Guides · PR card and PRTD
PR card expired outside Canada: the PRTD and your 730 days
Keeping your permanent residence doesn’t depend on the card: your PR status doesn’t end when your PR card expires. To come back on a plane, boat, train or bus without a valid card, you apply from outside Canada for a permanent resident travel document (PRTD) — and IRCC checks that you met the residency obligation, 730 days in five years, before it gives you one.
Checked against IRCC’s pages on 17 October 2026. Sources: Understand permanent resident status, Apply for a permanent resident travel document, Citizenship and immigration application fees: fee list, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, section 28, Get, renew or replace a permanent resident card, Guide 5445: applying for a permanent resident card.
The PRTD
- For a permanent resident outside Canada without a valid PR card, coming back by commercial vehicle.
- It costs CA$50 and is usually good for a single entry.
- You apply online in the Permanent Residence Portal, or on paper where the nearest visa application centre takes paper applications. Each person in the family who needs one sends a complete application of their own.
- IRCC assesses whether you met your residency obligation and are still a permanent resident, sometimes with an interview. A refusal letter says what you can do next.
- An urgent application is possible for reasons such as a serious illness, or a lost or stolen card.
- Back in Canada, apply for a new PR card as soon as you return.
Your 730 days
If you have been a permanent resident for five years or more, the 730 days are counted in the five years before the examination; if less, the question is whether you will be able to reach 730 within five years of becoming a PR (IRPA s. 28). Some time abroad counts — with a Canadian citizen spouse or partner, or working full-time for a Canadian business or government: see how long a PR can stay outside Canada.
Count your 730 days
The calculator opens on the PR card. Enter your trips to see where your 730 days stand today.
Keeping your PR status
858 days
in Canada in the last 5 years. 730 needed · it holds.
Becoming a citizen
19 February 2027
By this count, you reach 1,095 days in Canada then — 124 days from today.
34 days later with the plan.
More about these dates
By this count, you reach 1,095 days on 25 March 2027.
That is 158 days from today. 113.5 of them are credit for days before PR. The planned Brazil trip moves it later by 34 days; without it, by this count, 19 February 2027.
PR card: by this count you have 858 days in the last 5 years — 730 needed. It holds.
Your five years since PR end on 15 April 2029. The planned Brazil trip keeps the 730.
Estimates. Confirm with IRCC’s physical presence calculator before you apply.
Keep counting with an account: these dates and trips go with you, and the count stays up to date.
This browser didn’t let the page keep your dates, so they can’t go with you. Make an account anyway and add them there.
These are example dates — replace them with yours.
The days left
Every day, five years
25 Mar 2022 – 24 Mar 2027 · 1,826 days
The five years start 25 Mar 2022, but nothing counts before 1 Sep 2023, so the calendar starts there. The window slides with the date.
Every day from 25 March 2022 to 24 March 2027. 3 trips taken, 58 days away in all. 1 planned trip. By this count, the 1,095 days are there on 25 March 2027. Without the plan, 19 February 2027. Today is 18 October 2026. Brazil: 20 Dec 2024 to 8 Jan 2025, 18 days away. Portugal: 1 Jul 2025 to 21 Jul 2025, 19 days away. Brazil: 19 Dec 2025 to 10 Jan 2026, 21 days away. Brazil, planned: 20 Jan 2027 to 24 Feb 2027, 34 days away.
The same count has a page of its own: the PR card calculator.
Renewing the card in Canada
- Renew it when it expires in less than nine months, or once it has expired.
- A PR card isn’t issued or delivered outside Canada, and the fee is CA$50.
- The application asks for all your absences from Canada in the past five years (or since you became a PR) and two pieces of evidence that you lived in Canada.
- Your old card stops being valid 60 days after the new one is issued. Leave Canada with it then, and you need a PRTD to come back.