Permanent resident frustrated at PR card delay
After numerous attempts to contact the authorities to obtain his permanent resident card, Charles Carlson, a longtime Nova Scotia permanent resident, said he's very frustrated about the “ineptness” of the system.
Although the government's website says it takes on average 103 days for one to receive a renewal PR card, Carlson has waited for more than a year for his.
“I can't even count now the number of times I've tried to get in touch with people,” Carlson said, adding he has been trying to get hold of the PR card processing centre in Sydney all that time.
In great desperation, Carlson even filed a Solemn Declaration, as the Canadian government's immigration and citizenship information website advises when waiting longer than six weeks to receive a card, hoping to trigger a response but didn't hear anything back.
In an email sent to the Sydney office in November 2020, Carlson writes: “I am most frustrated regarding the lack of action concerning my application for a renewal of my permanent residence card.”
“I pay my taxes. I do everything that I'm supposed to do. Now it's up to them to start doing what they're supposed to do,” Carlson said.
Carlson is an American citizen but received his Canadian permanent residency in 1994 and has lived in Nova Scotia since 1996. He applied and paid for a renewal card in October 2019, two months before his original card was due to expire. Carlson said he received an email confirming his payment immediately afterward.
Thiago Burchert, a Halifaxbased immigration lawyer, said one might be allowed to re-enter Canada with a U.S. passport under certain circumstances but the legal answer is different.
“You are not supposed to do that. The law says you should wait for your PR card (to reenter Canada),” said Burchert.
Burchert said the pandemic has caused some delay in a lot of paper-based applications that require physical contact to process.
“The major paper-based application is the spousal sponsorship, which sustained a lot of delays,” Burchert said.
In an emailed statement, Lauren Sankey, Communications Advisor for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said a wait time of over a year is a “rare occurrence.”
“In the face of great challenges, IRCC is rapidly adapting, innovating and evolving to best serve Canadians and those who wish to come here. Finally, we have implemented adaptive measures to extend submission deadlines for clients who face delays due to Covid-19 restrictions, which may further extend processing times. No application in progress will be closed or refused as a result of ongoing service disruptions related to COVID-19."