Citizenship years 3 or 5?

[anasalee]

Hi
Do we need to wait for 5 years to be completed to apply for citizenship or can we just apply after tye completion of 3 years?

 

[aamool]

Hi
Do we need to wait for 5 years to be completed to apply for citizenship or can we just apply after tye completion of 3 years?

You need to complete 3 full years of physical presence within the last five years. The most straightforward case is to apply 3 years after you become a PR (if you never left Canada, if you did, apply after you have stayed enough extra days to reach 1095 days or 3 years). Under certain conditions you can count time as a temporary resident in Canada or (in very limited cases) time spent abroad.

You can find the details here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/become-canadian-citizen/eligibility.html

 

[borgams]

What did your own research tell you?

 

[anasalee]

There was some confusion. A friend told me that although you need to complete 1095 days in 5 years, you will have to apply for passpirt after 5 years.

 

[Seym]

The physical presence calculator, available in the link provided by @aamool above, clarifies the confusion and tells if if and when you're eligible.
No need to wait 5 years, just apply when you've accumulated enough days.

 

[anasalee]

The physical presence calculator, available in the link provided by @aamool above, clarifies the confusion and tells if if and when you're eligible.
No need to wait 5 years, just apply when you've accumulated enough days.

Thanks for the clarification

 

[Ultraxion]

This might be a silly question, do you need to file 3 tax returns before you can apply? If so then 3-yrs (1095 days) is almost never enough unless you time perfectly (like from April year 1 to April year 4).

 

[aamool]

This might be a silly question, do you need to file 3 tax returns before you can apply? If so then 3-yrs (1095 days) is almost never enough unless you time perfectly (like from April year 1 to April year 4).

The wording of the eligibility criteria is a bit weird: "You may need to file taxes in Canada for at least 3 years during the 5 years right before the date you apply."

However, you can see in the forums that in practice you just need to file for every year you are supposed to. For example my spouse landed in January 2020. She applied in January 2022 and in her application she indicated that she was required to file taxes for 2020, 2021, and 2022 and had filed for the first two. This is perfectly acceptable for applications made early in the year and she received her AoR. Also, she consented to the IRCC getting info from IRCC, so I guess they can check she actually does her taxes this year.

However if it is borderline (e.g. the 2 year residency is reached in March), I would just file my taxes first.

 

[ryanvik]

3 years of physical presence.