Permanent Resident Cards are proof, issued by the Canadian government, of your status as a Permanent Resident and entitles you to live, work, study or travel within the country. Permanent Resident Cards (often referred to as PR Cards) are particularly necessary when you wish to travel outside of Canada because customs and immigration officials will want to see your PR Card as proof of your status. Check the expiry date on your PR Card, you may have to renew it soon! Renewing your PR Card is easy with Immigration Direct, sign up today!
After you have gathered the necessary documents for your application it is time to actually fill out the necessary forms. The two most relevant forms are IMM 5444 and IMM 5455. You may also have to file other forms such as IMM 5476 depending upon your particular situation.
On the Application for Permanent Resident Card (IMM 5444) you will be formally requesting a Permanent Resident Card and you will have to be sure that check the particular box that states that you are requesting a renewal. The first section of the application is relatively straightforward and will largely only ask for general biographic information.
Recently, the CIC has made some changes to the application and you can now list your e-mail address if you would like. By putting your e-mail address within that field in the application all of the correspondence that you will conduct with CIC will come through your email and not your residence. If you list a mailing address the CIC will send all relevant correspondence to that address instead of to your residential address or your e-mail.
The history and immigration history sections of the application are used to determine whether or not you are who you are claiming to be and your eligibility for a Permanent Resident Card renewal. As a Permanent Resident it is your responsibility to maintain a certain residential requirement. You must reside within Canada for 1,095 days (or three years) out of five years.
If you are applying for renewal early and you have only recently immigrated to Canada, meaning that you have only lived in Canada for four years, you do not necessarily need to meet the 1,095 rule. However, by the end of the five year period you must have lived in Canada for 1,095 days in order to retain your Permanent Resident status.
When completing the history portion of the application it is of utmost importance that you be entirely truthful. Citizenship and Immigration Canada maintain their own databases and it is likely that they will compare what they have on record to what you have written on your renewal application. If there is a discrepancy you may end up in a lot of trouble with CIC, which has been much stricter about immigration fraud as of late.
When filling out your Supplementary Identification form you will have to include some photos which must adhere to some rather strict standards. You can find these requirements on Immigration Direct’s blog.
Let Immigration Direct get you started on your path to renewing your Permanent Resident Card today!
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