Citizenship Eligibility Condition: 3-years of Tax return

[spyfy]

I see that you were a visitor and not a tourist. That makes a big difference. You can count those days towards physical presence.

Oh wait a min, what's the difference? I was a visiting tourist wasn't I?
i originally came here for tourism purposes, I never intended to stay here.
Since I'm visa exempt, I simply entered Canada the first time.
How can i figure out whether i was a tourist or a visitor?

There is no diference between "visitor" and "tourist". It's just that some people like to call themselves one thing.

A person who comes to Canada for a business meeting and a person who comes to Canada to see the Rockies, both are visitors. But one would call themselves a tourist, the other one wouldn't. Tourist is a label you can give yourself or not, it doesn't matter for immigration purposes. "Visitor" is the relevant word here.

However, one thing is unclear to me: How did you stay in Canada so long as a visitor? Even if visa exempt you need to extend your status if you want to stay for longer than 6 months. Did you do that?

 

[meyakanor]

Oh wait a min, what's the difference? I was a visiting tourist wasn't I?
i originally came here for tourism purposes, I never intended to stay here.
Since I'm visa exempt, I simply entered Canada the first time.
How can i figure out whether i was a tourist or a visitor?

'Visitors' and 'tourists' are the same thing.

'Visitor' is simply the term that Canadian immigration uses to refer to, well, those visiting the country for other purposes than study or work (they classify lawful temporary residents as temporary workers, international students and visitors).

In fact, IRCC explicitly includes tourists in its definition of 'temporary residents'

A foreign national who is in Canada legally for a short period. Temporary residents include students, foreign workers and visitors, such as tourists.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/glossary.asp#t

And this definition also includes those that are accepted under eTA:

A foreign national has temporary resident status when they have been found to meet the requirements of the legislation to enter and/or remain in Canada as a visitor, student, worker or temporary resident permit holder. Only foreign nationals physically in Canada hold temporary resident status.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada processes these applications under several categories:

• Temporary resident visas
• Electronic travel authorizations
• International students
• Temporary workers
• Temporary resident permits

As spyfy mentioned, whether or not you are lawfully in the country would determine on whether or not those days can be counted for the purpose of citizenship.

Yes, it is possible to become PR from within Canada (through in-Canada spousal sponsorship), even if you have overstayed, but those days beyond the validity of your legal stay here would not count for citizenship purposes.

As a visa-exempt visitor, you are only authorized to be in the country for six months (or was it 180 days? I don't remember).

If you never asked to extend your status as a visitor, then you would have been in the country illegally. Those days would not count towards your citizenship requirements.

 

[Avadava]

As spyfy mentioned, whether or not you are lawfully in the country would determine on whether or not those days can be counted for the purpose of citizenship.

Yes, it is possible to become PR from within Canada (through in-Canada spousal sponsorship), even if you have overstayed, but those days beyond the validity of your legal stay here would not count for citizenship purposes.

As a visa-exempt visitor, you are only authorized to be in the country for six months (or was it 180 days? I don't remember).

If you never asked to extend your status as a visitor, then you would have been in the country illegally. Those days would not count towards your citizenship requirements.

That's why I mentioned the implied status. For spousal sponsorship inside Canada, one must keep renewing their visitor status after it expires (6 months). OP didn't mention anything about extending the visitor visa while awaiting her PR, so I was a bit skeptical about all those days counting towards physical presence.

 

[Veronica90]

Hi everyone!

Sorry maybe I didn't give enough information about the visitor record because my initial question was about the tax thing.
But since you guys are wondering, like i said I always had a lawful status, here's how:

• I came in as a visitor for 6 months, then since i was with my spouse i extended for another 6 months.
• Then during the 2nd 6 months period, we started the immigration process outland so the application was sent to the visa office back home.
• Since my spouse wasn't able to leave the country and we wanted to stay together in person, I applied (for the 3rd time) to extend my visitor record, but this time i attached a detailed letter explaining the situation and I told immigration that if they see fit that i should leave the country then by all means that's what I'd do. But I kindly asked them to let me stay here for another year, that'll probably be when the PR process was supposed to be done.

Then the most surprising things happened after that:

• I received a letter from immigration, saying that they are happy to extend my record, not only they extended it for 1 more year, but for TWO years! They were being very generous because i kept it real with them. It seems that they appreciate honesty.

• Then the second shocking thing happened, within 4 months after mailing the PR application, I got an email from the visa office telling me that my application for the PR is finalized. This was probably one of the shortest records in the history of IRCC/CIC. And so the 2 years extension that they gave me became irrelevant all of the sudden.

Overall, I managed to stay here as a visitor for an unusually long time and then the PR process went just as smooth as applying to a university.
Things worked out so easily, maybe because my intentions were always pure.

And now that you guys confirmed that I'm 100% safe with the tax thing I asked about, I'm sure the process will go smooth as well.
What's even more amazing than all this, they happen to make post secondary education fees covered by OSAP grants here in Ontario, making school free for me. This let me get my education and then get a really nice full time job in my field (Computer Science) while still attending full time school.

I may be paying a lot of income taxes now but I'm doing that more than happily! I guess now it's my turn to contribute back to this great nation and help young students keep their free education!

To sum it all up, Albert Einstein once said, "Not everything that counts, can be counted. And not everything that's counted, truly counts".
In this context, EVERYTHING counts and for that I'm grateful!

I apologize for the confusion I created about the visitor record and I hope this comments clears it out!

 

[mumbai1985]

There is no diference between "visitor" and "tourist". It's just that some people like to call themselves one thing.

A person who comes to Canada for a business meeting and a person who comes to Canada to see the Rockies, both are visitors. But one would call themselves a tourist, the other one wouldn't. Tourist is a label you can give yourself or not, it doesn't matter for immigration purposes. "Visitor" is the relevant word here.

