I sent in my application in March 2022 and have just received an invitation to take the citizenship test.
However, I have realized I made an error in my physical presence calculation that will put me a little under 1095 days as of March 2022. I don't know if this will be noticeable in an interview or not (since I was in the US at that time and don't have a passport stamp for it)--but I know it and I must be honest.
I feel sick. What should I do?
Thank you.
A longer explanation for what, essentially,
@wink posted:
If you know you missed a trip in the physical presence calculation, and the number of days additionally outside Canada mean you fall short of being eligible for a grant of citizenship (that is, your physical presence as of the date you applied was actually less than 1095 days), IRCC does NOT have authority to grant citizenship for this application.
This is absolutely a material omission, the kind of discrepancy with the facts it would be outright foolish (apart from the ethics) to not disclose regardless what the odds are that IRCC will identify an issue. As
@Dreamlad noted, and
@scylla emphasized, the odds are high that IRCC will catch this, so it is much, much better to be upfront and deal with the consequences of losing this application and making a new application (assuming you now meet the requirements).
Thus . . .
Will I then be disqualified for citizenship?
Yes. It is that simple. If credit for physical presence days is less than 1095 days within the five year eligibility period, the application MUST be denied (IRCC has no discretion to do otherwise) unless the applicant withdraws the application. As others suggest, if you do not withdraw the process for making the decision to deny the application can take a long time, and usually will take a long time, YEARS even since these kinds of cases must go to a Citizenship Judge before IRCC can deny the application, and it has been taking years to get scheduled for a hearing with a CJ. And if you are short, there is no doubt about the outcome of a CJ hearing: the application must be denied.
Can I then reapply right away? Do I have to go to the back of the line again?
Yes, you can withdraw right away and file a new application right away (assuming you meet all the requirements as of the day you apply).
You do not have to wait for IRCC to make a decision on the request to withdraw. You can make the new application right away. Probably a good idea to add a supplemental page explaining you realized there was a mistake in your first application, overlooking a trip outside Canada, so you have submitted the request to withdraw that application.
Yes, you will be starting over with a new application. No way around that. Still going to get you to the oath way sooner than the current application, which is not likely to get you to the oath at all but take a long, long time for that to be decided.
Notifying IRCC Otherwise:
Go over your travel history, and make certain you have now got it right, and double check that again, and if indeed it shows you were short of meeting the 1095 days presence requirement, there is no point at all delaying dealing with this. Submit the correction SOON. This is the kind of correction it is best to make (probably using webform) SOONER rather than later.
It has been suggested to bring this up during your interview. Not all applicants are interviewed. The interview might not happen for weeks or months after the test. This is a correction you want made SOONER than later. No doubt about that. For one important thing, you want to be sure IRCC recognizes this was a mistake, not an intentional omission, so you want to be upfront about it, not waiting for IRCC to catch it and ask.
