "or any other documents that prove you met your residency obligation." I think that's contradictory, conceptually, to the request for only two pieces of evidence but ... it's a document written by committee. (Alternative view is that 'prove' can be sort-of a synonym for evidence, i.e. it doesn't mean prove beyond a reasonable doubt by providing evidence for each and every day; I think it's too ambiguous if that's what was meant, c.f. badly written)

I'd read a document like this from the top, where the beginning is the most important and not the mop-up bullet on a list of seven, i.e. that the intro sentence saying 'you must provide two pieces of evidence' is the instruction, not the almost-footnote.

There are other threads on this topic. It seems to be working for others to submit just the two pieces of evidence. (Again, until a few months ago this requirement was not there.) IRCC can always ask for more evidence if it thinks there is insufficient documentation to support meeting the PR obligation.