Quinn of Québec

Hi there,

I recieved my visa in my passport and confirmation of permanant residence status (skilled worker class) and am waiting here int he UK until I find a job before I make the move to Canada.

I want to go to Canada for 2 weeks in April to have a few interviews with prospective employers etc BUT I am worried that when I arrive in Montreal airport that the immigration people will see my visa and activate it. This I do not want as it's only a 2 week fact finding trip and I will not be ready to go the whole hog and immigrate at this stage.

Is it possible to make such a trip to Canbada when you have a visa in your passport? Is there anyway I can ensure they do not activate my visa and start treating me as a landed immigrant?

Advice GRATEFULLY recieved!

Thanks

Q of Q

andy_sheila

You have 12 months to "activate" your visa from the date of issue, it will make no difference if it is "activated" when you visit (which it will be) or not.
I hope this helps

Quinn of Québec

Thanks again for your reply.

The problem is . . . if it is activated then when I return to the UK 2 weeks later I will be a resident in 2 countries - surely this isn't allowed?

It would also mean that once I was officially a landed immigrant I wouldnt be able to complete all of the processes like getting a social security no etc.

Also, isn't there some regulation about not leaving Canada for a certain period following your immigration?

Q of Q

Tiaribbon

You can leave Canada but you will have to give an address in Canada for Immigration to send your PR card to you.

I think you will find that they will land you though, so you will need to have your List of Goods to Follow ready to be stamped.

We only came in on Study Permits and an attached long Visitors Visa for me and they landed us - thankfully we had completed our List and got it stamped by Customs.

I don't think you need to initiate your SIN etc on your trip though - this can wait until you finally move.

Biiiiink

Hi Quinn,

Mr B landed 5wks ago, stayed for 48hrs and came back to the UK. He hasn't applied for SIN, or anything like that, he isn't a resident of Canada (despite having his Permanent Resident card) because his principal home, his family (me and Jr!), etc etc are still in the UK.

There really isn't a process to complete - if you don't need a SIN yet, don't get one, and so on. It's all do-able at a later date. Many people land and leave to tie up their affairs, perfectly legal. If I was you I'd just land, it's not a hassle at all. In fact, don't you really need to be a PR if you're attending interviews (i.e. looking for work)? You probably ought not to be doing that on a tourist visa? Dunno...

You must make sure you reside in Canada for 2yrs out of every 5yr period to maintain your PR status. See http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/res-oblig.html for more info.

Biiiiink

Judy in Calgary

An interesting point to note on the wep page that Biiiiink provided is that time a PR spends outside of Canada in order to accompany a Canadian-citizen spouse is counted as if the PR was inside Canada during that period.

Quinn, if I remember correctly, you said in the Lifestyle forum that your wife is a Canadian citizen. Therefore I am guessing that your returning to the UK could be construed as accompanying your wife and so would not count against you.

The specific wording on the web page is:

Permanent Residency Obligations

Here is what you must do to comply with your residency obligations.

You must accumulate two years of physical presence in Canada in every five-year period. You can also count Canadian residency days if you are outside Canada for an extended period of time for one of the following reasons:

The web page goes on to list other situations that I do not think are applicable to you.

I've just tried calling the PR Call Centre's toll free number, which is 1 800 255-4541, to see if there was a chance of getting a more definitive answer for you. Unfortunately with it being a weekend there is only a pre-recorded message which, while it is quite informative, does not answer your question. To reach a live person I would need to call between 8.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m., which would be quite difficult for me to do, as I have a rather intense job during the week.

Perhaps it would be possible for one of your wife's family members to call on your behalf. The phone number for the PR Call Centre cannot be accessed from outside of Canada, so you would not be able to call yourself.

Quinn of Québec

THANK YOU SO MUCH evryone for all your generosity! - people are so kind on this forum.

Judy - thank you for trying to call for me. It's really daft that there is no number that I can call myself!

I have already tried to recruit my inlaw (in Québec) to call for me but I think there may have been a language/communication prob as there was no clear answer emerging. If you did have 2 secs to try and call sometime it would be great but then again I understand that you are busy so no probs if you can't!

Incidently my wife who is a Canadian citizen and naturally has a Canadian passport would be with me for the two weeks trip.

Thank you so much again everyone.

Q of Q

Xyzzy

There was a recent thread in which I was told that, being a US citizen, I could visit without landing. Another US-citizen poster said that he had visited twice (entering once by car, once by airplane) without landing. My impression is that this works for any visa-waiver country, so my guess (and it's only a guess) is that if you are a UK citizen you could also visit without landing.

JAJ

This is correct. However the residence requirement is only 730 days in each 5 year period, so for a period of a few weeks or months this concession would not be required.


Jeremy