Declining ITAs To Time Arrival in Canada

Hi folks,

Got my ITA in the last draw, and we are ecstatic! But, my wife and I are thinking of declining it because planning ahead (and we should have done this a bit ahead of time) will result in us having to move to Canada in March or April 2020. Which, may not work well for our school going daughter (in US Kindergarten). We’d hate to break her school routine mid-year, and prefer her starting new school in new school year (in September 2020). So, as much as we hate to do it, we are thinking of declining any ITAs till summer of this year.

Wanted to put this out here to see:

  • Are we overthinking this/crazy?
  • Were there other folks who put off accepting the ITA (but still have an active profile for getting preference during tie-breakers) to time their arrival to Canada better?
  • For families with children, how did you research schools and proceed with enrollments while still outside Canada?

Appreciate any conversation/insights on this. :slight_smile:

I don’t think u need to decline the ita now… I understood ur concern. Rather let it follow it’s flow and u urs! Once u get the PR temporary visa stamp, u can always plan to go according to ur daughter’s convenience. The reason I am saying this is bcz now a days each pr application is taking a lot of time for processing, irrespective of it’s simplicity. If u r lucky then u might get the PR in 4 or 5 months, or else it’s crossing the 6 month timeline also for a few. And what if it takes time for u and u end up with ur daughter getting into the next academic year also? Once u get the PR, u can have a small trip, get it activated and return and then go based on ur convenience. But don’t take the risk of declining now, accepting later, tht getting delayed etc etc. Hope u got it…

Once u take a decision, u should start applying for PCCs and ECAs as those are the ones tht are time consuming. So start the doc collection asap…

Thanks @canadadreams! My concern is that the PR visa stamp will only be valid till sometime in Mar 2020, because we have to submit paperwork by 01-Apr-2019 (medical would thus be done by max end of Mar).
Reading on other threads, the PR visa would only be active till one year from the medical date.

Oh ya that’s also right. So declining and accepting again would be a good option. But then if u decline now, u will anyway be called probably in the next draw itself… Anyway u know all those calculations :slightly_smiling_face: but then make sure ur score is above the possible cutoff and also take care of ur bday as it might go down by 5 points after tht… All the best!

1 Like

I think this is an excellent answer to this question.

To the author of the question: If immigrating to Canada is important to you, I’d suggest that you rather apply sooner. You never know what happens six months down the line. You could always plan a short trip, as @canadadreams suggested here, to validate your CoPR as the process for this is very straightforward and countless people do it all the time.

2 Likes

Thank you. Very interesting. I had heard about this, but dont know how this works out.
I believe once we land, we have to provide an address where the PR cards will get mailed out. Can this be an extended stay hotel address or a US address? I am thinking it is not possible. But, checking still to see how people work this out to validate the CoPR and yet be back in US temporarily to wind things down.

Ask and ye shall receive. :slight_smile: Such a great forum this is. Full of great content. Thank you everyone. Found a relevant thread around availing the AVR process. First Time PR landing and AVR re-entry into USA.

Will ask a few questions there to keep threads together.

https://youtu.be/pxh1fQ-UhHY this link gives out options for pr card

Once you get your visa stamp in passport, you will be given time to cross Canadian border.
Once you do that you will get PR for ~5 years. (Try to collect the PR card.)
As your PR is valid for 5 years, you can enter and live in Canada anytime.
However, if you live in canada as a PR for 2 years, you can renew your PR once it get expires after 5 years.
If you live in canada as a PR for 3 years, you can apply for citizenship.(as per Bill C-16)

I think it is better not to reject the ITA, because you may not know how the rules change.
But it is your decision.

You are over thinking for kinder garden kid. Seriously. Once you get the PR in hand you can plan out different things. Your wife can also come later with the kid. Not a big deal.

1 Like

Thanks everyone for talking me out of this. LOL
We are continuing to proceed with the application.

You don’t have to move there now; you only have to land there to confirm PR. You can stay in the US for close to 3 years after landing if you want (you will have to stay continuously in Canada for atleast 2 years after that though, to maintain your PR).

Im glad they talked you out of it. You were talking crazy.

There are no risks in applying, other than the time and effort to apply (which BTW is not trivial). You dont even have to pay until very late in the game, so there is no financial risk either. There are major risks with not applying, not least being increased popularity of the Express Entry process and the upcoming general election in 2019.

Dont unnecessarily limit your choices.