Uone said:
thanks for the reply. CIT 0171 (09-2012) is exactly what I got.
so what you are saying is I should fill in the form from 2001 to now, but only provide the supporting documents from 2009 to 2013, did I understand you correctly?
That was my personal choice, but it is absolutely up to you how you would like to proceed with your application. I'm not a lawyer or a settlement worker and you know your case far better than I or anyone else on here, so I'm hesitant to tell you what you should do.
The purpose of asking for documents going back to arrival in Canada is to pass on info to the citizenship judge in regards to the "Koo test", which is where the applicant does not meet the 1095 day qualification, but has continuing and meaningful ties to Canada which qualify them for citizenship.
Personally, I choose to focus my energies on putting together a higher quality RQ response which covered the 4 years (thereby, hopefully, negating the need for the always dicey "Koo test"), rather than spreading myself too thin or overwhelming them with irrelevant documents covering the full 9 years. I did provide a few documents outside of the relevant period (a grad school transcript, old passport, my landing papers, OHIP personal Claim History, a lease) but I choose not to provide bank statements, credit card statements, bills, etc outside of the 4 year qualifying period. I did this because these are not primary proofs, it is very expensive to pay a bank or utility to provide old copies of this stuff ($40/hr to comb their archives w/a $80 minimum) but also because most banks and utilities only keep these records for 7 years. It seemed patently ridiculous that I was being asked to provide complete records, with no forewarning or explanation, that banks don't even keep.
