Have you ever had immigration or citizenship status in any country other than Canada, including your

[Pert1122]

Hi, I'm confused about the question in the application form: Have you ever had immigration or citizenship status in any country other than Canada, including your country of birth?

My family and I lived in Dubai, U.A.E. for 7 years and we have "residence visa." I was a student and my parents were workers there.

What should we answer in the question?
Also, our visas were renewed every three years. And our passports got renewed as well so our 2007 visas were gone already and we don't know what's the exact end date for it.

thank you!

 

[Quink]

Sounds like immigration status to me. Answer yes.

 

[mreda13]

I was in the same scenario. I put yes, and wrote UAE RESIDENCE VISA

 

[Pert1122]

I was in the same scenario. I put yes, and wrote UAE RESIDENCE VISA

Thank you! Did they ask proofs for it? Our residence permits were renewed thrice. Do I have to put all the date obtained and end dates?

 

[mreda13]

Thank you! Did they ask proofs for it? Our residence permits were renewed thrice. Do I have to put all the date obtained and end dates?

I lived in the UAE for 12 years. The visa expired the same year I came to canada. Just put one entry for the 7 years you lived there. And no, they didn't ask for anything about my time there.

 

[spyfy]

Thank you! Did they ask proofs for it? Our residence permits were renewed thrice. Do I have to put all the date obtained and end dates?

You are making the mistake of mixing up document validity with status validity.

You might have received 100 documents from the administration, still you had a continuous status.

Analogy: Even if you had ten passports, you have a single row declaring your citizenship status.
Therefore: Even if they issued ten documents to you, extending your status, you only have a single row declaring that status from start to finish.

 

[KRP]

Just declare your current citizenship only. No need if all the UAE residence visas were outside your eligibility period.
I did the same and now waiting for oath.
The form is a bit confusing but I understand they need details pertaining to the 5 yr eligibility period.
All this UAE residence etc is in the system when you applied for PR.

 

[spyfy]

Just declare your current citizenship only. No need if all the UAE residence visas were outside your eligibility period.
I did the same and now waiting for oath.
The form is a bit confusing but I understand they need details pertaining to the 5 yr eligibility period.
All this UAE residence etc is in the system when you applied for PR.

This is bad advice, sorry. It might have worked for you, but the form does explicitly state "have you ever..."
The form is very clear in that regard. There is no five year threshold for this information.

The form is not confusing it all. "Have you ever" is a clear and unambiguous statement. When filling the forms one should not re-intepret them as long as they are clear about the instructions.

Again, it might have worked for you, but that does not mean it will work for others.

In fact, IRCC already knowing about it from PR application is a reason why you should include the information. Otherwise they might wonder why you are withholding information.

 

[KRP]

This is bad advice, sorry. It might have worked for you, but the form does explicitly state "have you ever..."
The form is very clear in that regard. There is no five year threshold for this information.

The form is not confusing it all. "Have you ever" is a clear and unambiguous statement. When filling the forms one should not re-intepret them as long as they are clear about the instructions.

Again, it might have worked for you, but that does not mean it will work for others.

In fact, IRCC already knowing about it from PR application is a reason why you should include the information. Otherwise they might wonder why you are withholding information.

Just go through each and every points marked on the form. Every where you will find the same word during eligibility period which clearly means during the last 5 years.
I have lived in 3 middle east countries but did not put anything and just gave my current citizenship details. If it was a big issue they could have send back my application as Incomplete. Hope u understood my explanation.
I do not wish anymore explanation from your end or want to get in any sort of argument.

 

[spyfy]

Just go through each and every points marked on the form. Every where you will find the same word during eligibility period which clearly means during the last 5 years.
I have lived in 3 middle east countries but did not put anything and just gave my current citizenship details. If it was a big issue they could have send back my application as Incomplete. Hope u understood my explanation.
I do not wish anymore explanation from your end or want to get in any sort of argument.

I don't have the need to argue or to explain this to you. This is a public thread and I want to help people.

Again, just because it worked for you it doesn't work for everyone.

And, no there is no mention of "during your eligibility period" for that question. This is true for other questions but not for this question.
The guide does the same thing: It does not restrict to just during the eligibility period
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/application-forms-guides/guide-0002-application-canadian-citizenship-under-subsection-5-1-adults-18-years-older.html

There are many different categories, time wise:
-some questions refer to the eligibility period
-some refer to the last four years
-some refer to "all time".

 

[tammy_z]

Hello. I am also confused about this question. Hoping someone can share their experience on the below:

- I resided in the UAE for 15 years. Is a residency visa in the UAE considered 'immigration or citizenship status'? as I never became a UAE citizen.
- The UAE residency visa expires every 3 years, so should I indicate each time it is renewed on a separate line with the date obtained and end dates or group all the 15 years together?
- During this period the only change to my status in the UAE was the profession i.e. I was a student, and then started working. Does that matter or what matters is the type of my visa?
- I am confused about 'this includes your country of birth'. So if I was born in Egypt and have Egyptian citizenship do I need to include that. will the date obtained be my date of birth and end date be 'not applicable

 

[Seym]

Of course it is an immigration status here.
No need to list an entry for every time you renewed your document, one entry for when you were a student there and another one for when you changed your status to worker is enough.
And yes, list Egypt there as your country of citizenship, starting from the day you were born.

 

[tammy_z]

In the same question I should select 'status' from a drop down menu, the UAE visa residence status is not permanent residence. The visa itself says residence and not permanent. Anyone have experience with this one?

 

[RR_11]

I was in the same scenario. I put yes, and wrote UAE RESIDENCE VISA

Hi @mreda13, so did you select 'other' in the status drop down menu and then in the other column wrote UAE Residence Visa? Did you have to attach an explanation letter to explain why you didn't select 'permanent resident'?

 

[Aspiring Canadian]

Regarding this question I sent a tweet to IRCC and they mentioned all temporary visitor statuses must be mentioned.

so on that note I have a clarifying question:
Do I need to list the issue and expiry dates listed on the actual visit visas OR the actual dates of travel? Because technically my temporary “status” doesn’t kick in until I’ve entered the country. There’s also cases where I have a visit visa to a particular country but I never ended up traveling there.

what must be done?