This just happened to me as well. I have lived in Canada since December 30, 2013. I stayed here as a visitor for one year to establish common-law status with my partner, at which point I applied for PR. I stayed in Canada during the entire process, only leaving a couple of times to pick up my kids for a summer visit and to return them home to the US. These absences were less than 24 hours each. I landed as a PR on November 23, 2015. When I put the information into the calculator, I got 1188.5 days. However, despite my presence in Canada, living with my Canadian partner (now husband), being the basis of my PR application, they still say they cannot verify that I was physically present during the time before my landing. I'm pretty upset, tbh. My thoughts are that I should just wait until November and apply again to avoid more disappointment. The question I have is do I have to pay the fees again or will that payment still be good by then? I could ask for a refund and then just pay it again, except that they will keep $100 of it. I couldn't really afford the $630 as it was.
OVERALL: Best approach is to WAIT and re-apply, waiting until you meet the physical presence requirement based on days present after obtaining PR status.
You could pursue recourse in the courts, but that would be very expensive and probably actually take longer than it will to wait and re-apply when you otherwise meet the presence requirement based on days present after obtaining PR status. And my guess is that the odds of succeeding are NOT good anyway. See my previous response to the OP regarding pursuit of judicial review or a Writ of Mandamus.
Re Fees & Refunds:
I have not kept current with fees and refunds. So I do not know what refund you get. In the OP's situation I believe, but am NOT sure, the OP gets a full refund . . . or perhaps can use the same receipt when making a later application if that application is made within a certain amount of time. This BELIEF is based on the application being returned without ever being put into process.
You do not indicate at what stage of the process you have been advised "they cannot verify that I was physically present during the time before my landing." I believe the amount of refund depends on whether the application reached an "in process" status.
Re credit (or no credit) for days present prior to becoming a PR:
My previous post in response to the OP, above, also addresses this. Read that in conjunction with my further observations here.
Being physically present on Canadian soil is, itself,
NOT sufficient for pre-PR credit. Pre-PR credit is limited to those days the individual was physically present in Canada
WITH TEMPORARY RESIDENT STATUS. (Similarly, otherwise, credit for days physically present is dependent on having PR status.) The burden of proving status, just like the burden of proving every other element of qualification for grant citizenship, is on the applicant.
I realize that my previous cautions about this have been resoundingly dismissed in this forum by many adamantly asserting that visitors too are eligible for the pre-PR credit. AND that is TRUE. BUT credit is nonetheless subject to proof of actual presence
AND PROOF of STATUS.
The matter of proof tends to be overlooked, or at least glossed over, in this forum. There tends to be an attitude which asserts: I know I meet the qualifications, therefore I am entitled to be granted citizenship (or issued a PR card, and so on), with little regard for the potential difference between what a person knows the facts to be versus what a total stranger bureaucrat will KNOW what the facts are, let alone recognizing what is necessary to conclusively show the total stranger bureaucrat what the facts are.
Thus, a couple trite but apt clichés:
-- Saying it is so does not necessarily make it so.
-- It is not what you know, it is what you can prove.
Re Proof of Visitor Status Sans Formal TRV:
First, as to proof of status generally: IRCC can and usually will verify the applicant's status based on the applicant's identity and client identification in particular. When Jaxx Applicantguy, client id ######, applies and submits sufficient information (including name, DoB, client number, bio-page of passport, and such), IRCC can readily verify Jaxx Applicantguy's PR status in the client's GCMS records, and
usually also verify any pre-PR Temporary Resident status which was
formally, officially, granted the client, likewise in the GCMS records. The GCMS records will show work permits, student permits, and other formally issued TRVs.
Thus, proof of identity as a particular client, and declaration of relevant dates as to status, generally suffices to prove status: IRCC simply verifies status in the client's GCMS records.
Back to Proof of Visitor Status: Many visitors to Canada are not issued formal TRVs. Americans especially, and many other visa-exempt visitors, are simply waived through PoE examinations, allowed to enter Canada as visitors subject to the general rules governing those temporarily in Canada as visitors.
I am not certain when a visitor becomes a "client" in GCMS. (I became a client a long time prior to there being GCMS, when such record would only be in FOSS or CAIPS.) These days I expect almost all visitors, at least other than Americans, to be a "client," since even visa-exempt visitors ordinarily need at least eTA in order to travel to and enter Canada, and once they have been issued eTA they become a unique client. But this was not in full operation back in 2015.
But even when a visitor has "client" status, that does not mean the visitor has been granted a formal TRV or otherwise has any formal or officially issued Temporary Resident status.
In other words: for Americans especially, even if at some point they have become a "client" (I became a client at the very least when I was first issued a Visitor's Record, again a rather long time ago now), when they are waived through the PoE examination without formal documentation of status, there will be NO formal record in their GCMS to document their status in Canada.
That, I suspect, is your situation. (
Please clarify if, in contrast, you were issued a formal TRV or such.) In which case IRCC cannot verify your status in its GCMS records.
So one big question is whether or not, in the absence of a GCMS record verifying Temporary Resident status (including visitor status), it is possible for a citizenship applicant to prove he or she had such status prior to becoming a PR?
Is it possible to prove informal visitor status for purpose of pre-PR credit?
I do not know the answer to this. It may depend on how IRCC interprets what constitutes having Temporary Resident status. It appears, as most in the forum have asserted and I too believe, that formal visitor status does qualify as Temporary Resident status so as to be entitled to credit toward the citizenship presence requirement. Thus, for those who have been issued a formal TRV or even a Visitor's Record, and who can prove presence in Canada respectively, as far as we know there should be NO problem with getting credit for this period of time.
BUT what about informal visitor status? What about the visitor waived through the PoE examination?
Let me offer this: if sufficiently proved, it should count. This is my non-expert opinion.
Which, if that perspective is correct (might not be), the question then is
HOW does one prove the conjunction of status and presence?
It is possible that IRCC takes the position (one way or another, that is, pursuant to this or that explanation) that if there is NO GCMS record and otherwise no formally issued TRV, that Temporary Resident status CANNOT be sufficiently proven to qualify for pre-PR credit. The OP's scenario suggests the likelihood of this, given that the application was summarily returned.
BOTTOM-LINE: As I have oft cautioned, UNLESS the applicant had formally granted Temporary Resident status, the safe approach is to NOT rely on those days to meet the presence qualification for citizenship.
Visitor status should be OK . . . BUT without a formal visa or at least a Visitor's Record, better to not rely on it.
