November 2025

One of the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an interruption in plans to settle in Canada after obtaining permanent residence status. After being approved to settle in Canada, many individuals I’ve met with found they could not make the move. Finding employment, obtaining housing, and disrupting already disrupted schooling created too heavy a burden for many families. These individuals are now nearing the end of their initial five-year period after obtaining permanent residence, raising concerns that they may not have met the residency obligation.

To maintain your permanent residence status, you must meet the residency obligation, which is 730 days in the previous five-year period. The ‘start date’ of this five-year period is always today’s date. It is not the date the permanent residence card was issued. The five-year period does not end on the day the permanent resident card expires. As citizenship is not tied to the expiry date of a passport, permanent residence status is not tied to the expiry date of a permanent residence card.

Consider the following scenario:

You became a PR on January 1, 2026, and left Canada within a few days. If you have not moved to Canada by December 31, 2028, you will not meet the PR residency requirement within the five-year period after you became a permanent resident.

If you move to Canada by December 31, 2028, you cannot leave Canada for 730 days; otherwise, you will not be able to meet the residency obligation. Once you have met the residency obligation, you can travel.

If you travel on January 1, 2032, you will still be in breach of the residency obligation because you need to buffer the time you will be away. To ensure you have buffer time, you will need to be in Canada until mid-January 2032 to travel for two weeks. Otherwise, you are at risk of being issued an s. 44(1) Report upon your return.

What is a s.44(1) Report?

A s.44(1) Report is prepared if the officer is of the opinion that a permanent resident or foreign national in Canada is inadmissible. The operational manual instructs border service officers to assess a PR's residency obligation. If, following an assessment, an officer concludes that a PR has failed to comply with the residency obligation, the officer may prepare a report for inadmissibility (s. 44(1) Report). However, officers are required by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act s.28(2)(c) to take into account humanitarian and compassionate considerations. The officers must articulate consideration of these prescribed factors in the decision to write a s.44(1) Report.

What happens if you move to Canada between January 1, 2029, and when your PR card expires?

You will be permitted to enter Canada by land or board a flight if you are flying; permanent residents have the right to enter Canada. Be prepared to be questioned by a border official as to your breach of residency obligation. If you are questioned, you must be prepared to present H&C (Humanitarian and Compassionate) submissions.

If your H&C submissions are accepted, an s. 441(1) Report will not be issued against you. However, you should not apply for a new PR card or travel until you have met the residency obligation. Any re-entry to Canada could trigger a residency investigation, as could applying for a new PR card. The golden rule is to never apply for a PR card unless you have lived in Canada for at least 730 days in the 5 years directly before you sign the application.

Also, you might not be able to apply for a SIN or provincial health insurance without a PR card. This means that you must be in Canada, but you might not have health insurance or be able to work. Thus, it is essential not to wait and get your SIN immediately after getting your PR!

If your H&C submissions are not accepted, s. 44(1) Report will be issued. This is the first step towards removing permanent residency. However, if your status is removed, you will have the right to appeal. While your appeal is pending, you can begin establishing yourself in Canada, and additional documentation about your establishment can be provided. This means that the more time waiting for the appeal, the more time to get established. You will be issued a one-year PR card as part of the appeal process (if your card has or will expire while you wait for your appeal). If the appeal is accepted, your PR is not lost.

 

Sponsoring a family member when not meeting the residency obligation

Sponsoring a family member or any other type of IRCC application could trigger a residency obligation investigation. It is ill-advised to submit a sponsorship application until you have met the residency obligation.

‘Soft Landing’ – PR card might not be issued

A ‘soft landing’ is when new Canadian immigrants briefly visit Canada before moving permanently. Arriving PRs must have their Confirmation of Permanent Residence document and a valid visa, if applicable.

Regarding the obligation to establish permanent residence, it is recognized that not everyone can move permanently to Canada by the expiry date of their Confirmation of Permanent Residency. Border officials are to deal with this situation as they are directed in the official policy manual. According to the manual, arriving PRs must satisfy a border official that they intend to establish permanent residence in Canada. Still, there may be valid reasons for not doing so immediately, and they may not be in a position to provide an address at that time. The policy manual then suggests that occasionally, it may be appropriate for arriving PRs to provide the address of a third party (friend, relative, service provider or a paid representative) in Canada to facilitate the processing and issuance of the PR card upon their arrival.

However, if there are indications that the initial entry to Canada is for a short trip, and the third-party address is provided solely for international forwarding of the PR card, the PR may be flagged with an info alert indicating that you are outside Canada. If the arriving PRs plan to leave Canada before receiving their PR cards, the officer is instructed to advise the PRs to obtain a PR travel document.

October 2025

IRCC has updated processing times for the various immigration applications and refugee claims. For some applications, the new updated processing times raise alarms for lawyers and applicants.

First, here are some highlights regarding the new changes to processing times:

• Introduction of more specific timelines based on the application submission date, where sufficient data is available
• Processing times reflect the time it takes to process 80% of applications from submission to decision and do not include the time required for virtual landings in Canada
• The new processing times pages will display the number of applications in the queue (IRCC processes applications on a first-in basis), and updates will occur monthly
• IRCC currently does not provide country-specific or small-program breakdowns
• IRCC is developing a single tracker for all lines of business, expected to launch in December 2026, which will provide more comprehensive information

For economic immigration programs, processing times changed slightly. The average processing time for Express Entry programs remains 6 months, unchanged from last month. The Provincial Nominee Program also stays relatively unchanged, with the standard being 11 months. Both Quebec’s Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) and the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP)’s processing time remains the same as last month; however, IRCC notes that there are currently almost 24,000 PSTQ applications awaiting processing.

