Indian Citizen seeking Cdn Citizenship via Education

[MountainKing]

I am currently a 23 year old Indian citizen looking to get Canadian Citizenship. The way I see it, education is the best suited method.

To first get my PR, I can go either by the CEC path or the PNP path.

CEC requires a 2 year long education program, while PNP will do even for a 1 year long program.

I am looking at a 20 month long Master's program - 12 months of coursework studies and 8 months internship (Co-op).

Will this program be counted as a 2 year post secondary education? Also, will the co-op count as work experience?

For citizenship, I gather that one must live in Canada for 3 years in the last 4 years, with pre PR duration being counted as half of actual time spent in Canada.

Now, while I'm seeking to become a Canadian Citizen, I might want to go for a US PhD, sometime in the future.

Once I complete the official requirements for Canadian citizenship, can I apply for it and then go to the US for my PhD? Any other thoughts or suggestions you people would like to give?

 

[Leon]

Will this program be counted as a 2 year post secondary education? Also, will the co-op count as work experience?

For citizenship, I gather that one must live in Canada for 3 years in the last 4 years, with pre PR duration being counted as half of actual time spent in Canada.

Now, while I'm seeking to become a Canadian Citizen, I might want to go for a US PhD, sometime in the future.

Once I complete the official requirements for Canadian citizenship, can I apply for it and then go to the US for my PhD? Any other thoughts or suggestions you people would like to give?

It is hard to say if this program is seen as a 2 year program. Have you asked the college? A program that is 2 winters can be seen as a 2 year program even though it is only 16 months but if your program is all back to back, 12 + 8 months, it may be seen as a 20 month program rather than 2 years. Is it advertised as 2 years?

The co-op will not count as work experience towards CEC. You can only count work experience towards CEC that is after you graduate. Work performed under the Off-Campus Work Permit Program or on a co-op work term does not count, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op25-eng.pdf page 18.

To apply for citizenship, you need 1095 days in Canada in the past 4 years before you apply. Days before getting your PR count at 50% discount so if you never left Canada for the 4 years before applying, the earliest you can apply would be after 2 years as a PR.

There are no rules against leaving after applying but this is being discussed on the forum under other topics. There has been a lot of citizenship fraud in the past and one of the red flags to immigration may be if you seem to have permanently left Canada right away after applying. In that case, they may want to investigate more closely if you really did stay for the period you said you stayed before you applied. If they investigate, your application will take much longer to process. Even after applying for citizenship, you must still maintain your PR status. That means you will need to have 730 days in Canada in any rolling 5 year period. That means the maximum time you can be gone is 3 years. Therefore, if you do this, be aware that you need to be ready to go back to Canada immediately if you are called to appear for your test or oath and if your processing takes so long that you are already outside for 3 years, you will have to return if you want to keep your PR alive and your citizenship application going.

 

[MountainKing]

The program starts in September, and lasts for 5 terms (each term is 4 months long). 2 academic terms, followed by 2 co-op terms, followed by 1 academic term. This should cover two winters. The college hasn't specified anything, but it'd be great to find out...