5 Ways to Lose Permanent Resident Status

Canadian permanent residency is a dream of everyone. It is a constant verification of your living and working status in the country. But still, there are ways you can lose the status. That is when surrey permanent resident lawyers can help you immensely.

Yet, it is essential to know about the ways you can lose your permanent resident status. This will help you to avoid those acts and stay lawful. So, without further ado, let’s know 5 ways to lose permanent resident status.

Top 5 reasons to lose permanent resident status in Canada

Among many other reasons here, we’ve sorted out the top 5 reasons that can lead you to lose your PR in Canada. Let’s know.

1. You Are Living Outside the Country

It is a general rule that living outside the country will make you lose your permanent resident status. But that will only happen when you live outside the country for a consecutive 12 months or more. The customs on your entry can take your permanent residency away when you try to re-enter.

This is a very unintentional cause behind losing permanent residency. People usually leave the country to take care of family members. And without knowing, they end up staying outside the country for more than a year.

2. Voluntarily Surrendering Your PR Status

You can also voluntarily give up your PR status. Each year, many residents file a form to surrender their permanent residency. And there could be several reasons why you might end up doing it.

One of the significant causes of voluntarily surrendering PR is to escape tax obligations. But it is always recommended to consult with tax lawyers before doing this.

Another common reason for voluntary surrender of permanent residency is just to leave the country. You might want to live somewhere else and get that country’s citizenship. And for that, you will end up requiring leaving your current PR status.

3. Failure to Remove Residency Conditions

Conditional residency is not an uncommon thing. You might be given permanent resident status with a few conditions. And there would be a timeline for you to remove the conditions to keep your status.

For instance, you might receive a conditional PR card as a foreign national investor. There would be a certain time limit for you to remove the conditions. Once you remove the conditions, you will have to apply. Failure to do so will make you lose your permanent resident status.

4. Criminal Acts

Criminal acts are never accepted in any immigration status. So, you might end up losing your PR status if you are involved in criminal acts. But the good news is that now all criminal offenses will make you lose the PR status.

But it is near impossible to create a list of criminal acts that will make you deported from the country. But there are some common ones. An officer can remove you from the country if you disrupt the moral turpitude of the country.

You might also be deported if you are involved in several moral turpitude offenses. And lastly, a serious felony act can take away your PR status for sure.

5. Willful Misrepresentation and Fraudulent Acts

The last option on the list is fraud and misrepresentation of information. You might commit fraudulent acts when you are trying to obtain some immigration benefits. This can result in you providing false information to the authority.

Fraudulent acts occur when an immigrant applies with wrong information. You may submit a false document or hide important facts. And an immigrant does these to avoid conviction or to get immigration benefits.

There are 2 major frauds an immigrate can commit. They are:

Nonimmigrant visa fraud

If you are an immigrant in Canada, you will have to show that you have home ties to return after your program ends. You have no intention to abandon your past citizenship for Canadian PR status. If you misrepresent the facts of returning to your home country, you might not even get PR approval.

A classic example of this is entering the country with a regular visa but with a different intention. You might enter the country for study but intend to marry a citizen to get PR. This is a complete violation of visa rules.

Marriage fraud

Marriage is a very common fraud in many different countries. People marry a citizen unlawfully to get the PR status of the country. Some acts of marriage fraud can be:

  • Paying a citizen to marry a foreigner
  • Marrying a foreign national as a favor
  • Defrauding a citizen to marry for permanent residency
  • Fraudulent marriages for the visa lottery

Conclusion

Permanent residency is a target of many immigrants. Obviously, you want to gain citizenship in a first-world country like Canada. But you must be careful about your acts as a permanent resident not to lose the status.

Most residents end up committing those 5 ways to lose permanent resident status. However, there are ways to prevent them from happening as well.

The first step towards prevention is knowing the basics of how you can end up losing PR status.