Hi, this is Michael Niren, immigration lawyer and founder of visaplace.com.
A lot of people are asking us about PR card renewal, in particular what happens if
you're out of the country and your PR card status has expired and you want to return
back to Canada. Or if you are in the country and your PR card status has expired and what
do you do.
Well, typically, the rule is that in order to apply for a new PR card you have to have
been in Canada for two years within a five-year period. Now, you don't have to be in Canada
for two years all at once. You have to add up the days. So your PR card is valid for
five years and if you accumulate two years in Canada, you'd be eligible to apply for
a renewal. It's pretty simple.
However, there's a lot of people, for whatever reason, who have not accumulated two years
in a five year period and still need to renew their PR card and still want to get a new
one. Well, there is some relief. There are options. Basically, we call that a humanitarian
renewal. We have to explain to Canada immigration that despite that you do not have the two-year
period, you nevertheless do not want to abandon your status as a permanent resident.
And there could be many reasons why you have not met your days. For example, you could
be out of the country for a long period of time and your relatives could be ill, and
you could be away for medical reasons. Also, employment reasons. It's possible that you
got a job overseas and it required you to be out of the country for a lengthy period.
There are many possibilities as to why you're out of status out of the days required.
So an application can still be made for a PR card renewal. It's still definitely possible.
But it's extremely important to document your case really, really well explaining why you
have not met the two-year requirement of being in the country for two years in the last five-year
period.
The processing for those renewals typically take a lot longer for applications that meet
the requirements because immigration has to in their discretion make a decision as to
whether or not they will grant the extension.
Now you should know that if you're in Canada and you haven't met your days, that doesn't
mean that your PR status has expired. It just means that you can't travel on a PR card.
So I always advice people in that situation, if you can, just stay in Canada, accumulate
those two years and then apply. No big deal at all. You're still a permanent resident.
It's not like the government's going to come and say, "You're no longer a permanent resident."
The situation's a little bit different for people who are overseas and have to travel
back. They can't come to Canada on a PR card if it's expired and they have to apply to
a special travel permit in some cases. So the situation's a little bit more challenging
if you've been away from Canada and then your PR card expired. You always should make sure
as to the date of expiry, especially if you're not in Canada.
So the takeaway in my message here is that there is still hope. We do a lot of these
PR card extensions for renewals under humanitarian grounds. Not always an easy case, you have
to make a strong case, you have to build a file, put together a lot of documentation
explaining why you're away, why you've been away, but you've never intended to abandon
your status, and that of course, if your PR card renewal is granted, you're certainly
going to return to Canada and live in Canada as a permanent resident.
So hopefully, this has given you some insight into the situation which is all too common.
Thank you for watching, please click "like" if you like the video and visit us at www.visaplace.com