The Cana­dian Par­lia­ment In Ottawa

Wel­come to my new series, “How to immi­grate to Canada“!

I recently received quite a lot of emails, ask­ing me ques­tions about the immi­gra­tion process. So I decided to explain the whole process in 10 posts, which will be pub­lished every Saturday.

I also encour­age you to ask any ques­tion you may have. I’m not an immi­gra­tion con­sul­tant, but from expe­ri­ence, I may be able to point you to the right direction!

In the series, we will see the dif­fer­ent options you have to come to Canada, as well as your rights and duties as a Per­ma­nent Res­i­dent, what hap­pens after you arrive etc.

So, you received the great news: “deci­sion made”, you have just obtained the per­ma­nent res­i­dence in Canada! What’s next now?

Before you arrive

If your per­ma­nent res­i­dent appli­ca­tion is approved, you will be asked to sub­mit your pass­port to the Cana­dian visa office where you applied in order to receive your per­ma­nent res­i­dent visa.

You will get two impor­tant documents:

• The con­fir­ma­tion of per­ma­nent res­i­dence (with iden­ti­fi­ca­tion infor­ma­tion, photograph…)
• An entry visa

The con­fir­ma­tion of per­ma­nent res­i­dence has an expiry date by which you must arrive in Canada. This doesn’t mean you have to set­tle in Canada by that date, but it does mean you must travel to Canada and become a landed immi­grant before the con­fir­ma­tion of per­ma­nent res­i­dence expiry date. After that, you may come back to your home coun­try and pre­pare your actual arrival if you wish.

You must have your Con­fir­ma­tion of Per­ma­nent Res­i­dence and your visa with you when you arrive in Canada.

When land­ing in Canada

When you arrive in Canada with the per­ma­nent res­i­dence, you become a landed immi­grant. This is a very impor­tant step.

Note that there are two cases here:

• If you received your per­ma­nent res­i­dence abroad: no prob­lem here, most peo­ple will fly to Canada and land in an air­port. The busiest the air­port, the more likely it is that offi­cers will be famil­iar with immi­gra­tion papers, that there will be inter­preters avail­able if needed etc. In the East, Mon­treal and Toronto are good choices.
• If you received your per­ma­nent res­i­dence while you were already in Canada: this is a bit weird, but you have to exit Canada and re-enter (even if it’s five min­utes later!) in order to become a landed immi­grant. The French have an expres­sion for it: “faire le tour du poteau” (to go around the flag­pole). Most peo­ple will go to the U.S.A and re-enter Canada imme­di­ately walk­ing or dri­ving (or bik­ing appar­ently in the case of Priyank, the author of Final Tran­sit!). Offi­cers on both sides of the bor­der are used to it and you shouldn’t have any prob­lem. I did it in 2005 to become a landed immi­grant (The Prescott Shuf­fle Story).

Whether your arrive by air or by land, you will first meet an offi­cer from the Canada Bor­der Ser­vices Agency (CBSA).

The offi­cer will ask to see:

• Your pass­port
• Your valid per­ma­nent res­i­dent visa
• Your con­fir­ma­tion of per­ma­nent residence
• If you immi­grate through a cat­e­gory that requires you to prove that you have suf­fi­cient funds to sup­port your­self (for exam­ple, the skilled worker cat­e­gory), the offi­cer will need to see the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments, such as a recent bank statement.

There are a few rou­tines ques­tions to estab­lish your iden­tity and to make sure you gave cor­rect infor­ma­tion that match your appli­ca­tion, but this usu­ally only take a few min­utes. Make sure you have all your doc­u­ments with you and every­thing will be fine!

Be aware that you will be asked to declare items you bring in Canada. Take a moment to check out what you can and can­not bring in Canada, and what you must declare. You may want to check “How to I bring my belong­ings with me?” as well.

After that, the offi­cer will autho­rize you to enter Canada as a per­ma­nent res­i­dent. He will also con­firm your Cana­dian mail­ing address. Your per­ma­nent res­i­dent card will be mailed to you at this address.

The per­ma­nent res­i­dent card

A per­ma­nent res­i­dent card is a small wallet-sized card and a very valu­able doc­u­ment, which allows you to prove your sta­tus in Canada or when trav­el­ing in and out of the country.

Per­ma­nent resident’s cards are not issued on the spot when you arrive in Canada. They are mailed to your Cana­dian address within a few weeks. If you do not have a Cana­dian address at the time when you land in Canada, you must sup­ply one to CIC within 180 days (plenty of time!). There is not fee for the per­ma­nent res­i­dent card applied for at the time of the land­ing process. It usu­ally takes about 30 days to receive the per­ma­nent card after you land in Canada, but it varies (you can check the cur­rent pro­cess­ing time here).

The per­ma­nent res­i­dence card is nor­mally issued for 5 years. It can be renewed if you wish to remain a per­ma­nent res­i­dent, or you may not need it any­more if you apply for Cana­dian cit­i­zen­ship after three years of residency!

…And then what?

After land­ing in Canada, some peo­ple decide to go back to their home coun­try for a lit­tle while to final­ize their move and set­tle their affairs. Some have houses to sell, some have to fin­ish their work etc. This is per­fectly accept­able. Once you become a landed immi­grant, you are free to travel in and out of Canada!

How­ever, if you leave Canada before you receive your per­ma­nent res­i­dent card, you may need to apply for a single-use per­ma­nent res­i­dent travel doc­u­ment to return to Canada. If you hold a pass­port from a coun­try that does not need a vis­i­tor visa to come to Canada (such as with an Amer­i­can or a U.E pass­port), you should be able to enter Canada with­out your per­ma­nent res­i­dent card. See the list of coun­tries which require visa to visit Canada or read the arti­cle I need to leave Canada but I do not have my PR card yet for more information.

Be aware that to keep your sta­tus as a per­ma­nent res­i­dent in Canada, you must meet the res­i­dency require­ment. This means that you must live in Canada for at least two years within a five-year period. If you don’t, your will lose your per­ma­nent res­i­dence sta­tus (and yes, it does hap­pen a lot).

If you stay in Canada right away after becom­ing a landed immi­grant, you can start apply­ing for Cana­dian IDs (such as your SIN card), look­ing for a job, a place to live etc.

About being a per­ma­nent residence

As a per­ma­nent res­i­dent in Canada, you have both respon­si­bil­i­ties. You can:

• Live, work or study any­where in Canada
• Receive most social ben­e­fits that Cana­dian cit­i­zens receive, such as health coverage
• Be pro­tected under Cana­dian law and the Cana­dian Char­ter of Rights and Freedoms.

Your respon­si­bil­i­ties include pay­ing taxes and respect­ing Cana­dian laws.

Note that as per­ma­nent res­i­dent, you can­not vote or hold cer­tain jobs that have a high secu­rity clearance.

You may lose your per­ma­nent sta­tus if you don’t meet the res­i­dency require­ments or if you are con­victed of a seri­ous crime.

After three years in Canada as a per­ma­nent res­i­dent, you may choose to apply for Cana­dian cit­i­zen­ship if you meet the requirements.

Related posts:

1. First Steps As A Per­ma­nent Res­i­dent (9÷10)
2. Cit­i­zen­ship Cer­e­mony In Ottawa
3. New­com­ers’ First Steps In Canada
4. 5 Immi­gra­tion Mis­takes To Avoid
5. The Two Immi­gra­tion Myths (1÷10)