@RickyNep Hi Ricky! - I just read through your thread and immediately had to create an account to ask about the Physical Presence issue. (I'm losing sleep at this point lol) I basically have the same issue where the officer that interviewed me sent me an email stating I missed inputting a trip and to recalculate my physical presence and send it back to her via email. Ofcourse it just had to be a 3 day that would now set me back *sigh*. I am now 3 days short of the physical presence requirement and I unfortunately I did not leave any buffer - 1092 days. I still do not have a response from IRCC. I am guessing I will have to resubmit, can you please please tell me if you were given that option and if its a matter of just updating your physical presence and submitting or restarting the ENTIRE application again. i.e. paying fees, writing the test again etc etc. Have you resubmitted? How did you go about this? I would truly appreciate your response and some guidance on this Ricky. Thankss so much!
Application Returned - Incomplete saying incomplete physical presence
- Thread starter RickyNep
- Start date
My application was returned at the initial stage before AOR. I didn’t pay anything and resubmitted everything with 1128 days and entering missing info. Hope it helps.
Oh I see, Thanks for the quick response. I hope mine will be a matter of updating just the physical presence since I have the extra days accumulated now rather than resubmitting rand restarting the entire application and being booted to "the end of the line." Fingers crossed. All the best to you as well!
You should mention yes to implied status question and add those days. I see you didn’t answered yea that you have extended your visa
If the facts are clear, that is if it is clear that you are, at best, SHORT three days credit toward the Physical Presence requirement, there is no doubt about the outcome: this application will NOT, CANNOT, lead to a grant of citizenship. Whether you withdraw this application, or it is denied, you will need to make a NEW application in order to obtain citizenship.
You have posted similar queries in multiple threads, which I will respond to here:
@hssam last posted more than three years ago, and last visited this forum more than two years ago.
Apart from that, if the fact is the applicant is short, that is had less than 1095 days physical presence credit as of the day the application was made, they are NOT qualified to be granted citizenship based on that application. There is NOTHING to be gained by pursuing processing that application any further.
If there is a dispute as to the number of days the applicant was present in Canada, calculated as of the day the application was made, and the applicant still claims they met the minimum, the case will go to a Citizenship Judge. This can and almost always takes a long time. It can easily add a year to the process. The CJ can only approve a grant of citizenship if the CJ finds, as a matter of fact, that the applicant was actually physically present in Canada enough to meet the 1095 day requirement (again, as of the day of the application). If the CJ finds the applicant was even just one day short, the application MUST be denied.
If you are indeed short in this application, you will need to make a new application to obtain citizenship. Yeah, starting over.
NOTE: some of the confusion about the possibility of getting citizenship if only a little short comes from how things used to work. For applications made prior to June 2015, Citizenship Judges had discretion to approve a grant of citizenship to applicants who were short of 1095 days actual presence. The requirement then was a "residency" requirement not a physical presence requirement. So CJs had the discretion to allow applicants credit for days they traveled outside Canada as long as they maintained their residency in Canada. The Harper government amended the citizenship requirements to close this window. Even though the Trudeau government subsequently amended the requirements again, taking out the more severe requirements the Harper government had implemented, it kept the credit only for days physically present requirement.
ANOTHER NOTE:
The situation is a little different for applications that are returned to the applicant at the opening, completeness check stage. These applications have not been processed. The applicant is given an opportunity to resubmit the application fixing whatever was not complete in the returned application. For those whose applications were returned because on its face the application did not show the applicant met the physical present requirement, this gives them the opportunity to resubmit a new application and get credit for any additional days in Canada.
This is a new application, starting over as of when this new or revised application is submitted. But only a few months have passed so it is not all that far behind. The difference is that fees paid for the first cover the new or revised application. In contrast, for a new application after the first gets AOR and is processed beyond that, a new application fee will need to be paid.
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Out of curiosity, what were these severe requirements from the Harper days that the Trudeau govt took out?
Among the more salient, more severe requirements in Harper's Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (SCCA):
-- minimum physical presence requirement was four years (not three); that is 1460 days rather than the current 1095 days
-- NO credit for days in Canada prior to becoming a PR, rather than the current requirements which allow up to 365 days credit, a half day credit for each pre-PR day in Canada (within the eligibility period)
-- an intent to continue residing in Canada requirement, which was implemented to give CIC (previous name of IRCC) authority to deny applications if it was determined the applicant was living outside Canada after applying (since a person cannot intend to continue residing in Canada unless they are in fact residing in Canada); repealed by Trudeau government
-- provisions for the revocation of citizenship (even if born in Canada) for some persons convicted of certain crimes; repealed by Trudeau government (currently, like before, misrepresentation is the only grounds for revocation of citizenship; no grounds for revoking citizenship of persons born in Canada)
This link has a good summary. It's on the IRCC website somewhere too but I can't find the link right now.
https://bbimmigration.ca/en/important-changes-to-the-citizenship-act/
Thanks so much for the detailed explanation @dpenabill. I did do some more research and yes like you stated I will have to resubmit, the agents have zero discretion when it comes to physical presence requirement. I am just wondering if I should wait for her response (denial/closing application) or go ahead and withdraw then reapply "right away"- I ask this because I do not really have time on my side to wait for her response nor a withdrawal approval which I believe takes about 2 weeks minimum. I need to leave the country for a while to deal with a fam emergency and would rather put in a new application since I now have my requirement days completed with some extra buffer (If I leave the country and reapply later I will lose these days). That being said, I read that having two applications while one is still in process MAY complicate things. Do you know if it is okay to just go ahead and submit a new application WHILE my withdrawal request is STILL in process or wait for the response from IRCC before starting a new application. I hope this makes sense. Thanks for your help!
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It has been too long since this was an active enough subject (within the threads I follow anyway) for me confidently know how this goes these days.
Might be worth starting your own topic more specifically about withdrawing and re-applying to see if others here have more current information.
That said, while having two applications in process at the same time can cause things to get tangled, in the past the main problem was the newer application went into a holding queue waiting for the outcome of the first. Which would not be much of a problem if a request to withdraw the first citizenship application has already been made. Hopefully someone else can confirm that as long as the request to withdraw the first application has already been properly made, there should be little or no problem submitting a new application even though processing for the first has not yet been technically terminated.