A couple had landed in Canada in September as new permanent residents, but before receiving their PR card, one spouse had to travel back to India for an urgent matter. They asked how that spouse could get back into Canada without the PR card.
What the group said, with two routes depending on the travel method:- Apply for a Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) at the nearest Canadian visa office in India. This is the standard document PRs without a PR card need to board a flight back to Canada.
- If you hold a valid US visa, you can instead travel to a US border point and cross into Canada by private vehicle using your COPR, since land border crossings don't require the PR card the way commercial flights do.
Practical takeaway:- Don't travel outside Canada as a new PR without your PR card unless it's unavoidable — re-entry becomes noticeably more complicated.
- If travel is unavoidable, start the PRTD application as early as possible; group members noted turnaround time varies and wasn't given a fixed number in this thread — check current processing times for your visa office.
- The land-border-with-COPR route via the US is only relevant if you already hold a valid US visa.