CR1/IR1 Montreal FAQ

[DGF 730]

1 hour ago, CanadaDude said:

No problem. Happy to help out!

Ok here is my tentative new answer. Do you mind reading over it to make sure nothing got lost in translation and it's still correct?

"Canada has specific residency requirements that one must meet to keep PR status: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/new-immigrants/pr-card/understand-pr-status.html

 

Canada cannot revoke your PR status unless you fail to follow these rules, and even then your case must be reviewed by a judge who will determine if you are still a PR. However, if you know you cannot meet the residency requirements, it is recommended that you voluntarily renounce your PR to avoid the hassle of having your PR reviewed to determine if it is still valid.

 

This allows people to concurrently hold Canadian PR status as well as LPR status in the US, although it is tricky to balance the requirements of both. You will be required to prove that the US is your permanent home (as moving to a new country and intending to live there permanently counts as abandoning your LPR status) while also spending 730 days out of the last 5 years in Canada. If you wish to take this route, further information on how to prove ties to the US and avoid accidentally abandoning your status can be found here: https://citizenpath.com/green-card-abandonment-risks-travel-abroad/"

[Kai G. Llewellyn 821]

14 minutes ago, DGF said:

Ok here is my tentative new answer. Do you mind reading over it to make sure nothing got lost in translation and it's still correct?

"Canada has specific residency requirements that one must meet to keep PR status: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/new-immigrants/pr-card/understand-pr-status.html

 

Canada cannot revoke your PR status unless you fail to follow these rules, and even then your case must be reviewed by a judge who will determine if you are still a PR. However, if you know you cannot meet the residency requirements, it is recommended that you voluntarily renounce your PR to avoid the hassle of having your PR reviewed to determine if it is still valid.

 

This allows people to concurrently hold Canadian PR status as well as LPR status in the US, although it is tricky to balance the requirements of both. You will be required to prove that the US is your permanent home (as moving to a new country and intending to live there permanently counts as abandoning your LPR status) while also spending 730 days out of the last 5 years in Canada. If you wish to take this route, further information on how to prove ties to the US and avoid accidentally abandoning your status can be found here: https://citizenpath.com/green-card-abandonment-risks-travel-abroad/"

Looks great to me!

[Ontarkie 13,916]

2 hours ago, CanadaDude said:

This is a source with anecdotal evidence: https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/us-green-card-and-canadian-pr-at-the-same-time.434031/

 

However, Canada's rules for maintaining PR are 'bright-line rules' which means there are specific requirements that one must meet to keep PR. This source from the Canadian Government indicates on keeping PR status: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/new-immigrants/pr-card/understand-pr-status.html

 

There is absolutely no basis in law for Canada to revoke PR status for anything besides non-compliance of the Residency Obligation, or suffering a serious criminal conviction with a maximum sentence of 10 years, or serving an actual sentence of six months or more (this applies both inside and outside of Canada). Either way, this cannot be done at the border and CBSA officers have no ability to revoke your PR status. At most they can refer your case to IRCC and refer it to a judge to determine whether you are still a PR. Outside of this, the only other ways to lose PR is by becoming a Canadian Citizen or by voluntarily renouncing it. I would happily cite the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act regarding how PR status is lost, if you need it.

 

I figured it was important to mention this because your instructions would have people renounce their PR when there was no need, and as a result closes that door for them to return to Canada, which is dangerous advice. Anyone who is a Canadian PR only needs to voluntarily renounce if they *know* they are not in compliance with the Residency Obligation and don't want the hassle of having the Government make a determination whether they should keep it.

---

For the US, they use 'totality of the circumstances' to determine whether someone has abandoned their LPR status. This is a combination of ties to the US, ties overseas, time spent in the US vs. overseas and a variety of other factors for CBP to suspect abandonment, and whether an IJ would rule abandonment.

 

Source: https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/after-we-grant-your-green-card/maintaining-permanent-residence

 

This guide also is a good explanation on the risks of abandoning LPR status and how to avoid that determination: https://citizenpath.com/green-card-abandonment-risks-travel-abroad/

Canadian PR is harder to lose than US PR. Just living in the US with a Canadian spouse can also count for the requirements to keep it. 

 

 

Now for the Health insurance yes the act of using Canada's health care system can lead to you losing your PR, as US immigration does not allow you to live in other countries permanently. In order to use Canada's health care you must be living there, not just a summer home,  ppl who work on border towns who still work and pay into Canada's health care system can't use it. Using the health care  claims you are a Canadian resident and not a US resident and thus abandoning your US PR. There are a min amount of days for you to even be able to use the system. Yes it does happen and has happened. My two cousins are a great example and had no idea as they were children and their father was not the US PR. When he tried them back to the US he found out the hard way. It was a mess. Needless to say both kids(now adults) lost their GC. 

[Kai G. Llewellyn 821]

2 minutes ago, Ontarkie said:

Canadian PR is harder to lose than US PR. Just living in the US with a Canadian spouse can also count for the requirements to keep it. 

 

 

Now for the Health insurance yes the act of using Canada's health care system can lead to you losing your PR, as US immigration does not allow you to live in other countries permanently. In order to use Canada's health care you must be living there, not just a summer home,  ppl who work on border towns who still work and pay into Canada's health care system can't use it. Using the health care  claims you are a Canadian resident and not a US resident and thus abandoning your US PR. There are a min amount of days for you to even be able to use the system. Yes it does happen and has happened. My two cousins are a great example and had no idea as they were children and their father was not the US PR. When he tried them back to the US he found out the hard way. It was a mess. Needless to say both kids(now adults) lost their GC. 

