How do I demonstrate that I've physically been within Canada for at least 1,095 days?
- Thread starter tujivoly
- Start date
Use this to calculate the physical presence
https://eservices.cic.gc.ca/rescalc/resCalcStartNew.do
Declare the trips you made from Canada during the eligibility period..
https://eservices.cic.gc.ca/rescalc/resCalcStartNew.do
Declare the trips you made from Canada during the eligibility period..
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Oh they will know if you’ve made stuff up, especially since Canada and the US share immigration and border info.
Passport scans may be requested later on. I seem to recall they are required upfront these days for online applications but I’m not sure since I did a paper app.
during in-person exams, EVERYONE’s passports were checked. Even when online processing began, everyone was requested for passport pages scans. These days they’ve been done away for majority of applicants presumably to make processing go faster.
At time of application the applicant submits copies of biometric pages from all relevant passports and travel documents.
IRCC may request, later in the process, a copy of all passport pages, or require the applicant to present the original during an interview.
Of course IRCC has a good deal of information regarding PRs applying for citizenship, "internally" one might say, and access to additional information maintained by other government agencies or institutions. The latter includes access to a client's CBSA travel history (at the least a record of entries into Canada). Nonetheless it is the applicant's responsibility to provide a complete and accurate travel history, and IRCC primarily relies on other sources (which can also include search of "open sources" like social media; LinkedIn is among the more common sources IRCC has been known to consider) to determine if the applicant's information is complete and accurate.
If IRCC perceives reason to question the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by the applicant, such as where it identifies a discrepancy between the travel history reported by the applicant and another source of information (such as the CBSA travel history), that can trigger RQ-related non-routine processing, ranging from various versions of RQ (Residence Questionnaire), from so-called RQ-lite (asking for a few documents) to the full blown RQ (requiring the applicant to submit a broad spectrum of documents and information), to investigatory referrals to CBSA's NSSD to conduct more extensive background screening.
The burden of proof, as to days actually physically present in Canada, is squarely and completely on the applicant. IRCC does not use its access to other sources to meet the proof of presence requirement. It uses its access to other sources to verify the applicant's information, and again if there appears to be a discrepancy between the information IRCC accesses versus that reported by the applicant, it is the applicant's burden to prove actual presence.
Thus, for example, while the physical presence calculator relies on an inference that a PR is IN Canada all the days between a known date of entry and the next reported date of exit, if and when the applicant's information is subject to question, the applicant may be required to provide objective evidence to prove actual presence between the known date of entry and next known or reported date of exit.
I travel internationally with work, over the period, I averaged 10-12 international flights, not counting my annual vacation (s)
I reached out to the uk passport office to see if they could give me a list of entry/exit for each flight, I thought this would save me time, the passport office replied and stated they only collect information for eateries into the uk.
this was a good few hours work, entry and exit stamps, most of which were in Mongolian, Russian, Kazakh, Arabic, German and French., the ones that use our alphabet weren’t too much of a chore, and countries where entry and exit are in 1 page, but most were just a jumble throughout the passport.
got it done though, just took some time.
all in all, 74 international flights in the 5 years !
I reached out to the uk passport office to see if they could give me a list of entry/exit for each flight, I thought this would save me time, the passport office replied and stated they only collect information for eateries into the uk.
this was a good few hours work, entry and exit stamps, most of which were in Mongolian, Russian, Kazakh, Arabic, German and French., the ones that use our alphabet weren’t too much of a chore, and countries where entry and exit are in 1 page, but most were just a jumble throughout the passport.
got it done though, just took some time.
all in all, 74 international flights in the 5 years !
I've gone to great lengths to prove physical presence in Canada - certainly not out of choice, even though my application was factually 100% accurate with enough room ie extra days.
For those who are self employed, it can be even more challenging as there may not be a T4 and/or a regular salary slip as in my case. I was/am a self employed consultant with a registered business, but that wasn't enough. I had to submit contracts for all the places I was employed, rent/mortgage docs, copies of all pages of passports as well as as translations of all non-Eng/Fr stamps on the passports, and finally a history of my entry-exits from the place I was immigrating from.
So, yes, it is a little more than "I promise......... etc etc". IRCC assumes that all are guilty unless proven innocent by their documents.
BTW, I spent a mini fortune getting the passport stamps translated. It is a big business in Canada and rather expensive.
I had the same situation as you, I traveled internationally and extensively. What makes it worse is that CBSA doesn't routinely stamp my US passport, and obviously, my Nexus card. The way to keep your records is maintain a travel journal per IRCC's website, which I did and supplemented it with credit card receipts, purchases, boarding passes, or whatever evidence you can find. You can also request an entry/exit travel record with CBSA, which should verify your entries. I also requested one from CBP, which you can do via the FOIA. So I have all of that, just in case IRCC asks, and I checked against my travel journal
REMINDERS:
1) Importance of accurate and complete reporting:
2) Travel history is not dispositive; proof of presence IN-BETWEEN dates of arrival and next reported exit can be required.
1) Importance of accurate and complete reporting:
If the applicant correctly, that is accurately and completely reports travel history for the five year eligibility period, and applies with a reasonable margin over the minimum, the risk that IRCC will have any concerns about the applicant's travel history or physical presence is very low.
The Canadian border is very porous. There is no guaranteed source that will for sure document every entry and exit. The applicant is the one BEST source of this information, since the applicant is the ONE and ONLY person in the world who was physically present EACH and EVERY time the applicant exited and entered Canada. The extent to which collateral sources confirm the applicant's reported travel history is a key element. If IRCC identifies reason to question let alone doubt the accuracy or completeness of the applicant's reporting, that means the BEST source of this information is compromised and may not be reliable. When the best evidence is perceived to not be credible, that tends to cause problems. Leading to . . .
2) Travel history is not dispositive; proof of presence IN-BETWEEN dates of arrival and next reported exit can be required.
The vast majority of applicants benefit from the simple inference that not only were they IN Canada the date of their arrival, but they were in Canada the next day and the day after that, and IN Canada until the next reported or known date of exit. The presence calculator operates on this inference.
But IRCC requires all applicants provide at least some collateral evidence to corroborate this inference. This is a big part of why applicants must report their full work and address history.
If IRCC perceives reason to question the accuracy or completeness of the applicant's reported travel history, this inference is weakened. All the possible proof of travel dates a person could conceivably gather and present only directly proves presence in Canada the day of arrival and the date of the known exit. That leaves a whole lot of days in-between for which proof of presence can be required and without which IRCC can conclude the applicant failed to meet the burden of proving actual presence.
To be clear: proof of the date a PR arrived in Canada does not directly prove where the PR was the next day, let alone the following week or month. It should not take any extraordinary amount of evidence to corroborate continued presence, but just the process of having to submit such proof (RQ) is inconvenient, potentially very invasive of personal privacy, and for full blown RQ it can lead to very lengthy delays in processing. And of course some applicants have stronger cases than others: the PR with a full time job at a particular location in Canada working for a readily verifiable Canadian employer will generally have an easier path to proving presence than a self-employed consultant, just for one example. In any event, this leads back to the first reminder: the more accurate and complete the applicant's reported travel history is, the less likely IRCC is to have questions leading to requests for proof of presence during the days after arrival.