To maintain your status as a Permanent Resident in Canada, you must meet the residency requirements. The residency requirement for PR is that in a period of 5 years, you must spend 2 years in Canada. Another way of representing this requirement is that Permanent Residents must spend 730 days in Canada in the previous five year period.
Residency Requirements for PR in Canada
It’s important to note that Permanent Residents do not need to spend 730 days consecutively in Canada in order to maintain their status. Rather, these two years must be accumulated throughout the previous five years.
Many clients ask us how this five year period is calculated. An immigration officer will look at the previous five years from the date of assessment. In other words, the five years are never “forward-looking”. The individual must have accumulated 730 days in those previous 5 years.
How to Accumulate Residency Days for PR in Canada
There are two ways to accumulate residency days for Permanent Residency. The first way is evident and that is to be physically present in Canada. Each full day spent in Canada as a PR counts as a day toward the residency requirement.
The other way to accumulate residency is to include time spent outside Canada. There are certain situations in which time spent outside of Canada may also be included in the residency requirement. Some examples are:
→ You work outside Canada
You need to work full-time for:
a Canadian business or organization, or
the Canadian federal, provincial or territorial government
→ You travel with a spouse or common-law partner
Your spouse or common-law partner needs to be:
a Canadian citizen, or
a permanent resident working outside Canada, full-time for:
a Canadian business, or
the Canadian federal, provincial or territorial government
→ You’re a dependent child and travel with your parent
Your parent needs to be:
a Canadian citizen, or
a permanent resident working outside Canada, full-time for:
a Canadian business or
the Canadian federal, provincial or territorial government
What happens if you don’t meet the residency requirement for PR?
If you don’t meet the residency requirement for PR, you won't lose your permanent resident status automatically. You're still a permanent resident until a decision is made to take away your status.
Depending on the situation, the individual may be able to make a case for why they were unable to meet the residency requirement and appeal the decision to take their status away. For example, if a Canadian PR didn’t meet the residency requirement because they were taking care of an ill family member in a different country, they may be able to make a Humanitarian and Compassion case.
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Our Services
Calver and Associates is a leading provider of Canadian Immigration services in Durham Region. We serve clients in Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, and beyond. Our Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant has over 10 years of experience in Canadian Immigration law and over four years of experience serving those in the Oshawa area.
We can provide assistance with applications for both temporary and permanent residency in Canada. We handle applications for study permits, permanent residency, family class sponsorship, visitor visas, work permits, and Canadian citizenship. We also handle criminal inadmissibility cases by developing remedies for refusal.
