Need Advice - Advance Parole - Canada PR

Hi Everyone,

I need some advice on traveling with advance parole. I just applied for advance parole due to my employer needing me to meet with clients in Canada. I provided them a letter from my employer and a letter from my end asking to expedite as I have to be there in Sept to meet with the client. My issue is this, I have a immigrant visa for Canada because I was approved for Canadian PR early this year. Now when I land in Canada using the visa which they provided, I will also be fulfilling my landing requirement for Canada. I have no intentions of settling in Canada at this time, however this will secure my Canadian PR. The thing I am confused about it whether I will be denied entry when I am coming back to the US because they will see the immigrant visa in my Passport. My intentions to go to Canada right now is to actually meet with the client, I have till Nov to actually do my landing so I am not in a rush for that at this time. However, my employer needs me to meet with the client in Sept. Any input is appreciated, I am going crazy thinking about this.

Thanks!

i dont think you're going to get around any of this. it does sound confusing.

i'm wondering why you cant do it the other way around. in other words, why not live in Canada and request to work in the US. from my understanding, Canadians can leave the country for up to 6 months with no problems. and no special visa in needed in order to come to the US.

i would think that being a PR of Canada would be much better then just having DACA in the US

Well, in order to work in the US as a Canadian you would have to be a Citizen, which will take 5 years. Only then you can apply for a TN visa to work in the US. Secondly, If I leave the US, regardless of my status in Canada I would still be banned for 10 years. US is my home, I grew up here and lived here for 21 years. If there is a chance of anything passing here, I would rather stay here than go live in Canada. However, I need to be able to maintain my PR there in case nothing changes in the immigration front. If at some point they decide to revoke DACA and I get deported then I will have somewhere to go at the very least close to the US.

Also, as FYI, in order to maintain Canadian PR you only have to prove residency for 2 years out of 5 years. So I wanted to wait out my expiration for EAD here then go back to Canada to settle and I would still have 3 years of residency out of 5 years to keep my PR. Also, as a Canadian PR you do need a Visa for US.

That's good that you have a plan in mind. You mentioned before that Customs will see this visa in your passport, just keep in mind that your passport will only serve as your form of ID when coming back into the US (Customs will center around your AP).
Plus, they don't care. Cheers!

ADD: My advice is to go for it! You never know where life will take you.

I read somewhere that Canadian Residency doesn't begin until the individual is "Landed" so it makes me wonder if there is a time limit in which you can even do that.

The information I've been able to read so far suggests when you do go to Canada for your official PR card you'll have to provide a Canadian address and they may charge[I think]$50 for the card dependent on the timeline they told you about your PR to becoming 'Landed' at some point in the future.They may also require you to go to CIC to pick it up personally but this is all dependent on the Canadian border officer.


On the US side,you should have no issues with Approved AP.CBP is only interested on if you have the right documentation to allow you to legally enter...so enjoy your trip!

Ianus, You are correct. Once I land I will be a PR. There is a time limit, they give you 1 year to land, So I have till 11/2013 to actually do my landing. The landing status happens as soon as I enter Canada and speak to the immigration officer upon Landing. You do not have to stay in Canada to receive the PR card, the only requirement is to provide a Canadian address once you land and fill out paperwork with the immigration officer. They mail you the PR card in 30 days to the address provided. The only time you might have to go to CIC is if the PR card is lost in the mail. Since I have family there and can provide their information to mail the card. I am not worried about my entrance in Canada nor my PR as I know it will be secured once I land. I am afraid of what might happen when I am trying to return to US. I hope you are correct though, that CBP will only be concerned about the documentation needed to return to US. I feel like I am gonna be taking a huge risk because I am going to leave everything as is here in the US. I am just really scared that they might not let me back in.

As mentioned,the US doesn't care about your potential PR in Canada only about you meeting the requirements for staying and entering legally inside the US.The only thing that would be of concern is if a crime was committed abroad OR if you stood beyond the time period of AP.It is interesting,but many years ago even a Canadian PR w/commonwealth citizenship were allowed entry visa free into the US prior to the 9/11 attacks...but that does not happen anymore.The only time you should be worried I think is if the Congress passes an immigration bill which will likely have some US residency requirements in staying here.There are some individuals that I've read on the H1B forums who basically gave up their Canadian PR after having gotten a US green card due to satisfying the requirements for naturalizing in both countries as being problematic due to moving every ~6 months each year.

The only thing I would suggest is if you have approved AP and DACA is to be conscious of the date you leave and enter the US and have the paperwork to prove it just in case.

The only issue I saw on the first post was that you have no good reason for them to grant you advanced parole, but they usually grant it without a compelling reason from what I'm told. If you get it there should be no real issue coming back.

Even if immigration reform passed today and you got your ability to stay in the USA you would forfeit your Canadian one. I'm guessing you plan to throw it away if allowed in the USA. If you don't plan to throw it away there is no point in stagnating your life here.

Well, I actually have to attend a meeting for work in Sept. That is the reason why I am going in Sept instead of Nov. My initial plan was to wait it out till Nov and then just go for good if there is no movement here. I have already sent in my application for advance parole for work reasons with a letter from my employer. If I get anything in the US, then I have no reason to keep the one for Canada.

If you get stuck in Canada you'll be fine lol especially since you got a PR visa for over there