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PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

Old Oct 26th 2022, 4:11 pm
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Default PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

I wanted to share my current situation just in case anyone has any advice.

My PR card renewal was sent months ago. Due to a medical emergency in my family, I filled out the form to have the processing expedited because I needed to get back to the UK. That didn't happen, I never heard anything back from them on that front, so I had to go to the UK without my card, where I filed for a PRTD to return to Canada. That was a whole saga unto itself that I won't go into here.

I now need to return to the UK again ASAP for the same medical reason, and this time I thought I might be in luck because I got an email saying my PR card was being processed. Then, disaster. I got another email - this time in response to my request for expedited processing, which was filed two months prior - saying my card had been shipped to me. Unfortunately, they mentioned which address they had sent it to, and it turns out they have sent it to my residential address and not the mailing address I specified on the PR card renewal form. I live in a rural area, and we do not get mail delivered to our residential addresses. Mail must go to our PO Box address, which was on the application but seemingly ignored. To make it worse, in the email where they said they mailed it, it said that you must wait 6 weeks to file a "lost card" form to start the replacement process.

I immediately rushed to my local postal depot to see what they could do. They confirmed that it would not get delivered (which I knew) and that the PR card would be returned if there was a return address on it. And destroyed if there was no return address on it.

So here I am, desperately trying to get my PR card in my hands so that I can visit a terminally ill family member, and when they finally get the process done, they send it to the wrong place, so it's in the wind! I know it is lost, but by the "rules" it is not deemed actually lost until it has been missing for 6 weeks.

I literally cannot believe it. To make matters worse, the post office worker I spoke to said, "IRCC is always sending things to residential addresses and not the mailing address". Can you believe that? They are so incompetent that the post office regularly gets flustered people like me visiting them and trying to find out how they can get their hands on passports and PR cards that have been incorrectly mailed to undeliverable addresses.

Of course, getting hold of anyone at IRCC is basically impossible. I tried the phone, and it just tells me repeatedly that I can't be placed in the queue because of the high call volume. All the emails you get from them have no-reply addresses. There is zero accountability.

Today I'm going to write to my MP to see if they can help. If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Last edited by whistlerdan; Oct 26th 2022 at 4:13 pm.
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Old Oct 26th 2022, 5:41 pm
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Default Re: PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

Originally Posted by whistlerdan
I wanted to share my current situation just in case anyone has any advice.

My PR card renewal was sent months ago. Due to a medical emergency in my family, I filled out the form to have the processing expedited because I needed to get back to the UK. That didn't happen, I never heard anything back from them on that front, so I had to go to the UK without my card, where I filed for a PRTD to return to Canada. That was a whole saga unto itself that I won't go into here.

I now need to return to the UK again ASAP for the same medical reason, and this time I thought I might be in luck because I got an email saying my PR card was being processed. Then, disaster. I got another email - this time in response to my request for expedited processing, which was filed two months prior - saying my card had been shipped to me. Unfortunately, they mentioned which address they had sent it to, and it turns out they have sent it to my residential address and not the mailing address I specified on the PR card renewal form. I live in a rural area, and we do not get mail delivered to our residential addresses. Mail must go to our PO Box address, which was on the application but seemingly ignored. To make it worse, in the email where they said they mailed it, it said that you must wait 6 weeks to file a "lost card" form to start the replacement process.

I immediately rushed to my local postal depot to see what they could do. They confirmed that it would not get delivered (which I knew) and that the PR card would be returned if there was a return address on it. And destroyed if there was no return address on it.

So here I am, desperately trying to get my PR card in my hands so that I can visit a terminally ill family member, and when they finally get the process done, they send it to the wrong place, so it's in the wind! I know it is lost, but by the "rules" it is not deemed actually lost until it has been missing for 6 weeks.

I literally cannot believe it. To make matters worse, the post office worker I spoke to said, "IRCC is always sending things to residential addresses and not the mailing address". Can you believe that? They are so incompetent that the post office regularly gets flustered people like me visiting them and trying to find out how they can get their hands on passports and PR cards that have been incorrectly mailed to undeliverable addresses.

Of course, getting hold of anyone at IRCC is basically impossible. I tried the phone, and it just tells me repeatedly that I can't be placed in the queue because of the high call volume. All the emails you get from them have no-reply addresses. There is zero accountability.

Today I'm going to write to my MP to see if they can help. If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.
I can't help with any suggestions but, if this doesn't persuade you to obtain citizenship, I don't know what would!
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Old Oct 26th 2022, 6:09 pm
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Default Re: PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

Yeah, that is true. I already decided to put in the application this week.
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Old Oct 26th 2022, 7:15 pm
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Default Re: PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

Originally Posted by KayBex
PR cards are only sent to PO box if it's the same as your residential address, according to the guide on the website.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...s/imm5444.html
I think we differ on how to interpret this. My PO Box is my residential mailing address. I live rurally and we cannot get mail delivered to the house. Surely that is the whole point of having two places for your address? One is where I live, one is where I get mail.

Why would they send anything to an address that is not my mailing address? Only the mailing address section of the form had a place for “PO Box number”.

The fact that it says your PR card will be sent to…. “the address where you live” is just bizarre. Many people live rurally in Canada and cannot receive mail to the place they live. Surely there is some procedure to handle this?

When you fill out your address history in the past 5 years in the PR application they don’t allow you to put a PO Box as an address in that section. So surely a PO Box can never be a residential address. I don’t reside there!



Last edited by whistlerdan; Oct 26th 2022 at 7:36 pm.
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Old Oct 27th 2022, 6:15 pm
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Default Re: PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

try contacting your local MP and see if they can assist
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Old Oct 27th 2022, 8:31 pm
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Default Re: PR Card Mailed To Wrong Address - Nightmare

There was a thread about something similar with P.O. Boxes causing issues like this a while ago here, though the person had no address at all. In future one way to avoid this is to get a UPS mailbox or similar, then you can put "Suite 123" or "123-500 Fake St" instead of "P.O. Box 123", that avoids any problems when an agency or company refuse to send to a P.O. Box.
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