cougar cougar:
Brenda, this reminds me that my other family members (wife+2 kids) must be staying on expired PR cards in Canada. Is this supposed to create a problem of any sort?
I just cannot find a good time to pay the $500 to file the citizenship applications.
You can renew your PR cards ($50 each and 20 pages of paperwork (including copies) or something). There's no problem to stay with expired PR cards, unless you cross the border.
If you want to come back by plane, boat, bus or train, you have a problem, you need a PR card for that.
If you want to come back in your own car, there's not much of a problem. You can either bring your record of landing (that brown paper that you signed when you landed), or your expired card. I asked the border patrol officer here what would happen if I crossed the border and wanted to come back with an expired card. She said that it was not a biggie, "many people come back with expired cards and don't even know it".
The guy at the CIC customer service told me that I could use my record of landing.
I got the applications for the kids sent back, because they want 2 pieces of secondary ID, and I could only provide one for each (the record of landing. They are not old enough for a drivers license or a college ID, and we in BC don't have a photo on our health cards), so that was a little problem. I re-sent the whole thing and included a very detailed explanation why I couldn't send them what they wanted, and included a copy of their care card (without picture), their SIN card and for my high school aged kid, her bus pass (with picture). I hope it is enough. If not, they are going to have a problem to ever come back if they leave by plane. And THAT would be ridiculous.
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), and had to fill out a couple of forms and copy ALL pages of EACH passport I had in the past 5 years. EVERY trip I took across the border (gives a stamp in my passport) had to be reported. Every time you obtain a visa waiver or get gas gets a stamp, and thus had to be copied.
