spas

Hi All,
I am a PR and I travelled outside Canada last month for the first time. I returned this week. I arrived in Toronto and did customs in the airport. I handed my PR card to the person behind the desk along with my passport. He returned both and I later realized that my passport hadn't been stamped. I'm worry that my return to Canada hadn't been registered. My questions are:

a) Is there any way to check if my return was registered?
b) Has anybody had a similar experience?
c) Is it normal that passports are not stamped at the airport?

Thanks

Andrew Miller

As a PR you won't have passport stamped anymore when returning to Canada. But it is your burden to keep evidence and be able to prove when asked that you met your residency obligations.

spas

Thanks Andrew for your quick reply. You mean that I should keep the boarding passes and the ticket? Or what do you mean by evidence?

Andrew Miller

Not evidence of your travel - evidence of being in Canada for at least 730 days in 5 years period to keep your status and/or evidence of being in Canada for 1,095 days in 4 years period if you plan to apply for citizenship when eligible.

Boarding passes can only (if at all) prove that you were in Canada on the day plane landed here, nothing more.

You need to keep your school attendance or employment records, utility bills, band and credit cards statements showing you were using them in Canada in claimed days, and any other conclusive evidence demonstrating that you were here.

JAJ

Surely they will stamp the passport if asked to?


Jeremy

Andrew Miller

Yes, they will, but stamps in passport prove only that person was in Canada on the day of stamp, nothing more.

JAJ

All part of a dossier of evidence though, together with overseas passport stamps.

Realistically, no-one who's *living* in Canada should have any problem proving that fact and where someone clearly meets the 730 day mark by a long way (as most people living in Canada will), no-one is going to worry about days here or there.

Although for those who are marginal on the 730 days due to spending a lot of time away from Canada, such evidence may be the difference between keeping and losing PR.

Jeremy