 Hey everybody! Today I wanted to make a video about traveling to Canada if you are a permanent resident but your PR card is expired. I get this question very often for different types of cases so for example if you're a permanent resident of Canada and you have to urgently travel let's say to Europe but your PR card is expired what do you do? There are some people that they don't realize that they really need the valid PR card in order to return so they end up traveling outside and when they try to return to Canada let's say they're from a country that is visa exempt they might be able to come back and get on the plane but if you are from a country that needs a visa you could get into a lot of complicated situations such as not being able to get on the flight or getting delayed at the airport or being able to come back to Canada but then being questioned that the airport and maybe being issued some documents or warnings that you wouldn't want to have which would cause red flags to your immigration history so if you are a permanent resident of Canada it is very important to always in all cases in general to have a valid PR card that means that every five years if you're not a citizen you have to renew you should renew your PR card if of course you meet the residency requirement if you have to travel in order to come back to Canada you need to have a valid PR card that demonstrates that you are a permanent resident of Canada so the PR card is really the PR card doesn't give you permanent resident status it's your confirmation of permanent residence that gives you a permanent resident status and the fact that that status hasn't been removed by a negative decision by an officer or a tribunal in Canada but the PR card is essentially for traveling back to Canada so if you have to travel urgently and you don't have your PR card it's expired or you renew it and you're waiting what you're going to have to do is apply for what's called a travel document at the embassy outside of Canada this is a document that's issued to permanent residents who have an expired PR card have lost their PR card or are waiting for a decision on their PR card it's an application with forms and supporting documents and it could get complicated because it isn't a document issued on an emergency basis but sometimes it could take a couple of weeks or sometimes even months to get that document so if you're going let's say to Europe for 10 days and you get there and you're going to apply for a travel document it could be that if you explain it properly and you put urgent I need to come back to Canada I need to go back to my job and I was only here urgently the embassy could issue that travel document to you for in a few days but if the embassy depending on the country that you're applying him to there's a lot of backlogs and delays then it could take a couple of weeks for them to to review and issue you the travel document then that could be problematic because then you're you're stuck outside so my recommendation is always to renew if you renewed your card and now you're traveling it's going to be important for you to have evidence that your PR card is in the process of getting renewed so a copy of your uh applicant the fee that you've paid or the documents that you submitted or the tracking number of the courier package that you submitted that way if you do have to apply for a track travel document then you can show that you can put a copy of that evidence in the application to so look I've actually taken care of my immigration matters I've renewed my I'm in the process of renewing my PR card now if you are traveling to the United States you can travel back to Canada without your PR card if you're coming by car or by bus the PR card is really necessary when you're flying by plane but when you're coming by land from the United States if you're coming in a vehicle you are allowed to cross with your landing ideally you should have your PR card because it's just it makes it every makes everything simpler but if you absolutely not have it then if you have your confirmation of permanent residence which is the document you were issued uh when you became a permanent resident back in the day it was called a landing document now it's called a confirmation of permanent residence if you have that document then you're by car then you can show that to the officer also always recommended to have evidence that you have renewed your PR card with that the officer should be able to let you in now they could ask you some questions just to make sure that you still meet the residency requirement which is currently is two years out of five so you could be questioned so it's also important to have perhaps an excel sheet with all your travel dates or evidence that you've been living in Canada so that is a possibility if you're coming by land so my recommendation is if you're traveling always make sure you review integration rules and regulations about traveling whether with other PR card what the timelines are if you have to urgently apply for a travel document if you've applied for the renewal of your card make sure you have evidence of that on you because it's going to make your your travels much easier especially if you don't have your PR card and you come back the officer could interpret that as oh you're coming as a visitor you're not coming as a permanent resident especially if you've traveled a lot and you don't have evidence that you have lived in Canada then they could issue you a removal order which you can have to file an appeal and it could take a year or two to go to court and it could be seen as not caring so much about your permanent resident status not updating your documents and just saying oh well you know you don't seem to be a permanent resident so we're going to indicate that you're a visitor and oh do you want to renounce to your permanent resident status a lot of issues like this can happen at the border and it could be avoided if you're well prepared thank you for listening