Cutting-it-close is a technical and very precise parameter, 23 days and 14 hours to be exact, give or take a few minutes.
JUST KIDDING!
I am just kidding to emphasize that observations about cutting-it-close are advisory: it is a descriptive caution, not at all definitive.
Aside from that, obviously, of course, your plan is indeed cutting-it-close, by about a hundred days or more.
That noted, there is nothing inherently wrong with cutting-it-close.
As of the day you arrive to stay and live in Canada you count the number of days left before the fifth year anniversary since the day you landed, and add the days you have been present in Canada since the day you landed, and if that total number is 730 days or more, you will be in compliance with the PR RO as of the day you arrive to live in Canada. That's the rule. That is the technical and precise parameter. The minimum. That meets the PR Residency Obligation.
Recognizing the implications of cutting-it-close is about avoiding, or at least managing risks --
-- risk a CBSA or IRCC officer will doubt or challenge your claims about days spent in Canada
-- risk stuff happens and your planned date of arrival in Canada gets postponed
-- risk stuff happens and there are circumstances which compel you to go abroad for a period of time after you have come to settle in Canada
-- risk that your application for a new PR card (when the time comes) will be referred to Secondary and during the delay in getting a new PR card you will not be able to travel abroad without the inconvenience and risks involved in applying for a PR Travel Document (remember, a PR abroad without a valid status document is presumed to NOT have valid PR status)
What constitutes cutting-it-close is variable and the nature of the risks involved are variable, each depending on many factors specific to the individual. Overall, as I previously (and rather often in fact) observed, a PR tends to be on the cutting-it-close side of the PR RO if the PR is spending less than half the time in Canada or otherwise appears to not have, as yet, settled in Canada permanently. Again, there is nothing definitive or precise about this. It is a broad generalization. In discussing this I often round it down to 900 days, suggesting that less than 900 days is cutting-it-close. But again, this is RELATIVE. Depending on circumstances and personal history, a PR who has been in Canada less than 800 days (within the applicable five years) may have a minimal risk of problems, whereas some PRs who have been in Canada well over 900 days (within the applicable five years) have run into difficulties when applying for a new PR card.
It depends.
Which leads to your circumstances and query:
If you have not been living in Canada, and you arrive at the PoE with 670 days left until the fifth anniversary of the day you landed, and the PoE officer has questions about whether you are in compliance with the PR Residency Obligation, what do you think? Really.
Here's what I think: odds are good the officer will NOT ask many, if any questions about compliance with the PR RO, particularly if you have been in Canada within the preceding year or so. Odds are good you will be waived through without any Secondary referral, except perhaps for Customs (depending on what you are bringing to Canada).
BUT there is a risk the border officer will have questions, and if there are questions, how it goes could depend on whether the officer believes your accounting of days already spent in Canada.
If you arrive as planned, even if there are questions about PR RO compliance, odds are good your accounting of days in Canada will suffice, no problem (particularly if you can specifically state the dates and even more so if your passport stamps support that accounting of dates). Good odds are NO guarantee, and actually far from it. There are risks this could go the other way. How it goes can depend, some, on your general demeanor and the officer's impression of your credibility, recognizing that the officer's attitude, even mood on that particular day, can of course affect what impression the officer has of your credibility.
But what happens if stuff happens and your return to Canada is delayed? The longer the delay, the greater the risks, and if the delay is longer than 24 days (which by the way is less than four weeks), the risks go up considerably because then you will actually be in breach of the PR RO.
Even if you arrive in Canada with 24 days over the minimum, that will mean you will be at risk again any time you travel abroad, even briefly. And if stuff happens requiring you to go abroad for longer, to resolve some unfinished business or attend to an ill parent or such, any time within the next two years plus two weeks (as of the fifth year anniversary of your landing, days during those first two weeks begin to fall outside the relevant five year time period and will no longer count), if you are abroad for more than 24 days you will be in breach of the PR RO, and anyone in breach of the PR RO has a substantial risk of being reported and losing PR status.
Moreover, this scenario will significantly increase the risk that your application for a new PR card (when the time comes to do that) will be referred to Secondary, and it could take a year or so before you are delivered a new PR card. So, for two years after you arrive in Canada to live in Canada, you will be more or less effectively unable to travel abroad (without risk), and it is quite likely there will continue to be substantial risks involved in traveling abroad for six months to a year beyond that.
Again, the actual risks involved VARY widely and thus each individual needs to exercise his or her own best judgment, both as to assessing the risks, and in terms of what risks the individual is willing to undertake. Some individuals (like me) tend to be risk-adverse and will pursue a course of action which minimizes risks and which avoids risks as much as possible. Many others will be less risk-adverse, willing to take more risks.
Caveat for those who tend to take more risks: some also tend to underestimate not just the risks themselves, but the factors which are relevant to assessing risks. Note, for example, the scenario posed here: landing Sept 15, 2014, 12 weeks in Canada prior to a planned arrival to live in Canada Nov. 14, 2018. The margin is NOT 4 weeks. It is more like 24 days. Anyone cutting it this close should pay attention to a difference like that. If something delays the date of actually coming to Canada by four weeks, that will NOT be cutting-it-close but will a BREACH of the PR RO, and arriving in Canada hoping the border officers do not question compliance with the PR RO (probably still a good chance, so long as it is not a lot later than that, but the risk scales tip dramatically once the PR is actually in breach of the PR RO).
Nonetheless, still, yes, 731 days within the relevant five years meets the PR RO. That's the requirement. As long as CBSA or IRCC does not disagree with the calculation, the PR is in compliance.
