Citizenship for residents accompanying a Canadian Citizen abroad.

[alexkandel]

I am married to a Canadian citizen, and have been a permanent resident of Canada since January 2012. Because my wife has a job in the US, most of the time since I became Canadian permanent resident I have been living in US accompanying my wife. She is a professor at the US university. We would gladly move to Canada, but neither of us can find jobs there.

Will I have a chance to get Canadian citizenship now? I have met basic residence requirement, but not physical presence requirement.

CIC states that residing with your Canadian spouse abroad equals physical presence for maintaining permanent resident status. When it comes to citizenship CIC does not provide a definite answer. It states, that in case of less that 1095 days of physical presence the application will go before the citizenship judge. It does not, specify, however, whether residing with your Canadian citizen spouse abroad, because she has a job, will be taking into consideration as proof of my ties to Canada.

Is anybody in the same situation?

 

[scylla]

How many days have you physically lived in Canada in the last four years?

 

[alexkandel]

92

 

[scylla]

Absolutely no hope citizenship will be approved for you. If you apply, you'll just be throwing away money.

The requirement is 1095 days of physical residency in the last four years. People can sometimes get through if they are a handful of days short. It's not going to happen in your case.

Since you are living outside of Canada with your Canadian citizen spouse - you can count the days you live outside of Canada towards your PR residency obligation. However you cannot count these days towards the citizenship residency requirement. For citizenship physical presence is mandatory.

Forget about citizenship until you've actually lived in Canada for a few years.

 

[scylla]

Just to add, note that the citizenship residency requirement is going up to 4 years out of 6 years in Canada later this year. You'll fall under this rule once you are ready to apply.

 

[alexkandel]

Thanks for your reply.

I just wanted to add, that although I became a permanent resident in Jan 2012, we have been married since 2009, and have been living together since 2007 (all the time in the US). I had also spent a couple of months in Canada before I became a permanent resident.

Would that have any positive impact on my application?

 

[rhcohen2014]

Thanks for your reply.

I just wanted to add, that although I became a permanent resident in Jan 2012, we have been married since 2009, and have been living together since 2007 (all the time in the US). I had also spent a couple of months in Canada before I became a permanent resident.

Would that have any positive impact on my application?

no. time spent in canada as a visitor or being married to a canadian citizen hardly counts toward citizenship eligibility. the fact remains you must PHYSICALLY be present in canada for a certain amount of days to qualify.

 

[alexkandel]

Thanks