I’m now beginning the process of applying for citizenship as I became eligible a few months back. The requirement to document all absences from Canada, including those for work is probably well known.
My PR card runs out in March 2016 so its almost certain that I’ll have to renew said card as citizenship applications are supposedly at 24 months for straight forward applicants and considerably longer for cases such as truck driver who cross the border and have to justify their existence in Canada because we do an anti-social job many Canadians wont and that takes us over the border. Now, upon looking at what’s required to renew a PR card, it seems they want all the same nonsense and every single absence from the country listed (they give space for about 5 or 6 absences on the form!) and if its for work they want to see proof of employment. Have any of you gone through this process to renew your card? What proof do they want? all of your logs? letters from companies?
Hi Robinhood
So, to apply for citizenship, after getting your permanent residency, you still need to work as a long haul truck driver, otherwise you might not get citizenship?
I thought after working as a long haul truck driver for two years and after getting your permanent resident status you are free to do whatever you want to do, but if I understood correctly what you have written above you still need to be employed as a long haul driver otherwise you might not be granted your Canadian citizenship?
It was about this time last year that I applied to re-new my PR card. I took all my stuff to the Eastman [East Manitoba] Immigration Office in Steinbach, which offers a free service to new immigrants. The girl in there filled out all the forms and said I just needed to say how many days I was out of the country in the last five years. She also checked the government website and said that it was taking 71 days to process PR card renewals. Mine was good to July so I thought I had plenty of time.
However, the PR card office in Sydney, NS, wrote and asked for a list of ALL the dates I was out of the country, where I went and for what reason I was absent. So I had to go back through all the log books and wrote out five A4 pages. This satisfied the office worker dealing with my case and I didn’t have to go for an interview, which I know some people have had to have. My new card came through 2 months after the old one expired but nobody at the border ever commented on it being out of date; so I presumed that there was something on the computer to say that a new one had been applied for.
No, once you’ve got PR you can do whatever you want. Its just that in NB there is very little in the way of driving jobs that are not long haul so I’m still doing it. The alternative is to take a local minimum wage job at Walmart etc and live the poverty stricken redneck lifestyle, something I have not moved over the Atlantic to do. If I want to struggle for cash and be hard up, I’ll do that in England near family and friends and all things familiar.
To apply for citizenship, and to maintain your PR you have to declare all absences from Canada, including those in the truck over the border. Those absences in themselves don’t prevent you from getting citizenship or maintaining PR, its just another level of Canadian bureaucracy and paperwork but for the driver its a real pain in the rear end and for citizenship it delays the whole process as my case will have to go to an immigration judge who then approve my application when I bring supporting evidence that the absences from the country where actually on Canadian business, which my log books will prove.
My question regarding the renewal of PR cards was to see if anyone had done it, while spending the preceding 5 years on cross border long haul work and what supporting proof of those crossings they had to supply. I’ve seen mention of having to provide proof of employment for dates out of the country that were for work, which being a truck driver, I’ll have several hundred individual trips in a five year period. I want to know if it’ll cause issues and delays at renewal time, if the authorities want to see all my logs as will be the case for citizenship or if they merely want letters from all employers, current and past stating that I was on company business when crossing the border. My card doesn’t expire for another two years but I want to be prepared now and have everything in order. Trying to get everything done at the last minute in a panic is never a good idea when it comes to Canadian immigrational bureaucracy.
Thanks Chris. Thats basically what I was expecting to be the case. Is there an actual form you can use to document the X amount of border crossings by truck like there is on the citizenship application, or did you have to just do it all by hand on a blank sheet of paper?
Did you have to provide any other proof, such as covering letters from employers that you were employed between date X and X doing cross border long haul work, or were the dates you wrote enough to satisfy the office wallahs in NS?
I made a list of the dates on the computer. Year, month and then the days where I was out of Canada for the full 24 hours. Then printed it out. I didn’t have any thing from my employer but they were very interested in my original “Confirmation Of Permanent Residence” document and the annual Canada Revenue Agency “Notice of Assessment” documents. That is the confirmation you get back with your tax refund cheque; they wanted those for the past five years.
I don’t think they are too bothered about who you work for; just that you have earned a living wage and paid a lot of tax.
Don’t quote me on this but I read on another forum last week that they have changed the law 3 weeks ago that from now on, you can only count days after PR towards Citizenship not any before, whole days or part days.
All I did was add up the total days out of Canada from my tax returns they accepted that and only wanted a letter from my employer stating my job requires me to cross the border regually
njb1962:
All I did was add up the total days out of Canada from my tax returns they accepted that and only wanted a letter from my employer stating my job requires me to cross the border regually
Thanks, doesn’t sound too bad then. Since gaining PR I’m on my 3rd employer that see’s me crossing the border and one of them I’m almost certain of will not provide me with a letter to cover those border crossings so we’ll see if that causes any issues.
Just to bring this up to date a little bit.
My PR card is due to expire in just under 6 months from now so I’m gathering everything together to send off the application in the next week or so.
I’m going to make a list on the computer with all my border crossings in the truck, but what is the actual criteria for PR purposes? For citizenship you only count a day if your absence from Canada goes past midnight. So if you cross out on Monday the first and cross back in on Tuesday the second, that’s an absence of 1 day. I can’t seem to find anything relating to PR and if its the same or if its totted up differently.