Family sponsorship applications have already seen significant increases in processing times over the past year or so. Currently, the ‘spouse or common-law partner living inside Canada’ category’s processing time is 24 months for intending to reside outside Quebec, and 37 months for intending to reside in Quebec. ‘Spouse or common-law partner living outside Canada’ category’s processing time is 15 months for intending to reside outside Quebec and 41 months for intending to reside in Quebec. The Parents and Grandparents Program has a processing time of 26 months for intending to reside outside Quebec and 44 months for intending to reside in Quebec. In contrast, dependent child sponsorship applications from within Canada have decreased by 17 months, from 29 months to the current listed processing time of 12 months.

Processing times for temporary residence applications generally show minor changes in this update, but super visa applications submitted from Pakistan have increased by nearly six weeks. For citizenship applications, the processing time for both the Citizenship grant and the Citizenship certificate applications has increased by 2 months.

The processing time for protected persons and refugees in Canada outside Quebec is currently approximately 99 months, with a total of 137,100 people waiting for a decision. The consequences of waiting for more than 8 years as a refugee claimant are enormous. One of the most heart-wrenching consequences would be the separation of refugee claimants from immediate family members left behind, as they will not be able to join the protected person in Canada until the application is finalized.  

Unsubmitted H&C applications outside Quebec are expected to take more than 10 years to process. As the new update allows personalized processing times based on the submission date, all H&C applications submitted outside Quebec after June 2024 currently show processing times exceeding 10 years.

Time and time again, the courts have referred to H&C applications as the safety valve of the Canadian immigration system. The Supreme Court of Canada has described the curative relief provided by the safety valves as the justification for certain aspects of the immigration system that may otherwise have unconstitutional effects. With the H&C applications now being expected to process for 10+ years, it raises concerns about the only ‘safety valve’ being so inaccessible as to become unavailable.

Another consequence to watch out for is that the upcoming Bill C-12, The Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act, includes a provision that permits the government to cancel applications already submitted, raising concerns that this provision could be used to address backlogs, including the cancellation of private sponsorship applications. It remains unclear how the provision will ultimately be used, but some lawyers speculate that the wording “the processing of an application for a visa or other document” refers to applications for people outside Canada, but not those in Canada.

September 2025

IRCC states on their website that you don’t need to hire a representative. You can get all the necessary forms and instructions for an immigration application on the IRCC website. Then, if you follow the instructions, you should be able to fill out the forms and submit them yourself. This is how it should be, but the reality is more complicated, and you should be aware of the pros and cons of self-representation before deciding on whether you would like to have a lawyer’s legal assistance. I have blogged about this issue in the past—Yes, You Really Do Need a Lawyer to Help You and Shocker: Your Canadian Immigration Application is More Likely to be Accepted if Prepared with the Assistance of a Lawyer.

 

Even when the forms are straightforward, they are still only a part of a complex immigration system. Decisions that seem trivial may entail larger immigration consequences in the future. The recent Federal Court case, Kaur v. Canada, is an excellent illustration of this challenge.

 

The applicant submitted the sponsorship application under the Parent and Grandparent Program, but she was found ineligible to sponsor her parents because she did not meet the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) requirement. On the application form, she had indicated that she wished to withdraw the application rather than receive an adverse decision should she be found ineligible to sponsor her parents. She checked the box that read “Withdraw your sponsorship application. All processing fees minus the sponsorship fee will be refunded”. The other box reads, “Proceed with the application for permanent residence. Processing fees will be retained.”

This seems like a simple decision; given the choice of ‘get your money back’ or ‘don’t get your money back’, getting a refund seems a preferable option.

 

However, the instructions for the form include a note that states, “Check 'Proceed with the application for permanent residence' if you are requesting that an officer review your application for potential humanitarian and compassionate considerations”. A self-representing applicant is unlikely to comprehend the implications of this note. They are also unlikely to realize, based on the instructions, that by checking the box to withdraw their sponsorship application, they are also withdrawing their right to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board, which has jurisdiction to consider H&C relief.

 

The applicant’s counsel argued that the applicant did not have legal representation when she first applied, and nothing in the guidance published on the IRCC website warns applicants that withdrawal of an application will deprive them of their right to appeal to the IAD.

 

In response, the Federal Court stated that:

[23] … While Ms. Kaur was not required to seek the assistance of a lawyer when completing the sponsorship application, she must accept the consequences of not doing so. […]

[24] The Officer had no obligation to clarify or rectify any deficiencies in Ms. Kaur’s Page: 9 application, to help her to make her case, to apprise her of concerns about whether the requirements set out in the legislation had been met, to provide her with a running score at every step of the application process, or to offer further opportunities to respond to unresolved concerns (Lv v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2018 FC 935 at para 23). Nor could the Officer be expected to provide guidance to Ms. Kaur on whether and how to preserve her appeal rights in the event that she was found ineligible to sponsor her parents.

 

Many self-representing applicants are unaware of the potential consequences of decisions they make within the immigration system. Illustrated by the case above, the instructions provided by IRCC are insufficient in providing guidance on the potential consequences. As such, a seemingly trivial matter could later trigger a much more complicated and costly process to rectify. While a lawyer is not required, applicants must understand the risks of navigating the immigration system without one.  

August 2025

One of the main objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) is family unification. The same section of the act also lists objectives such as “consistent standards and prompt processing” and “establishment of fair and efficient procedures.” However, our recent experience reflects the opposite of these objectives; unrepresented clients are facing significant barriers to preparing a successful application. Additionally, in-Canada applicants and those destined to live in Québec are experiencing considerable processing delays.