Green card holder and Canadian PR accepted!

[racsotsenre3]

As many of you have posted, we applied for Canadian residence as back-up. However, US green card was received just 2 months ago. Also just recently we received letter of acceptance of Canadian residency.

We'd like to go ahead and complete Canadian residency process, even though we are not considering moving to Canada at this juncture. My understanding is that 2 out of 5 years living should be enough to keep Canadian residency, we don't know what the future holds, so don't want to eliminate this alternative.

Since we are US green card holders, what issues will we get in the Canadian border? I have read nowhere about a regulation that states I cannot hold both residencies, even though the immigration officer might and surely will give us a hard time.

My main concern is returning to the US, since US GC can be revoked at any time, the officer will see it as an odd thing for us to have the Canadian immigrant visa stamp in our passports while we hold the US GC. We have so many visa stamps in our passports anyway, at the US port of entry the officer might not even notice it... However, my 2 kids are US citizens and they require the Canadian immigrant visa stamp on their passports. This I believe will be a red flag, it will be noticed right away of our intent to migrate to Canada. What kind of objection will we get when we try to come back in the US? I don't think he can avoid letting us in though, but would like to know what types of objections will we get?

Also, I travelled abroad recently and returned as a GC holder using the line of "US residents - citizends", however the latest I-94 in my passport was not removed. My spouse's I-94 was removed then, so when I checked my passport I noticed my I-94 was still there (it wasn't noticed either exiting out of the US and returning back to the US. Rather odd!) ...What kind of other issues would this represent, if any?

Your thoughts are appreciated! Thank you in advance!

 

[bigboy00]

These are my thoughts:

If you are not considering moving to Canada (at this time and I guess most probably never) I do not see any point in having this option, since you are a green card holder. You will not be able to get Cdn citizenship also (because of the residency requirements), you might want to consider saving money by not landing and requesting the refund of Right of Landing fee.

As many of you have posted, we applied for Canadian residence as back-up. However, US green card was received just 2 months ago. Also just recently we received letter of acceptance of Canadian residency.

We'd like to go ahead and complete Canadian residency process, even though we are not considering moving to Canada at this juncture. My understanding is that 2 out of 5 years living should be enough to keep Canadian residency, we don't know what the future holds, so don't want to eliminate this alternative.

Since we are US green card holders, what issues will we get in the Canadian border? I have read nowhere about a regulation that states I cannot hold both residencies, even though the immigration officer might and surely will give us a hard time.

My main concern is returning to the US, since US GC can be revoked at any time, the officer will see it as an odd thing for us to have the Canadian immigrant visa stamp in our passports while we hold the US GC. We have so many visa stamps in our passports anyway, at the US port of entry the officer might not even notice it... However, my 2 kids are US citizens and they require the Canadian immigrant visa stamp on their passports. This I believe will be a red flag, it will be noticed right away of our intent to migrate to Canada. What kind of objection will we get when we try to come back in the US? I don't think he can avoid letting us in though, but would like to know what types of objections will we get?

Also, I travelled abroad recently and returned as a GC holder using the line of "US residents - citizends", however the latest I-94 in my passport was not removed. My spouse's I-94 was removed then, so when I checked my passport I noticed my I-94 was still there (it wasn't noticed either exiting out of the US and returning back to the US. Rather odd!) ...What kind of other issues would this represent, if any?

Your thoughts are appreciated! Thank you in advance!

 

[Triple Citizen]

There is no such regulation on paper. However in the realm of practicality, no one can successfully maintain permanent residency in both countries for a prolonged duration. Primarily since the word permanent appears in both
If you really have no intentions to moving to Canada, just withdraw your application.

I have read nowhere about a regulation that states I cannot hold both residencies, even though the immigration officer might and surely will give us a hard time.

 

[vsshah]

Dear Applicants,

I was a US GC Holder. I got that using CP process in June 2002. And then, I landed in Canada in October 2002. While landing in Canada, immigration officer put landing stamp on the opposite side of passport, where my USA GC stamp was there. So, in USA or CANADA, any officer can see my both status in passport.

Now, I am USA resident, and not maintaining Canada residency anyway.

I hope, it helps.

Good Luck..

 

[racsotsenre3]

Well, we would like to live in Canada at some point, I believe their society provides a perspective unlike the US. I understand the point raised before that a person cannot be a resident of 2 countries at the same time, however, we haven't ruled out living in Canada, surprising as it may seem to some of you who are accustomed to reading about people using Canada as a "back-up" (as we did, guilty as charged)...For me it came as a surprise while getting my degree to find Canadians urging to stay in the US because of opportunities here. I keep in close contact with 2 Canadian families living in US, and 2 other Canadian friends also living in US...

However, my spouse and I have always liked Canada, and we would hate to give up the opportunity of living there; not because we can't take advantage of it, but because we can enrich our lives (and my kids live) by living "abroad", regardless of how similar the culture may be. My kids are still small, but they can broaden their perspective at a very early age, knowing about other culture that speak different languages and see the world different, without necessarily having to move back around the globe to our home countries... Maybe it's utopic!... Or maybe we should just stay put, and just live our lives here... Who knows!

So that's our dilemma! Yes, withdrawing the application is an option, it's an easy solution. However, we still haven't ruled out Canada as a place to live and experience.

Yes, we could probably live in Canada for a year without having an immigrant status... but... we already have the status... and the chance to live there...so why not just continue this route and see what happens... I sure hate to give it up...

Our concern of course, is that the officer at the port of entry of either country they may not be lenient to us with this sensitive issue. It's black or white, no grays please... And yes, we don't want to jeopardize the opportunity to obtain US citizenship at some point.

Feel free to shatter our ilusions with your comments... I'd like to hear dissenting views of other in a similar situation...

 

[bigboy00]

And yes, we don't want to jeopardize the opportunity to obtain US citizenship at some point.
...

It seems your most important thing is to obtain the US citizenship! Nothing wrong in it, especially if you have been so patient in obtaining the green card. But if that is the case, you certainly will have to give up your (so called) Canadian Dream! Triple Citizen has already mentioned the reasons for this.