Thank you for the comprehensive explaination. I have written on the form all the dates and addresses while living in Turkey. The presence calculator gave the eligibility period and asked me when you left Canada and where did you go. As after landing in Canada I only had two travels , I mentioned them , but did not include the living period in Iran (2 months) and Turkey (12 months) because those periods I was not landed in Canada (it was before moving to Canada and the presence calculator asks clearly that when did u leave Canada and it does not ask where were you in the past 5 years) is that alright?
Overall, probably OK:
Even though my understanding of the instructions is that the applicant is asked to disclose
ALL ABSENCES from Canada
during the full eligibility period throughout the application (disclosing, in particular, absences and addresses and activities in the address history, work history, and presence calculator, for the full five year time period), where you have disclosed your address abroad for the full five years, including prior to becoming a PR,
my strong sense is that this will be OK.
Regarding this matter, it will probably be OK to wait to see if this comes up in the interview. My guess is it will not even come up, particularly if you have already updated the application to disclose status in Turkey.
Explanation:
The presence calculator
OUTCOME should be correct (probably is correct). That is, correct in the number of days it shows you were present in Canada as a PR, and showing zero other days in Canada, and the total meets the presence requirement.
It is NOT as if your calculation includes any of the time prior to becoming a PR.
In particular: While I cannot see your presence calculator printout, it probably identifies the date you became a PR, and counts only days present since becoming a PR. Thus it presents the essential information, the date you became a PR, dates you have been absent from Canada since becoming a PR, the total number of days you were present in Canada as a PR, and that total is 1095 or greater (preferably greater of course).
All that should be accurate (assuming you accurately entered dates of exit and return to Canada) and show you meet the presence requirement for citizenship.
That should suffice even though the instructions (in current versions of application and calculator) instruct the applicant to declare all absences during the full five years.
More than a few have argued, and it is a fair argument, that this is the way IT SHOULD WORK. It is possible IRCC agrees, that despite the instructions themselves, only travel history after obtaining status in Canada (such as student or work permit, or PR status if no temporary status prior to becoming a PR) needs to be declared. But the instructions do (with some ambiguity) say the applicant needs to declare all periods of time outside Canada for the
FULL FIVE years.
Flawed application form et al
Similar to the current version of the application form, the presence calculator also has some wrinkles, and it is not entirely clear what IRCC expects in some scenarios. A lot of the confusion in both the application form and in the presence calculator derives from what IRCC now considers the
"Eligibility Period," which is defined to be the full five years prior to the date the citizenship application is made, without regard to when the applicant became a PR, without regard to when the applicant first came to live in Canada.
This
eligibility period is new, as of October 11, 2017.
Prior citizenship applications, going back well over a decade (and probably much longer), effectively excluded any time prior to living in Canada from the eligibility period (or its the equivalent), and for applications made between June 11, 2015 and October 11, 2017, the eligibility period was specifically defined to be limited to days AFTER the applicant became a PR.
The change to define the eligibility period to the full five years required IRCC to modify aspects of its application form which, it appears, has left some imprecise and ambiguous elements, leading to confusion in more than a few scenarios.
The Instructions:
As noted, I think
you are OK (at least relative to the issues you have identified, and assuming there are no other problems).
That does not mean others should follow suit. That does not mean that is the way to go about this.
Applicants should make a concerted effort to get as much of their application as right as possible. Minor mistakes, for example, can add up to or contribute to problems even though individually, in and of themselves, they are insignificant and alone should cause no problems.
So it is important to be clear about the current instructions.
Overall the instructions specifically state that the applicant is to list all time outside Canada for the
FULL FIVE years. In particular, in the opening page of instructions for the calculator, under the heading "How do I use the physical presence calculator?" one of the bullet items states:
"List all your time away from Canada, including travel for work or vacation, in the last five years"
For an applicant who landed in the summer of 2014, for example, and who plans to apply November 21, 2017, when the applicant checks "yes" in response to whether the applicant left Canada during the preceding five years, the residency calculator explicitly instructs:
"Please list all your absences outside Canada between 2012-11-21 and 2017-11-21 and select 'Add Absence'. Select 'Calculate' when you have finished listing all absences."
These instructions make it clear that IRCC is at least instructing applicants to declare all time periods outside Canada INCLUDING time periods prior to becoming a PR.
But, yes, there are wrinkles. If that applicant who landed in the summer of 2014, and who plans to apply November 21, 2017, did not leave Canada at all after arriving in Canada, how does that applicant answer the physical presence calculator question:
"Did you leave Canada between 2012-11-21 and 2017-11-21? Answer 'Yes' if you left Canada for any reason including vacation, work, business, family matters, school, illness, etc."
If the applicant did not actually "LEAVE" Canada at any time, the literal answer is "no." And if this applicant checks "no" here, the calculator does not give the applicant any opportunity to declare dates absent prior to becoming a PR.
It is arguable whether IRCC intended this to be literal, to actually not want an accounting of time abroad prior to the date of landing. But that is not consistent with its other instructions, and all of them refer to the full five year time period. It is not nearly as clear as it should be. Some scenarios invite more confusion than other scenarios.
I do not know what IRCC really wants or expects in these scenarios. I do know that generally the best approach is for applicants to carefully read the instructions and questions, and to follow the instructions as best they can, to provide an honest and truthful, responsive answer according to their best understanding of what is asked and what their facts are.
I expect IRCC to be fairly flexible during this transition period. Revised form and instructions can be anticipated any day. Whether the changes will involve a revised approach to the "Eligibility Period" itself (which tends to be the source of much confusion, since for many a year to two years of the current eligibility period is prior to any presence or status in Canada), I cannot guess. But in the meantime, it seems obvious that IRCC should and most likely will be making a concerted effort to accommodate applicant confusion and errors, within a reasonable range of course.