However, one thing is unclear to me: How did you stay in Canada so long as a visitor? Even if visa exempt you need to extend your status if you want to stay for longer than 6 months. Did you do that?

My bad. I see that there is no tourist visa as such.

 

[Avadava]

Hi everyone!

Sorry maybe I didn't give enough information about the visitor record because my initial question was about the tax thing.
But since you guys are wondering, like i said I always had a lawful status, here's how:

• I came in as a visitor for 6 months, then since i was with my spouse i extended for another 6 months.
• Then during the 2nd 6 months period, we started the immigration process outland so the application was sent to the visa office back home.
• Since my spouse wasn't able to leave the country and we wanted to stay together in person, I applied (for the 3rd time) to extend my visitor record, but this time i attached a detailed letter explaining the situation and I told immigration that if they see fit that i should leave the country then by all means that's what I'd do. But I kindly asked them to let me stay here for another year, that'll probably be when the PR process was supposed to be done.

Then the most surprising things happened after that:

• I received a letter from immigration, saying that they are happy to extend my record, not only they extended it for 1 more year, but for TWO years! They were being very generous because i kept it real with them. It seems that they appreciate honesty.

• Then the second shocking thing happened, within 4 months after mailing the PR application, I got an email from the visa office telling me that my application for the PR is finalized. This was probably one of the shortest records in the history of IRCC/CIC. And so the 2 years extension that they gave me became irrelevant all of the sudden.

Overall, I managed to stay here as a visitor for an unusually long time and then the PR process went just as smooth as applying to a university.
Things worked out so easily, maybe because my intentions were always pure.

And now that you guys confirmed that I'm 100% safe with the tax thing I asked about, I'm sure the process will go smooth as well.
What's even more amazing than all this, they happen to make post secondary education fees covered by OSAP grants here in Ontario, making school free for me. This let me get my education and then get a really nice full time job in my field (Computer Science) while still attending full time school.

I may be paying a lot of income taxes now but I'm doing that more than happily! I guess now it's my turn to contribute back to this great nation and help young students keep their free education!

To sum it all up, Albert Einstein once said, "Not everything that counts, can be counted. And not everything that's counted, truly counts".
In this context, EVERYTHING counts and for that I'm grateful!

I apologize for the confusion I created about the visitor record and I hope this comments clears it out!

You are safe and your citizenship application seems to be pretty straightforward at this point.

Just to summarize, for tax year 2015 select "not required to file" and include a letter of explanation. I would also include copies of your extended visitor status .When it comes to IRCC, the less room for guessing you give them, the better. As you can see, a couple of us were confused about your status during that year, the same can happen to the visa officer .Don't leave any room for guessing and explain your situation with an accompanying letter.

 

[Veronica90]

You are safe and your citizenship application seems to be pretty straightforward at this point.

Just to summarize, for tax year 2015 select "not required to file" and include a letter of explanation. I would also include copies of your extended visitor status .When it comes to IRCC, the less room for guessing you give them, the better. As you can see, a couple of us were confused about your status during that year, the same can happen to the visa officer .Don't leave any room for guessing and explain your situation with an accompanying letter.

Thank you so much! I didn't think about attaching my extended visitor record papers and you are absolutely right!
Now that I'm fully confident that I'm safe to apply, I will make an organized all-in-one application where everything is very clear!

I really really appreciate you and everyone else taking the time to respond to my thread! And I hope this helps other new members in the future!
Again, thank you !!

 

[Veronica90]

May I ask one more question please?
When I extended my visitor status, I applied just 2 weeks before it expired, I had a confirmation that they recieved the application but it took them 3 months to process it and only then they extended my stay.
The time spent between the expiration of the first visitor record and the extension they granted me is what's called "Implied status". Am i right?
If I'm right, then this time still counts in my days of presence because it was lawful for me to stay here until they reviewed my application and took a decision. Right?

 

[Avadava]

May I ask one more question please?
When I extended my visitor status, I applied just 2 weeks before it expired, I had a confirmation that they recieved the application but it took them 3 months to process it and only then they extended my stay.
The time spent between the expiration of the first visitor record and the extension they granted me is what's called "Implied status". Am i right?
If I'm right, then this time still counts in my days of presence because it was lawful for me to stay here until they reviewed my application and took a decision. Right?

Yes, when you are waiting for a decision on your extension, it is called implied status. As long as you applied before your visitor status expired, you are good.

 

[Veronica90]

Yes, when you are waiting for a decision on your extension, it is called implied status. As long as you applied before your visitor status expired, you are good.

Thank you!

 

[Pacoromo]

Thank you!

Hi Veronica! I was just reading this thread because I am in the exact same position as you were back in 2018, I was here as a visitor after I got married in August 2020. And then I applied for my PR at the beginning of 2021, I was waiting for my PR the whole year (covid slowed everything down), so I had to extend my visitor permit a couple of times while I was waiting for my PR which arrived in March 2022.

After my physical presence calculation, I will have my 1095 days completed in June 2024. All the time I've spent as a visitor is counted by half and all the days as PR have been fully accounted for.

Just like you, I didn't file taxes for 2020 and 2021 since I was only a visitor. I got my PR in 2022 and as of today; I have only filed taxes for 2022 and soon I will have also filed taxes for 2023 as well, so that's only 2 years of taxes.

My question is:

How did that go for you?... I'm planning to apply as soon as I have the physical precense requirements but I will only have 2 years filing taxes.

I know the concensus in this forum is that even if you do not file taxes, you still satisfy the requirements since you are not required to actually pay taxes as a visitor. I believe by now, you should have been through all this process and any official certainty from your part would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!