Maintaining Your PR Status
A permanent resident in Canada can live, work, study and stay in Canada indefinitely. They can enter and exit Canada anytime. Immigrants who land in Canada apply for permanent residency as per the Permanent Resident Application Process. For Maintaining Your PR Status, Call us for information.
Once a person obtains the Permanent Residency, they need to maintain their status and abide by its legal rules. Any disregard for the law can lead to revoking of the permanent residence status.
Permanent Residence Card
A Permanent Resident card is written support of a person’s permanent residence status in Canada.
This card is needed for travel, work and can be asked as a proof of your permanent resident status. If anytime, you are travelling abroad and misplace your PR card, you will need to apply for the, Permanent Resident Travel document to enter Canada.
Rights and Responsibilities
The rights and responsibilities of Permanent residents are same as that of Canadian Citizens, with few exclusions.
As a permanent resident, a person can study, live and work anywhere in Canada and are eligible to receive federal and provincial social benefits like health care. All Canadian law and regulations are also applicable to permanent residents, and they are tax-paying members of the Canadian society.
Permanent residents don’t have the right to run for office, the right to vote and the right to hold government and national security jobs.
Travel
Permanent residents need to carry their Permanent resident card or permanent resident travel document (PRTD) with them while travelling to enter or exit Canada. While travelling by bus, trains, boats, cruises, flights, the PR card needs to be carried, or else entry into Canada may be held up.
It is advisable to apply for a new PR card well before the expiry date of the card. Also if the existing PR card expires or gets lost or misplaced, an application for a new card has to be made.
Living Outside of Canada
For the permanent residents who live outside Canada, there are few rules for maintaining their PR cards without any risk of losing their permanent resident status.
They need to reside in Canada for a minimum period of two years out of the five year period to maintain their status.
A PR card can be revoked by the government if a person has not fulfilled the residency requirement of two years in Canada. This rule has few exceptions in case the person is residing abroad for work or business reasons.
Losing Permanent Resident Status
Losing the permanent resident status is possible and comes with many legal implications.
The government may determine that you are not a permanent resident any more:
- If PR status has been given up voluntarily
- If a removal order against a person is enforced
- If the person becomes a citizen of Canada.
In few cases, a person may renounce PR status voluntarily, if they are not able to meet the residence requirements as required for a PR holder.
Our informed immigration lawyers and consultants will assist you to resolve all your Maintaining Your PR Status queries.
