I became a Canadian permanent resident in September 2011. At that time I was studying in a US university. I had continued to live/study in the US the past 3 years to complete my university education, visiting Canada (my parents live in Canada) during school breaks. Does this time studying in the US, count towards my 'basic residency', 1095 days, requirement? Meaning, can I apply for Canadian citizenship ? I am 22 years.
Do I meet basic residency requirement if I was a student for three years
- Thread starter TMQ
- Start date
You need 1095 days of physical presence in Canada in the last four years to apply for citizenship. If you apply with less than 1095 days of physical presence you will be refused. Time spent outside of Canada studying cannot be counted towards this 1095 total. So if you have spent the last three years in the US you are a very long way off from qualifying to apply for citizenship.TMQ said:
Note: as a practical matter, you can apply for citizenship but it is almost certain that you do not qualify and will not be granted citizenshp until you meet an actual physical presence test. It is not at all likely you will qualify until, at minimum, four years after the date you settle in Canada to live full-time. In other words, if you arrive in Canada the first week of January (just two weeks from now) to live full-time, you will not be ready to apply for citizenship until January 2019, plus however many days you spend outside Canada in the meantime.TMQ said:
Technically . . . Yes, you meet the basic residency requirement.
"Basic residency" is based on date of landing. Any PR who landed three years or more ago meets the basic residency requirements and is eligible to apply for citizenship under the current version of Section 5(1), no matter how much time they have spent in Canada.
However, basic residency is NOT sufficient to be qualified for a grant of citizenship.
To be eligible under the current version of Section 5(1) means that the application cannot be summarily denied, but has to be processed. Again, all that is required for this, in terms of residency, is what CIC describes as "basic residency."
To be qualified for the grant of citizenship, however, a PR must also be "resident in Canada" at least three of the four years preceding the date of application. While this does not necessarily require 1095 days of actual presence during the relevant four years, it does require actually having residence in Canada for three years, otherwise having centralized one's life in Canada, and exceptions to the 1095 days (three years) of actual physical presence test are few. In other words, generally the current law requires actual physical presence in Canada for 1095 days, with only a few, unusual exceptions to this.
You will not come close enough to meeting the residency requirement (resident in Canada three years in four) in time for it to be worth applying based on the current version of section 5(1) of the Citizenship Act. Thus, to become a citizen, you will have to apply under the amended version of 5(1) (which will take effect sometime in 2015), which means you will have to meet a strict actual physical presence requirement, with presence in Canada for four years out of the six years prior to applying, and at least 183 days in each of four calendar years during those six years. In other words, you are looking at 2019 as the soonest you will be able to realistically apply for a grant of citizenship.
CAUTION: As others have pointed out, if you have not been spending some time in Canada since landing as a PR, over the course of the last three years, you are running the risk of losing PR status due to a failure to meet the PR Residency Obligation, which requires presence in Canada for 730 days before the fifth year anniversary of the date you landed and became a PR.
Thank you very much for the posts/responses. Meantime, stumbled on to the following site at, canadavisa.com / canadian-citizenship - 1095day-rule.html,dpenabill said:
Seems the 'Citizenship judge' may have discretion. Wonder if anyone has had a similar case like I. Thanks.
That discretion can come into play if you are a handful of days short of the physical presence (i.e. you are 2-3 short of the 1095 days). But even then, chances are you will be refused. Judges don't tend to show any leniency to those who are short physical residency days. You're nowhere even close to having 1095 days in Canada. There is absolutely zero chance this will turn out in your favour if you apply now. So as others have said, forget about citizenship and focus on meeting the residency requirement to keep your PR status. Right now is sounds like you're quite close to failing to meet that requirement. So this should be your first and only concern at this time. You are years away from qualifying for citizenship.TMQ said:
Even 10 years ago applying with 100 actual days (+/-) of physical presence would have had very long odds of approval. Currently those odds would be zero, and moreover, the processing times would years long and one would have to maintain their PR status in the meantime. One needs to be a PR and one needs to meet the Residency Obligation up until the day that the Oath is taken. The clock does not stop ticking with an application for citizenship.bambino said:
Likely CIC would try to run out the clock on this one by revoking PR status due to non-compliance with RO, thereby rendering the citizenship application moot. If the applicant were able to maintain their PR status and somehow, miraculously, get a CJ to grant citizenship, Bambino is right, CIC would appeal. Without a doubt. And then there's lawyers' fees, stress, getting in and out of the country (if you're still not living in Canada at that point) etc.
Good luck. As others have said, focus on your PR.You are in perilous waters since you are close to being in violation of your Residency obligation and you are too old to be sponsored again by your family.
Don't even bother applying, it will just be a waste of time and money for you as you will be rejected for sure.TMQ said:
As other's mentioned, you need to worry more about keeping your own PR status if you haven't satisfied the 2-in-5 years in Canada rule for your PR residency obligation. Studying in another country is not a valid excuse to not meet the RO.
You will also be subject to new citizenship rules, so will now need to stay resident in Canada for 4 years before you qualify to apply for citizenship.