Residency Requirement for PR Card Renewal

If you are a permanent resident, you will be required to meet the residency requirements in order to maintain your status. The requirement demands that permanent residents stay in Canada for at least 730 days for every five years. This means that,

• If you have been a permanent resident for over five years, during the last five years, you must have been in Canada for 730 days
• If you have been a permanent resident for less than five years, then you will be expected to be physically in Canada until you have reached the 730 days requirements

What if I don’t meet the requirement?

If you do not meet this requirement, your status may be taken away from you.

Although this is the rule, often time people are called away because of work or family. You may be able to renew your permanent resident status if your reasons are legitimate. As visa officers who review immigration cases have the discretion to decide an outcome, they may look at your situation and allow for a renewal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

As I mentioned earlier, a couple of reasons you may have had to stay outside of Canada, and therefore not meeting their residency requirement, is because you received a job outside of Canada, or you were outside of Canada for family emergencies.

In order to renew you PR card, you can show that, through various efforts in finding employment in Canada, you could only find a position outside of the country. You will need to show that you have exhausted your options in Canada and that you always meant to return when you could.

In terms of family emergencies, you have to show that you, personally, were needed to, for example, take care of your ailing parent. Essentially you would have to show that, you only left for these reasons and would not have otherwise.

If you require assistance regarding the renewal of your permanent resident (PR) card or how to show that you left for humanitarian and compassionate reasons, contact Akrami & Associates today and let one of our legal representatives assist you.