My question is, what about the days that you spend outside Canada for work reasons?? Does those days count as well??
In my case I work for a Canadian company and I travel to do engineering work outside Canada.
There are two main elements to qualify for credit toward PR Residency Obligation based on time working abroad.
The employer, the business the PR is working for, must qualify. This is discussed in depth in many topics here. It is NOT enough that the business is registered or incorporated in Canada. It must be a Canadian business actually engaged in business in Canada. Plus some. See more in-depth discussions in other topics.
The employment itself must also qualify. This too has been discussed in depth in many topics. It is NOT enough that the PR's employer is a business which qualifies. The employment abroad must be full time employment and the work abroad must be pursuant to
a TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT. This is a more complicated and strict requirement than many apprehend on its face, but again this is discussed in depth in many other topics.
CAUTION: Almost all indications suggest that IRCC tends to STRICTLY apply the requirements for this credit.
There is a bit of irony, a kind of Catch-22, attached to qualifying for this credit. Basically, almost everyone who might qualify for this credit is otherwise settled and based in Canada sufficiently to meet the PR RO without the credit. In contrast, almost anyone who is abroad so much that they need the credit is more likely simply employed abroad (not employed in Canada and temporarily assigned abroad) and NOT QUALIFIED for the credit.
But there are some circumstances in which the PR needs the credit and which qualify for it. Again, however, almost all indications suggest that IRCC tends to STRICTLY apply the requirements for this credit.
Relying on it can be risky.
Did you work in Canada as a PR and then were you transferred to another country or are do you live in Canada and go out of town for business. Think you are still living in Canada so no the days outside would not count.
My understanding of what will suffice as a temporary assignment abroad probably differs from this. In particular, I think that if the employer qualifies, if the PR is living in Canada working for the employer in Canada, anytime that PR goes abroad for the company should count toward PR RO compliance.
For example, I think an engineer employed by a Canadian firm located in Waterloo, Ontario who is sent abroad for a week or fifteen days can indeed count the week or fifteen days toward the PR RO. If it is three months, that too should count. Even if the employer sends the employee on such trips again and again. (Each trip constituting a temporary assignment abroad.)
Similarly, I think a truck driver working for a company in Hamilton, Ontario, say, who oft times drives a route which takes him into the U.S. for five or six days at a time can count those five or six days toward compliance. (The "assignment" abroad is to drive truck over that route abroad.) But here too, if the truck driver is indeed living in and based in Hamilton, he should easily meet the PR RO based on days in Canada (remembering that the day leaving and day returning count as in Canada).
THAT IS, IT IS ALSO UNLIKELY SUCH A PR NEEDS THE CREDIT. A PR living and working in Canada who is occasionally, or even regularly, sent abroad for short assignments, even if regularly, should easily meet the PR RO based on actual presence in Canada.
In contrast, if the PR has not spent enough time present in Canada to meet the PR RO based on that, that in itself indicates living abroad and only visiting Canada, and suggests the employment itself is abroad rather than a temporary assignment abroad.
This goes back to my observation about the irony of this credit:
if you need it, you probably do not qualify for it. If you qualify, you probably do not need it.
With more than a few exceptions of course. That is, it is a real credit that many PRs do need and get . . . but it sometimes seems that many, many more PRs rely on it when they shouldn't and run into problems.
The real problems tend to arise when PRs try to arrange work abroad in a way to qualify for the credit. Tends to not go well.
Another caution: PRs would be prudent to steer way clear of any arrangements of this sort facilitated by consultants. These are notoriously on the WRONG side of the scales.
