Anyone successfully got AOR while using visitor days in the physical presence calculation?

[menaka_p]

I should’ve known IRCC wouldn’t be the most straightforward department to deal with. I applied for my citizenship online this month and included my visitor visa days to meet the physical presence requirement. People who applied around the same time as me have already started receiving their AORs, but I haven’t.

After going down a rabbit hole, I realized that IRCC returns applications where visitor visa days are used to calculate physical presence. Now, I’m wondering - does this always happen? Should I start working on a letter of explanation with all the relevant details, or have people successfully received their AOR without their application being returned?

I’m especially interested in hearing from those who came to Canada on a visitor visa and later became PRs through spousal sponsorship. Is my application likely to be returned?

 

[scylla]

I should’ve known IRCC wouldn’t be the most straightforward department to deal with. I applied for my citizenship online this month and included my visitor visa days to meet the physical presence requirement. People who applied around the same time as me have already started receiving their AORs, but I haven’t.

After going down a rabbit hole, I realized that IRCC returns applications where visitor visa days are used to calculate physical presence. Now, I’m wondering - does this always happen? Should I start working on a letter of explanation with all the relevant details, or have people successfully received their AOR without their application being returned?

I’m especially interested in hearing from those who came to Canada on a visitor visa and later became PRs through spousal sponsorship. Is my application likely to be returned?

Tons of people here have used days as visitors without issue and without delay and without having applications returned.

IMO people sometimes run into issues trying to use days where they had implied status. I believe that's where the complication sometimes comes in. But wait for others to respond.

 

[MJSPARV]

I had some visitor days and got AOR quite quickly. But I had like 36 visitor days and almost 1200 days as a pr so I wasn’t really relying on those days - I only included them because they were within the 5 year eligibility period so I had to include them.

 

[MJSPARV]

Also if IRCC didn’t want to deal with applications with visitor days then… they just wouldn’t count visitor days. So I don’t think you need to worry that using the visitor days that they clearly accept is going to screw up you getting AOR.

There’s going to be variance in how fast people get AOR so don’t worry that people who applied around the same time as you have **started** to get AOR and you haven’t.

 

[menaka_p]

Also if IRCC didn’t want to deal with applications with visitor days then… they just wouldn’t count visitor days. So I don’t think you need to worry that using the visitor days that they clearly accept is going to screw up you getting AOR.

There’s going to be variance in how fast people get AOR so don’t worry that people who applied around the same time as you have **started** to get AOR and you haven’t.

Thank you so much. My main concern is the possibility of my application getting returned for the following reason:

In our record we cannot confirm your time in Canada before you become a permanent resident.

I thought it would be straightforward for IRCC to verify this time based on CBSA records but now I'm reading that the onus is on the applicant to prove this and I haven't attached any documents related to this because the application never asked for it. I was a visitor before becoming a PR and was also on maintained/implied status after submitting a visitor record application which was eventually approved, just wanted to prepare myself beforehand and collect relevant documents/proofs.

I'm relying on these visitor days to reach the physical presence requirement.

 

[menaka_p]

Tons of people here have used days as visitors without issue and without delay and without having applications returned.

IMO people sometimes run into issues trying to use days where they had implied status. I believe that's where the complication sometimes comes in. But wait for others to respond.

Yeah, I was on maintained/implied status after submitting a visitor record application which was eventually approved.

 

[scylla]

Yeah, I was on maintained/implied status after submitting a visitor record application which was eventually approved.

I would avoid relying on your maintained / implied dates in the count. Make sure you have more than enough days without these days.

 

[menaka_p]

I would avoid relying on your maintained / implied dates in the count. Make sure you have more than enough days without these days.

Well, I called IRCC and they said maintained/implied status days do count as half-days for citizenship purposes. I'm relying on them so fingers crossed.

 

[scylla]

Well, I called IRCC and they said maintained/implied status days do count as half-days for citizenship purposes. I'm relying on them so fingers crossed.

Not much you can do but wait in that case.

Technical these days count but we sometimes find this is where citizenship applications can run into bumps.

 

[abff08f4813c]

In addition to there being some risk to relying on maintained/implied status, there is some risk of visitor days not counting, in particular if you never got a visitor visa (e.g. US citizens or folks with eTA eligible passports) and also never had a visitor visa. Good post from @dpenabill on this topic here: https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/counting-in-days-as-a-visitor-pre-pr.573396/post-7107611 explaining why...