Sukhie said:
Can anyone clarify what does the 183 days residence requirement mean for citizenship under the impending changes ? Does it mean that in 4 out of 6 years you should have spent 183 days or more in Canada and that wil be counted as 4 years residency?
And currently it is 3 full years in 4 years?
Currently and for all applications actually received by CIC
before the revised residency requirements come into force, the residency requirement is that the applicant be
resident-in-Canada for at least three of the four years preceding the date the application is made, calculated in the manner prescribed in the currently applicable provision (which includes pre-landing days credited as half-days).
As for the revised residency requirement, that will be in the revised subsections 5(1)(c) and 5(1)(c.1) (the latter being the so-called "intent" clause).
jrjayl stated the new requirement accurately and succinctly.
And yes, the qualified applicant will have to meet
both the requirement of 1460 days total in Canada, and the requirement to been in Canada at least half the year for four of the calendar years.
Longer explanation:
There is, as yet, no formal interpretation of the revised section 5(1)(c) of the
Citizenship Act, which states that to qualify for the grant of citizenship the Permanent Resident, since becoming a PR, must have --
(i) been physically present in Canada for at least 1,460 days during the six years immediately before the date of his or her application,
(ii) been physically present in Canada for at least 183 days during each of four calendar years that are fully or partially within the six years immediately before the date of his or her application, and
(iii) met any applicable requirement under the Income Tax Act to file a return of income in respect of four taxation years that are fully or partially within the six years immediately before the date of his or her application;
This actual language can be found in numerous places, including
here (if link works).
These provisions are conjunctive, so it is clear that
all three must be met.
Thus, to be qualified, the PR must have been actually present in Canada for a total of at least
1460 days since becoming a PR and within the six years preceding the date of application.
Additionally, to be qualified, during each of four of the calendar years in the six years preceding the date of applying, the PR must have been present for 183 days. That is, in effect, the qualified applicant must have been in Canada for at least half the year in four of the preceding six years.
Generally, anyone who meets the 1460 days in six years requirement will probably have met the half-year for at least four of the six years requirement. But not necessarily all.
In contrast, merely meeting the 183 days requirement will not be anywhere near enough to meet the 1460 days requirement (4 times 183 adding up to a mere 732).
But it is possible for a person to, say, have spent nearly all of three years in Canada (say for a total of 1020 days out of that 1095 total day) and not have spent at least 183 days in each of the other three years, and thus have more than 1460 days within the six years but not meet the 183 days in each of four calendar years requirement.
What the 183/year requirement is about
appears to be (again there is no formal interpretation or application of it as yet) is requiring actual residence in Canada for at least four calendar years (more than half time in Canada is a measure of actual residence for the calendar year) and also establishing tax residency for four years (CRA presumes persons present in Canada 183 days or more in a calendar year to be a resident of Canada for tax purposes). The latter is probably intended to work in conjunction with subsection 5(1)(c)(iii), invoking the obligation to file a Canadian tax return for at least four of the calendar years.
It remains to be seen how this is actually implemented. A key is that if a resident tax return must be filed, the individual must report worldwide income. This could thus be a double edged requirement, intended to further establish residency in fact, on one side, but also giving CIC the tools to discern applicants with substantial sources of income from abroad (which might indicate time spent abroad, earning that income, contrary to declarations of time physically in Canada).
