So I just sat my test this morning in Scarborough (test was easy, got 19/20), and afterward, had my interview with a citizenship officer. She went through every page of my passport to tick off my list of absences from Canada that I provided in my initial application. However, she was very thorough and questioned every single stamp in my passport (even ones before the 5-year period prior to my application, such as vacations I took to Thailand and Australia 9 years ago), asked me why there were staples on some pages of my passport with nothing stapled in them (I had to explain that a lot of these were from much older tourist visas for vacations many years ago, which subsequently I didn’t need anymore and removed, and even that my Canadian work permits had to be stapled into my passport, and that all these left old staples behind). She also questioned me on stamps from US border crossings from times when I have crossed over to Niagara, NY or Buffalo, NY just for a few hours on day trips, and made notes of these in her file. I did not include these in my list of absences in mY application, as to be honest, I forgot about them, but also they were just for a few hours and wouldn’t count as a full day of absence from Canada.
Also, as I am Irish, and have a European Union passport, I have made several trips back to Ireland since being in Canada, and as an EU citizen, I can enter and exit Ireland without any issue. But she went through my list of absences, and when checking my Irish trips, asked why I had no corresponding stamps in my passport for trips to ireland. I tried to explain about how being an EU citizen means I do not require my passport to be stamped entering and exiting Ireland, but she seemed to think that was circumspect, and asked me how I could verify this. I couldn’t answer her, so she said she will
have to start an ‘investigation’ into my application, as she ‘has no idea if my total days present in Canada is correct’.
This was a bit of a bummer, especially as I was on a high after passing the test. It also seems a bit weird that she was thrown by my trips back to Europe and not having stamps in my passport, as surely I cannot be the first EU citizen she has interviewed...
Anyway, a word of warning just to be able to account for everything in your passport, even before the 5-year grace period of your application.