Hi all,
I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself here, (Meds only completed 2 weeks ago) but what happens if you do a quick turn around landing, and then have to come home without receiving your PR card?
Is re-entering Canada as a PR without it a problem? I'm assuming not as I've seen many of you seemingly doing just that.
What is the re-entering without a card process?
I've obviously got too much time on my hands today....two posts in the same day! I'm quite exhausted! Or is that just too excited!!!?

PS.(We have a Canadian address for it to be sent to.)

Cheers!

You can turn around and return to the UK but you won't be allowed back in without the card. You will need someone to mail you the card to the UK once it arrives at your Canadian address, bearing in mind that this can take up to six weeks. You'd obviously want it sent priority mail so that it arrives and doesn't get lost in the mail.

Another thing to take into consideration (and I'm not sure if this is rare or not) is that sometimes they write and ask you to resubmit a photo for the card (which you have to do at the local CIC office). This happened with our son's PR card as they said the background wasn't white enough (same white background the rest of us had!). His card ended up taking about 12 weeks to come through.

HTH

You may want to read Settlement.org's article on this subject as it clarifies most of what you are asking.

"... If you hold a passport from a visitor visa exempt country (that is, you do not need a visitor visa to enter Canada), most transportation companies will allow you to travel with just this passport. However, you must present proof of Canadian Permanent Residence at the Canadian port of entry, when you are reviewed by a Canadian immigration official.

If you gave Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) an address here in Canada, but you left before the card was mailed to you, you can ask your family or friends who live at that address to send you the PR Card. You can then re-enter Canada with your PR Card. However, if you do this, you are taking a risk. If your PR Card is lost in the mail or delayed for some reason, you might need to apply for a Travel Document.

If you are worried that you will not receive your PR Card in time or if you do not hold a passport from a visitor visa exempt country, you should apply for a Travel Document (Permanent Resident Abroad).....

If you have arrived and have not yet given CIC a mailing address, and you left Canada, you might need to apply for a Travel Document (Permanent Resident Abroad) before you re-enter Canada. This application is for permanent residents outside of Canada who need proof of their status so they can return to Canada. A Travel Document is a visa that allows you to seek re-admission to Canada as a permanent resident once. This application must be submitted to a Canadian visa office, embassy, high commission or consulate outside of Canada...."

Application for travel document.

Thanks for the replies.
Here's my problem...
We've got a visiit planned for the end of June for three weeks and then we're coming back to the UK.
If all goes smoothly (some hope I know!!), we may well have shiny visas in our passports by then but we won't be making the move until Oct/Nov.
So....
Do you HAVE to land the first time you turn up at your port of entry (with said shiny visa), or can you explain that you will be Landing at a future date?
I suppose it would be foolish to expect to receive the PR card within three weeks!

Cheers!

Well, I'm no expert on this, BUT, when we arrived in Canada to land we had to tell the person at customs that we were here to land and they then directed us to another person. Your visa's are randomly inserted in your passport so they are not on the page right by your photo etc. I guess you could just not tell then that you are there to land.

I guess you need to write another thread asking if anyone has entered the country but not landed even though the visa was in their passport.

Do you not have anyone who can forward the cards to you if need be?

Hi there

What you are asking is exactly what happened to us so here is my tuppence worth.

We got the visas in our passports last Feb (2009) and will not be landing officially til this Thursday (11th Feb 2010). We had a holiday booked for 1st Sept 2009 for 3 weeks. Obviously we weren't landing so at passport control (we flew into Hamilton) we were directed to the immigration queue where we explained we weren't landing til Feb 2010. Basically all they wanted was proof that we were going to leave at the end of our 3 weeks. It was that straightforward. They couldn't have been nicer.

Hope this helps

Wes

You can re-enter to reside without your PR card. Shouldn't be an issue.

*Note: This was told to us by the Immigration officer when we landed and also basing what "experts" have said on here.

I landed, stayed for a fortnight then back to the UK to sort stuff out. Returned to Canada after 6 weeks but no PR card by that point but Immigration Officer checked my completed paperwork from the previous landing and let me through - no issues whatsoever. So long as you have your copy of the landed document, I doubt there would be an issue.

"You can re-enter to reside without your PR card. Shouldn't be an issue."

"I landed, stayed for a fortnight then back to the UK to sort stuff out. Returned to Canada after 6 weeks but no PR card by that point but Immigration Officer checked my completed paperwork from the previous landing and let me through - no issues whatsoever. So long as you have your copy of the landed document, I doubt there would be an issue."

Thanks el-richo and ...hmm... that's what we intend to do when we return in July permanently. Nice to be reassured.
Poppit

When did you do your medicals? I thought that you had to land within a year of them.

Yeah i thought that too. Hopefully they're missing out some info in their post otherwise there may be trouble ahead........

Do you think after going through the rigmarole of almost 3 years to get to this position with the elusive Canadian visa in my passport that I'm not aware of landing before the visa expires? Visa expires Feb 24th 2010 hence the landing date of Feb 11th 2010. Wanted to leave it as late as possible.

For anyone else in a similar position your letter acknowledging your visa does state in black and white when the visa will expire if you don't land and points out you have to go through the entire system again from the very beginning

Staying on topic I was only replying to the original request of entering the country with the visa in the passport but not landing officially; now I will be landing officially!

Cool. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute hey

Thanks for all the info and help.

As (nearly) always with questions on here there are lots of helpful (and sometimes contradictory!) replies.
I really don't know where I'd be without BE!

Favorite at the moment, is to explain at passport control in June, that we will be landing at a later date.
In this instance I've decided to ask an immigration official at passport control when I go out skiing in a couple of weeks.
I'll let you know what he/she says.

As usual, speaking to all you peeps out there makes any potential problem "dealable with". Knowledge is King!!

Here's hoping we actually get that far. I'm not sure I'm not going to explode waiting 1-3 months for ppr! (that is of course dependent on the med results being ok.)

Thanks again for all the info.

Cheers!