RESIDENCY OBLIGATION
Minimum residence obligation
If you have been a permanent resident for more than 5 years, you must have lived in Canada for more than 730 days in the past 5 years.
If you become a permanent resident for no more than 5 years, you must prove that you may actually live in Canada for at least 730 days in 5 years after you become a permanent resident.
The following three situations may also be considered to reside in Canada when living outside of Canada.
Situation 1: Living with a Canadian citizen outside of Canada
Living outside Canada with a Canadian citizen can be counted as living in Canada: the Canadian resident is your spouse, common-law partner or parent (in this case your age is less than 19 years old)
Situation 2: Working outside of Canada
If you meet the following requirements, you can count the time spent outside Canada as living in the country:
You are employed by a Canadian business, or have a contract with a Canadian business, or you work for a public utility in the Canadian federal or Canadian province or territory, and one of your contracts or hiring must state that you work full time:
- A position outside of Canada
- A Canadian subsidiary located outside of Canada, or
- A Canadian business or a customer of a public utility outside Canada
Canadian companies are defined as follows:
- A company established under the laws of a province in Canada or Canada, and the company must continue to operate in Canada.
Companies must:
- Continuous operations in Canada
- Able to generate income
- Reach the expected return
- Most directors or shareholders are held by Canadian citizens, permanent residents or Canadian companies, or an organization or business based on the laws of Canada or Canada.
Situation 3: Living with a permanent resident outside of Canada
The time spent living with a permanent resident outside of Canada can be counted as living in Canada as follows:
Living with you must be your spouse, common law partner or parent (in this case your age must be less than 19 years old), and he must be employed full time in a Canadian business or a public utility in the Canadian federal, state, or territorial.
When to check if the living obligation is met
Residence obligations are checked when applying for Maple Leaf Card and Permanent Resident Travel Documents.
In addition, it is possible to check the residence obligation for each entry, but the implementation is not particularly strict, especially if you have a Maple Leaf card entry, you will not usually interrogate your residency obligations. Nowadays, airports such as Vancouver and Toronto in Canada have also set up self-service entry, and permanent residents will become more and more convenient.
The duty of inspection is only 5 years from the time the applicant submits the application or on the day of entry. It cannot be a longer period of time. For example, if the applicant has left Canada for 10 years, he or she will be able to submit a Maple Leaf card after 2 years of residency in Canada. Did not meet the immigration refusal of the year before.
Permanent residents’ right to entry
Permanent residents, like citizens, have absolute entry rights. As long as permanent residents appear on the Canadian border, they cannot refuse entry or even direct repatriation for any reason.
Border officials also have no right to directly cancel the identity of permanent residents. If the permanent residents do not meet their residency obligations at the time of entry, the border control can issue a deportation order while allowing entry, and the applicant can appeal the deportation order.