Also for citizenship you don’t have to declare trips that are completed within the same calendar day, as they don’t go beyond midnight, is this the case for PR? Obviously I’ve got all my log books for work but I’ve made several crossings in the past 5 years over the border in my car that last no more than an hour or so but I have not kept a record of those, do they need to be declared for PR if they’re that short?
I’m aware that I can apply to CBSA for my crossing history, which will give that information, though its useless for the truck crossings as they only give the date of arrival and say whether its personal or commercial, the US authorities don’t share their information to the public so the duration of absence is not recorded. I just want to know if its worth bothering to apply for the crossing history purely for the personal absences in my car of if they don’t need to be declared if they’re same day crossings in line with citizenship application criteria etc?
I’m a bit worried as a friend of mine spent nearly a year jumping through hoops to get his new PR card and I wanted to avoid the same. I’d rather get it right first time than get the whole thing sent back to me on a technicality such as a few 1 hour crossings in my car not being reported etc.
I can understand your concerns, not that I can help you mate. I know that when I applied for my original residents card I had to get permission to leave the USA for even a short trip over the border, but when it came to renewal, I went to immigration and they put a sticker on my card to allow crossing to Canada. The amount of trips or the period spent there didn’t matter, I wonder if Canada has similar rules ?
Crossing the border while being employed as a truck driver for a Canadian company isn’t a problem in and of itself Pat, but its a real pain going back through log books etc, especially as the totting up process for Permanent Residence is different from that of citizenship application.
After digging for ages on the net, its now apparent that any day with so much as a minute spent in Canada, counts of a full day of residence for PR, whereas for citizenship the passing of midnight outside of Canada counts as an absence of 1 day. So, you could cross out of Canada on Monday the 1st at 1am and cross back in again on Tuesday the 2nd at 11pm and for residence that’s an absence of 0 days, but for citizenship its an absence of 1 day.
I’m now having to re-do my border crossing databases for residence as obviously the entered number of absences are different. I’m almost up to date now, with the exception of this years logs which are all in the truck so I’ll do them this week while I’m out on the road. My current job is mainly short haul stuff to New England and the like, and just in the second half of 2013 and all of 2014 I have 95 individual border crossings, many of which are actually 0 days absence because I crossed in to the US on one day, and out again the next.
I should just add that while these full days in the US count as an “absence”, they’re considered as a day “present” if they’re spent working for a Canadian company, ie a truck driver. We just have to declare them all to fulfill the pencil pushers reason to exist at tax payers expense so they can use it against us to claim we are not “maintaining a life in Canada” and could then demand to see further proof, resulting in more forms and months of delays, to get what we’re all perfectly legally entitled to in the first place, a new 5yr PR card.
The whole thing is a joke and the sooner I apply for get (subject to the same nonsense as above) citizenship the better, then all this crap will be a thing of the past.
Once I’ve got everything together and submitted my application I think I’ll do a post on here to help any others who will at some point in the future be doing the same. I’ll include information of everything I’ve submitted, and any problems and hopefully their cure as and when the gravy train attendants in Sydney, NS throw them at me.
ye robinhood nobody told me about having to have the info till i done my pr renewal wot a joke 5yrs when in.out canada no records kept me not a lap.top/teccy type . was gonna give up but my local mp girl same one as helped me with original pr app all those happy yrs ago l.o.l was able 2 get records from canadians and thru her mp contacts got usa records as well then tallied all up got what they wanted sent of for renewal then sydney sent new one out geuss what lost in post un fu,g believable once again my mp friend sorted it . i have little book now just write it down each time i cross told my m8 from uk to do same whos on quality as well on work permit gd luck m8
I’ve still got all my log books from when I started in 09 so that’s not so much of a problem listing my border crossings. For me its the implication by CIC that we’re somehow not worthy of maintaining PR or being granted citizenship as we’re outside of the country for much of the time, in a Canadian truck, for a Canadian company, carrying Canadian exports, earning wages into a Canadian bank account to pay for our homes and families in Canada. But no, that’s not acceptable at face value, we have to jump through all sorts of hoops and have our status constantly put in doubt because we have the audacity to leave home and cross the border. Yet its absolutely fine to be away from your loved ones even longer if you choose to take a job running back and forth to BC for example. Oddly it was never a problem that I drove over the border for 18 months or so before obtaining PR, they never even asked about that then.
robinhood ye m8 the whole system is a joke when i think what i went through just to work over here must be crazy and thats without the appauling 5mths weather. then went home to pei for couple days last week pulled up at roundabout at orromocto for gas as im stationery at roundabout bang some plank drives straight into back of my beautifule mustang. 3grands worth damage . came back 2 work but in pain where i had my op in my spine 18mths ago so loading today in minneapolis for yard then advised office going home to docs for xrays maybe on sick for week or so
Sorry to hear that mate, hope you and your car are feeling better soon. Roundabouts and Canadians don’t mix, just look at the huge difficulties the locals have had with that poxy thing they built in Fredericton recently.
ha ye m8 will let ya know when fit again 
Sorry to hear that Steve hope your feeling better soon and your nice Mustang
ye tks ford went to work this week but surgeon advie to rest least couple wks bouncing round in truck was not helping ford in town just waiting for exhausts and other parts then job done u might hear her when shes fixed l.o.l gd luck m8 tks