Permanent residency in Canada
Permanent residency (French: résidence permanente) is a status granting someone who is not a Canadian citizen the right to live and work in Canada without any time limit on their stay.[1]
Rights[edit]
A permanent resident holds many of the same rights and responsibilities as a Canadian citizen, including the right to live, work (subject to some restrictions), and study in any province or territory of Canada. Permanent residents enjoy many of the same social benefits that Canadian citizens receive, including becoming contributing members of the Canada Pension Plan and receiving coverage by their province or territory's universal health care system. All permanent residents may avail themselves of the rights, freedoms, and protections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, other than those exclusively granted to citizens.[2]
Permanent residents may apply for Canadian citizenship after living in Canada for a certain amount of time. Currently, a person must have been living in Canada as a Permanent Resident for three years (1095 days) out of the five years preceding their application (with up to one year of the time before becoming a permanent resident included).[3] They also have the right to sponsor relatives for permanent residence, subject to fulfilling residence criteria and assurance of support requirements.
Restrictions[edit]
Permanent residents do not have the right to vote in elections in Canada nor can they run for elected office in any level of government. Several municipal governments in Canada—including Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, and Calgary—have proposed giving permanent residents the right to vote in municipal elections but that would require approval from their respective provincial governments.[4] For national security reasons, permanent residents also cannot hold jobs in either the public or private sectors that require a high-level security clearance.
As non-citizens, permanent residents must use the passport of their current nationality in combination with a permanent resident card for international travel because they cannot be issued Canadian passports. Some countries will grant visa-free entry to Canadian permanent residents even if their current nationality would not typically qualify. To re-enter Canada on a commercial carrier (flight, bus, etc) a permanent resident must present either their permanent resident card or a Permanent Resident Travel Document issued by a Canadian diplomatic office.
Landed immigrant[edit]
Landed immigrant (French: immigrant reçu) was an old classification for a person who has been admitted to Canada as a non-Canadian citizen permanent resident; the classification which is now known simply as "permanent resident". Although the terminology was officially changed in 2002 with the passage of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,[6] the term landed immigrant has been in use for so long that it is still part of the Canadian vocabulary and still appears as a variant term in some government publications and forms.[7]
To become a landed immigrant from outside Canada, one had to legally enter Canada, or 'land', at one of the designated ports of entry. Upon entry, the immigrant's passport was to be stamped with the words "Immigrant Landed". Once the immigrant had landed, an IMM 1000 form (Record of Landing or Confirmation of Permanent Residence) was to be given to provide an official record of landed status.