This is an application to be used if you:
- haven’t received your PR Card within 180 days of immigrating,
- needs a renewal application,
- in case of lost, stolen, damaged card or
- changing your gender designation or to reclaim your indigenous name.
If you are a permanent resident and want to leave Canada and re-enter Canada by plane,train, bus or boat, you need to have a valid PR Card and thus before leaving Canada you need to renew your PR card. Urgent processing of a PR resident card is restricted to the following categories who wish to travel in the next three months because of:
- A job opportunity
- Your own serious illness
- The death of a family member
- Work related to your current job
- Serious illness of a family member
Even qualifying for urgent processing doesn't guarantee you that you get your PR Card on time. Usually PR card renewal takes three weeks and if you are outside Canada, you will have to submit a PRTD application to the visa application center nearest to your location. Make sure that in your PRTD application you should have a detailed explanation of the current state of your PR Card. If your return flight to Canada is supposed to be six weeks or less, you should mark your application as urgent and mention your travel dates and itinerary of the flight when applying. Without a PR Card, PRTD will let you re-enter Canada. You are not allowed to travel to Canada without either a PR Card or a PRTD.
Who is eligible to apply for a Renewal or Replacement?
New Permanent Residents are not required to apply for a PR Card. While you immigrate to Canada, you will be entitled to receive a PR Card provided your Canadian mailing address is provided. There is a total of 180 days that you get to provide a valid Canadian address. If the address is not provided within this period you will have to apply for a card. For PR Card application, there is a processing fee of 50$. Your application will be returned if it is incomplete or has missing information or documents or the photographs do not follow the specifications.
- You are supposed to apply for a PR Card only if:
- Your card has expired or in less than 9 months, it will expire
- Your card is lost, stolen or destroyed
- Even after 180 days of immigrating to Canada, you haven’t received your card.
- You have to update your card for changing your legal name, your citizenship, gender designation or date of birth.
You are not eligible for a PR Card if the Government of Canada has asked you to leave the country, or if you are a Canadian citizen. Being a Canadian citizen you do not require a PR Card and will have to return your PR Card at the time of the citizenship ceremony. To keep up the permanent resident status you must at least be in Canada for 730 days, which need not be continuous in the last five years.