That's an interesting case. If one is hopping backwards and forwards over the border every day, they are essentially spending 12 months of physical presence (or there abouts) in both countries, so technically they could meet the test of being eligible for provincial healthcare (say they had a job and a secondary residence in the same province), but their spouse/family and principle residence was in the US.

 

I can't really comment on the case on your two cousins, they either were pressured into signing I-407 at the POE, or they were sent before an IJ who formally ruled on their case. I find it difficult to believe that if someone has strong residential ties to the US, i.e. re-entry permit, family, driver's license, American vehicles, membership of US associations, filing US tax returns as a resident yadda yadda, that an IJ would rule that PR had been abandoned purely on the basis of the usage of Provincial Healthcare.

 

The rules are clear, that any absence from the US must be temporary in nature which would have a defined end-point and that the intent is always to return to the US. The usage of Provincial Healthcare cannot alone be used as a determining factor in this as there would be many reasons why a US PR would need to temporarily enroll in Canadian healthcare, i.e. they were at risk of financial hardship, and needed to obtain health services otherwise they'd face bankruptcy, but there was evidence to substantiate that they would return to the US once they had completed their treatment.

 

I certainly haven't seen/heard of cases that provincial healthcare enrollment alone was enough to trigger abandonment, because first off, how would CBP even know? Secondly, how can CBP even make that determination with what is a plainly obvious intent to return to the US? I would believe that cases that might be construed that provincial healthcare was involved with abandonment cases, but there would have to be additional substantive factors to trigger it and for an IJ to rule as such.

 

Therefore, I think the bigger issue is individuals claiming healthcare for which they weren't entitled as they may be considered non-resident of the province, and each province probably has its own criteria for determining residency. Provinces that find that you weren't entitled to that healthcare would probably chase you for payment.

 

BC, for example, is very vague on it merely saying that a person must "make his or her home in British Columbia". No home, no healthcare. But a secondary residence in British Columbia while paying provincial tax, well, who knows? Does the term "make his/her home in BC" count as a principal residence or any residence?

[Kai G. Llewellyn 821]

Also I just wanted to add to my previous post. I'm not saying it's one way or another so don't take my word as gospel at all. But I am suggesting that the conventional wisdom regarding provincial healthcare and LPR status might not be entirely correct. Of course, if anyone could point me to any such IJ cases that provincial healthcare did result in a finding of abandonment, then I'd be very interested to look at it.

Edited September 23, 2020 by CanadaDude

[gavinski91 102]

On 3/11/2020 at 8:24 PM, DGF said:

 

I’m not able to get my spouse’s tax transcript for 2019, is their tax return ok?
“You don't need a US tax transcript if you have a photocopy (or PDF printout) of the complete 1040 and accompanying schedules available instead (i.e. the whole tax return).  I couldn't get transcripts online because my last filing address was Canadian. So my wife took a copy of my 2019 tax return (I also sent the 2018 because I had uploaded that to CEAC a year ago--they took it, but I don't know if that was needed) and a copy of relevant W2, 1099 forms, etc.”

 

 

Just an FYI (might be worth updating here) - while you can't use the online transcript service if your filing address is Canadian, you can do the "Request by Mail" and the IRS will mail a printed copy of your transcript to your Canadian filing address at no cost. They estimate 5-10 days for it to arrive for US addresses, so for Canadian addresses I would anticipate 10-15 days (mine took about a week and a half). If you're married filing jointly you will still need to submit W-2s et al. to the NVC and bring them to the interview.

[DGF 730]

1 minute ago, gavinski91 said:

Just an FYI (might be worth updating here) - while you can't use the online transcript service if your filing address is Canadian, you can do the "Request by Mail" and the IRS will mail a printed copy of your transcript to your Canadian filing address at no cost. They estimate 5-10 days for it to arrive for US addresses, so for Canadian addresses I would anticipate 10-15 days (mine took about a week and a half). If you're married filing jointly you will still need to submit W-2s et al. to the NVC and bring them to the interview.

Yep I'll absolutely add that too! 

 

--------

 

I have all the revised answers on my end (including a line added to the Canadian PR one warning about provincial health care use) but will wait until there are a number of changes before getting the mods to update the op as they'd be updating it nearly daily otherwise  Until then the comments should be enough to guide people in the right direction.

[NikLR 13,220]

 Provincial health care has required US LPR to pay back health care usage when not a Canadian resident. And by resident I mean living in Canada. It's certainly not a cheap health care system without insurance. Even I purchase travel insurance when travelling to Canada. 

[Cdnusagurl 22]

Thank you for writing this up! My husband's I-130 just got approved today and we are looking at what the next steps will be for us. This helped a ton!

[TedsGirl 190]

On 4/20/2021 at 7:04 PM, Cdnusagurl said:

Thank you for writing this up! My husband's I-130 just got approved today and we are looking at what the next steps will be for us. This helped a ton!

Congratulations to you and your husband🎊 

[Ontarkie 13,916]

@DGF All done. 

[Aelius 7]

How much of this FAQ is also applicable to K1?

[Ontarkie 13,916]

Thread cleaned up. PLease do not post questions in this thread keep them to a separate thread or the active CR1 thread.