Can a PR travel document be refused even if I technically meet the residency obligation?

Yes. Meeting the residency obligation on paper is necessary but not always sufficient for a PR travel document to be issued. The document can still be refused for other, separate reasons — for example, unresolved admissibility concerns, questions about the authenticity of the underlying permanent resident status or documentation, or unresolved identity issues that need to be sorted out before the document can be issued.

This distinction matters because the residency-day calculation and the broader assessment of whether to issue the document are not the same question, even though people often assume that satisfying the days requirement is the end of the analysis. An officer can be satisfied about the physical presence calculation and still have other concerns that need to be addressed before the travel document is approved.

Anyone applying for a PR travel document should be prepared to address the application as a whole, including their overall history and documentation, rather than focusing only on demonstrating the residency day count, since a clean day count alone does not guarantee the document will be issued without further questions.