Permanent Card rules made easy for few nations:

Breaking News on PR cards as appeared in Toronoto Star dated Dec 14, 2003

A senior immigration official now says Canada will allow some landed immigrants to come and go from the country without the new permanent resident card.
Landed immigrants who travel on passports from visa-exempt countries, such as the United States, Britain and most European nations won't need the new permanent resident card to re-enter Canada.

The list of visa-exempt countries also includes Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Republic of Korea, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland and Western Samoa.

In addition, British overseas citizens, or citizens of British dependent territories are visa exempt. Permanent residents of the U.S. who carry green cards are also visa exempt.


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GIAN PAUL
WWICS
( World's Largest Canadian Immigration and Settlement Firm)
7025 Tomken Road, Suite # 231, Mississauga On, Canada
Phone 905 564 7797, Fax 905 564 8309
Email:
Website: http://www.wwicsgroup.com" rel="nofollow">LINK
(All opinions expressed are my own)

While a very logical step taken by the immigration - unfortunately no good for us desis!

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

GREAT!! So now there's two classes of permanent residents, and as usual, we belong to the second-class. And as usual, they'll get away with this blatant discrimination.

I can swallow the fact they have different rules regarding visa issuances based on citizenship, but how can they treat landed immigrants differently? All landed immigrants are equal but some are more equal than others?

I hope someone challenges this racism in court.

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No BL I would tend to disagree on this point. The logic behind this rule is that those people who in any case do not need any resident status to come in and go out of Canada, do not require an additional card - since they can move in and out even without it. And that is why I wrote it is a very logical step the immigratin dept has taken.

Put yourself in the shoes of those people who hold citizenships of such countries. Won't you feel offended or irritated if you are asked to show any additional document when your passport automatically allows entry into Canada?

I will give examples of two cases I personally had to face. In late 2000 when I landed into USA at the Newark airport, I was asked for my US Visa even though I showed them my IMM 1000 which allowed me entry into USA automatically. At that time I had an old but valid US visa stamped on my other booklet but I refused to show it. I was detained for about 1/2 hr, but later a senior immigration officer let me go and surprisingly, even aplogised.

Second was a case way back in 1985 when I used to live in Singapore. After Indira Gandhi's assasination, Singapore immigration put the requirement of Visa for passengers holding Indian passport. This rule applied to ALL persons holding Indian passport, even Singapore PRs, one of which was my brother. This was very illogical and lots of Singapore PRs had to face a lot of difficulty while travelling. My brother appealed against this and within two weeks, got a reply from chief of immigration thanking him for this and promising to removing the requirement.

While both the above examples are of different nature, the logic was, why do you need a second document when one official document already allows your unrestricted entry into a country.

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

Chandresh,

I'm not sure what the customs officials ask to see when landed immigrants from any of the visa-waiver countries enter Canada. I'm guessing the customs officer would ask them their status in Canada at least (or business in Canada and then learn about the status) and if told "I'm a landed immigrant", my guess is they also ask to see their immigration document, whether that be the IMM1000 or PR-Card. If my assumption here is wrong and landed immigrants from the visa-waiver countries are NOT asked for their immigration document as per procedure, then this waiver is justified.

But if they were being asked for the Imm. document in the past, they better also be asked for PR-CARD, since the PR-card is replacing that document. And if they want to grant a temporary reprieve, it should be for everyone.

Maybe someone who knows about what the procedure for allowing a landed immgrant from one of the aforementioned countries can enlighten me.

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