Renew your Canadian PR card
Apply online once it's within nine months of expiring. It costs $50. Your status doesn't end when the card does, but you'll want the card before you travel.
When you add it, it asks one thing: Whose card. Your answers only go into your copy.
The steps
- 5 min
Step 1: Check the expiry date on Whose card's card
Apply when it has less than nine months left, or has already expired. Send it any earlier and IRCC sends the application back.
- 45 min
Step 2: Count the days in Canada over the last five years
You need 730 days (two years) out of the last five, and they don't have to be in a row. You'll list your trips and add two pieces of proof, like pay stubs, bank statements or notices of assessment.
- 30 min
Step 3: Get a digital photo from a photographer
Taken in the last 12 months, on a plain white background. A phone picture of a printed photo won't do, and you'll be asked for the studio's name, address and the date it was taken.
- 10 min
Step 4: Pay the $50 fee online
Save the receipt: you upload it with the application. It isn't refunded once processing starts.
- 45 min
Step 5: Apply in the Permanent Residence Portal
Form IMM 5444 plus the document checklist. You sign by typing your name exactly as it appears on your passport.
- 10 min
Step 6: Plan any travel around the wait
Check the current processing time. If Whose card has to come back without a valid card, they'll need a PR travel document from abroad, which is another $50.
Step 7: Start using the new card
The old one stops being valid 60 days after the new one is issued.
Written by people who have done it, not by Helg or any government. Check the official sites before you pay for anything.