It is not clear to what extent
@UnleashedFX,
@JHT,
@Jakke,
@Mahyar85, among others who have assailed my cautions about living abroad after applying, continue to dismiss the significantly elevated risk of non-routine processing for applicants located abroad, but it remains clear that those who are abroad, and those who may be leaving Canada after applying, are indeed AT RISK for delays, additional questions, potentially RQ-related non-routine processing, and will nonetheless need to return to Canada to complete the process.
Thus, what I have tried to illuminate in previous posts above remains true, summarized as follows:
Otherwise, at least one among those who concurred with the attacks against me, referenced above, appears to have had a change of mind:
Meanwhile, there continues to be no shortage of anecdotal reports illustrating the risks. See, for example, topic "Oath of Citizenship - expired PR Card - please help" here:
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/oath-of-citizenship-expired-pr-card-please-help.779720/#post-10244519 . . . just posted yesterday, a couple who were actually approved for a grant of citizenship and scheduled for the oath, but because they have been abroad since applying, and their PR cards have expired, they face a very high risk of not only NOT being granted citizenship, but of losing their PR status.
None of this is contrary to the recognition that many citizenship applicants go abroad for extended periods of time with NO significant negative impact. A lot depends on many other circumstances in the individual applicant's situation. Note, for example, if the couple in Greece (in discussion referenced and linked above) had applied for PR TDs prior to being in breach of the RO, they would have had very good odds of following through with taking the oath of citizenship, no problem. NONETHELESS, those applicants who go abroad for extended periods of time, and in particular those who outright relocate abroad, should be aware:
-- there is near zero chance of being allowed to take the oath abroad
-- there is an increased chance of being interviewed, and in the interview asked questions about being abroad and about plans to return to Canada
-- there is an increased risk of delays, including the risk of non-routine processing, and the latter includes an increased risk of RQ-related non-routine processing (ranging from RQ-lite, that is CIT 0520, to full blown RQ, the CIT 0171) which almost always results in significant delays
-- it is imperative to NOT remain abroad so long as to not be in compliance with the PR Residency Obligation
It is worth adding that given the risk of RQ-related non-routine processing, applicants going abroad after applying should be extra diligent in keeping good records that could be important if subject to RQ-related requests.