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My Canadian Residence visa was approved a long time ago. I landed and stayed a week. I never received my residence card at the address given which remained valid even after I left. It may have gotten lost in the mail and was never received at the address I had given. I did not fulfill the residence requirements and my residence expired. I am now visiting Canada for a job interview. As a citizen of New Zealand I applied for an eTA but was asked to either renounce my residence or request an extension.

What would renouncing my residence consequences be?

Do I have any other choice?

Thanks

Zadeh
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2 Answers2

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Presently, you are still a permanent resident. If you visit Canada you'll be flagged as having been out of the country for too long. You'll be allowed to enter the country, but proceedings will be begun to strip you of your PR status, unless you had excellent reasons to be out of the country (e.g., caring for a sick parent - but this is unlikely to work for someone who was only in the country for a week). You'll have a limited length of time before being ordered out of the country.

Also, you are exempt in certain situations, such as working for an international organization or a Canadian company, or living with a Canadian spouse abroad.

If you renounce your permanent resident status now, you can apply for an eTA or a visa just as any foreign citizen can.

If you don't renounce your PR status, then since you don't have a PR card, you may not be allowed to board a direct flight to Canada. The right approach is to fly to the US and cross into Canada at a land crossing, either in a private vehicle or on foot (e.g. at Niagara Falls). The reason is that airlines (or ships, trains and buses) will refuse to carry you without an eTA and without a PR card.

user404961
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Once you stay more than 3 years outside Canada in any 5 years period after your landing (PR granting), then your PR status become invalid. Your PR Card validity or existence have no consequences on this. However, Canadian officials cannot yet treat you as non-PR until the PR status has been officially revoked or renounced. Hence you cannot get Canadian visa (including eTA which is kind of virtual visa).

Unless you really-really intend to stay in Canada and have very good reason why you stayed outside Canada for that long, you are probably better off to just renounce the PR. You can apply again for it afterwards, and should be easy if you are working in Canada.

References:

Dipen Shah
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S P Arif Sahari Wibowo
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