How to count days outside Canada?

[Djyoti]

For 183 days present in a foreign country, we need to provide a police certificate. Do we count day trips as 1 day here? For example, going to USA in the morning and coming back to CA at night counts as 1 full day in USA? Similarly, a trip from Jan 1 to Jan 3 would be 3 days?

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You are required to provide a police certificate for each country, other than Canada, where you were present for a total of 183 days or more during the four (4) years immediately before the date of your application.

For this calculation only, it does not matter if the absence was before or after you became a permanent resident of Canada. Each day spent outside Canada counts as a full day in the other country.

 

[Katayoon]

For 183 days present in a foreign country, we need to provide a police certificate. Do we count day trips as 1 day here? For example, going to USA in the morning and coming back to CA at night counts as 1 full day in USA? Similarly, a trip from Jan 1 to Jan 3 would be 3 days?

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You are required to provide a police certificate for each country, other than Canada, where you were present for a total of 183 days or more during the four (4) years immediately before the date of your application.

For this calculation only, it does not matter if the absence was before or after you became a permanent resident of Canada. Each day spent outside Canada counts as a full day in the other country.

Have you filled out residence calculator? I applied in July and the calculator I had was automitally counting for me the days of absence by country. If you put all the dates and countries visited, the results will show you the exact number of days by country as per CIC criteria.

 

[Seym]

You may want to speak with a CIC representative regarding this.
In case of doubt, better stay safe and fully count each day in which you step foot in a country, be it for minutes in an airport...

 

[uncomfortable]

This has been discussed many times before

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/police-certificate-requirement-for-countries-where-an-individual-spent-6-months.314781/page-8

In essence, there is no official guideline. The most conservative approach is to adopt the same principle adopted to count the days of presence in Canada, i.e. if at any point during a given day the applicant has been present in a certain country, that day counts has day of presence in that country.

 

[ChippyBoy]

I took the most conservative approach when filling-out my form yesterday, so I counted day-trips down to the USA as one day in that country. I found that the Physical Presence Calculator is a bit tricky, as it records zero days for time spent in the USA pre-PR, so be careful in interpreting its day count on this front. I think my total days in the USA for the past four (4) years is just below the stipulated 183 threshold, but well above if I count back into the fifth year (i.e., the first twelve months of my eligibility period), so I went ahead and got my USA pcc done by the FBI as a just-in-case anyway, and I'll send it along with my application today. If I understand correctly, IRCC/CIC can decide they want a pcc from any of one's countries if they wish, irrespective of the 183 days rule.

 

[uncomfortable]

I took the most conservative approach when filling-out my form yesterday, so I counted day-trips down to the USA as one day in that country. I found that the Physical Presence Calculator is a bit tricky, as it records zero days for time spent in the USA pre-PR, so be careful in interpreting its day count on this front.

The Physical Presence Calculator calculates the days of ABSENCE from Canada. Therefore, a day-trip to the US (or any other country for that matter) counts as ZERO days of ABSENCE from Canada, therefore one day of PRESENCE in Canada.
If you look it from the other side, when you have to consider the days of PRESENCE in the US, then a day-trip is one day of PRESENCE.

 

[Djyoti]

Thanks everyone for the valuable responses.

 

[Stef.]

I think these are two different things: police certificate and presence days in Canada.

For presence days in Canada: you count every day where you had your foot on Canadian soil as present and if it was just for one second before midnight.

Police certificate: any second on foreign soil adds to your police certificate days.

So if you are leaving on Friday to the US and you are coming back on Saturday: you have never been absent from Canada as your foot was on Canadian ground on both days.

Nevertheless, you just added two days towards a potential police certificate from the US as your foot was on US ground for two days.