Term: Permanent Resident

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Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2026-07-14

Definition:

A permanent resident is someone who has been given permanent resident status by immigrating to Canada but is not a Canadian citizen. Permanent residents are citizens of other countries and do not have limits in their stay. To become a permanent resident a foreign national must apply to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Permanent residents can be identified by their presence in the Immigrant, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Permanent Resident data (IRCC-PR). If an individual has a landing record, the LANDING_DT indicates the date they entered Canada as a permanent resident. Because of the permanent status, most individuals will have only one single landing record. However, it is possible for individuals with permanent resident status to leave the country for a period of time and re-enter under a new application, so some individuals will have two or more landing records.

Related concepts 

• Determining immigrant status in Manitoba Population Repository
• Duration of Residence
• Immigration / Migration Overview - Links to Immigration / Migration Data and Related Concepts and Glossary Terms
• Immigration trajectories
• International adoption

Related terms 

• Application number
• Immigrant family status
• IRCC Unique Client Identifier (UCI/UCID)
• Migrant / Migration
• Recent Immigrant
• Serial Migration
• Temporary Resident

References 

• Urquia ML, Walld R, Wanigaratne S, Eze ND, Azimaee M, McDonald JT, Guttmann A. Linking national immigration data to provincial repositories: The case of Canada. Int J Popul Data Sci 2021;6(1):1412. [Abstract] (View)