The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has confirmed that Canadian permanent residents (previously known as "landed immigrants") who are in the U.S. and who were previously considered to be visa exempt as citizens of former British Commonwealth countries and therefore do not already have nonimmigrant visas in their passports, must apply for and obtain a visa before seeking readmission to the U.S.  Consequently, when these individuals return to Canada, they must obtain a visa in order to reenter the U.S. or they will be refused admission.  This rule applies even if Canadian permanent residents meet all the other requirements for automatic visa revalidation (i.e. maintenance of status, departure only to Canada or Mexico for no more than 30 days); since they never previously obtained visas, there are no visas to be revalidated. 

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