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Hello Peter,

Thank you for sharing your situation and question with us.

If you are concerned about meeting your residency requirements, according to the Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) (formerly CIC) you must live in Canada for "at least 2 years in a 5 year period" to maintain your status:

When you are a permanent resident, you can live outside of Canada, but must live in Canada for at least two years in a five-year period. If you live outside of Canada for longer, you may lose your permanent resident status.

For more information on how long you have to live in Canada, see Appendix A: Residency obligation of the PR card application package.

You may find our article What are the residency requirements for permanent residents (PRs)? for some additional information. Here is an excerpt:

To meet these residency obligations, you must be physically present in Canada for at least 730 days (2 years) in every 5-year period.

This means that you can spend a total of up to 3 years outside of Canada during a 5-year period.

However, if you leave the country for an extended period of time, it is up to you to prove to Citizenship and Immigration Canada that you will be able to meet your residency requirements.[...]If you know that you will be out of the country for an extended period of time it is very important that you contact Citizenship and Immigration Canada and let them know that you will be returning. Citizenship and Immigration Canada no longer issues Returning Resident Permits.

In terms of returning to Canada you can find some information on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website in the Leaving/Returning to Canada section.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions and if there is any follow up to your question/situation.

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Anna
Settlement.Org Content and Information/Referral Specialist, CIRS
Settlement.Org

Losing your permanent resident status does not happen automatically. You cannot lose your permanent resident status simply by living outside of Canada long enough that you don’t meet the residency requirement. Unless you have gone through an official process, you have not lost or given up your permanent resident status, even though you may not be eligible to return to Canada as a permanent resident.
You may lose your permanent resident status if:

• an adjudicator determines that you are no longer a permanent resident following an by inquiry; or
• a visa officer determines you do not meet the required residency when you apply for apermanent resident travel document or temporary resident travel document.

You may lose your permanent resident status in one of the ways described above if:

• you do not live in Canada for two out of five years;
• you are convicted of a serious crime and told to leave Canada; or
• you become a Canadian citizen.

You do not lose your permanent resident status if your PR card expires.

It is important to note that a permanent resident does not lose their status under A46(1)(b) until there is a final determination of the decision made outside Canada that they have failed to comply with the residency obligation under A28.

Permanent residents are not finally determined to have lost their permanent resident status until the right of appeal has been exhausted.

5. Departmental Policy

When an officer believes a permanent resident has failed to comply with their A28 residency obligation, then that officer should report the permanent resident under the provisions of A44(1) and recommend the issuing of a departure order.

The form Questionnaire: Determination of Permanent Resident Status (IMM 5511B) has been developed specifically to assist officers in making decisions regarding the permanent residency obligation, keeping in mind that the questionnaire alone is not sufficient to determine compliance with the residency obligation, and a detailed interview including examining humanitarian and compassionate criteria under A28(2)(c) is needed.

Furthermore, the officer cannot seize the person’s documents (such as the IMM 1000, Immigrant Visa and Record of Landing and the IMM 5292B, for example) despite writing an A44(1) report and issuing a removal order unless the officer believes there are reasonable grounds to do so in accordance with A140. The rationale behind this is that the person has a right to appeal the removal order and, until final determination of status, they remain a permanent resident and are the lawful owner of said documents.

For persons who have been permanent residents of Canada for more than five years, the only five-year period that can be considered in calculating whether an applicant has met the residency obligation is the one immediately before the application is received in the visa office. A28(2)(b)(ii) precludes a visa officer from examining any period other than the most recent five-year period immediately before the date of receipt of the application.