I am a current Canadian permanent resident. My family moved to Canada some time ago and is now in the process of becoming a citizen. They sought asylum in Canada and sponsored me. At that time, I was pursuing my education in another country. After finishing my degree, I decided to stay in that country to pursue a doctorate since the best academic advisors for me in my chosen field were in that country. As a result, although I have sufficeint residency days in Canada to renew my PR, it is almost impossible for me to ever fulfill the 1095 days needed for citizenship unless I abandon my PhD in the middle - which would be a very distressing thing to do as it would a waste of time, resources and a lot of hard work. Is there anyway I can make a case to apply for citizenship in Canada during my PhD? My fear is that if I do not get my citizenship in time, I may lose my PR as well and have no where to go apart from the country we came from, which is unsafe for me to be in and I no longer know anybody there I could stay with for long (since everyone has left to seek asylum abroad).
Physical presence requirement
- Thread starter orangecat
- Start date
From my point of view, only three people can help you skip the 1095-day rule: Her Majesty, the Prime minister of Canada, and the Minister of Canadian immigration. Try to contact them. Otherwise, you’re outta luck…
Strange that you managed to accumulate enough of days to renew your PR card but didn’t want to wait a bit longer in order to become eligible for citizenship…
I personally was invited by one employer in the US to come and start working in March 2019 but asked him to wait till Sep 2019 until I was eligible to mail my citizenship application…
Strange that you managed to accumulate enough of days to renew your PR card but didn’t want to wait a bit longer in order to become eligible for citizenship…
I personally was invited by one employer in the US to come and start working in March 2019 but asked him to wait till Sep 2019 until I was eligible to mail my citizenship application…
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Strange for you to assume that me being unable to accumulate enough days was a result of me "not wanting to wait". If I could wait, I obviously would.
Great that you got your employer to move your date. Please don't assume others can do the assume. In a PhD, your funding to live I.e. get food and shelter is often tied to being present at the university physically. Kindly refrain from making unhelpful or judgemental remarks
What kind of remarks you’re expecting? If you do not satisfy the 1095-day rule, your application will be rejected. End of story! I was trying to deliver this massage in a soft way, but it looks like you don’t want to hear.
You will have delays with the renewing of your PR card too. Due to your long absence from the country, they will print and send your card for pickup to a local office. The whole process from applying till you’re called to pickup your card will take more that a year…
The answer is short: NO.
No intent to be curt or brusque. Not since 2015 has the Minister or a Citizenship Judge any authority to grant citizenship to adult applicants who do not meet the applicable actual physical presence requirement (currently a 3/5 years rule).
And as @Orgcom noted, sooner or later you are indeed at RISK for non-routine scrutiny of your compliance with the Residency Obligation. It appears that in your circumstances, if you fall short a little you may have a good H&C case at least the first time around. But that would ordinarily require settling here, meaning staying here. Which means, to be safe, you should probably make a concerted effort to avoid falling even just a little short of RO compliance . . . which may require making some very difficult choices.
Which brings up priorities: while each individual manages their life according to their own priorities, and recognizing that permanent status in Canada is of much greater importance to some than others, and in particular of less importance to many (even very little import to some), in contrast, based on what you have shared, most here would readily guess, if not infer, you to be among the first, those for whom retaining status here looms larger than for many others. That is, that for you PR status and qualifying for and obtaining Canadian citizenship would be a major priority, dominating most other priorities in your life. Worth some sacrifices, real, significant sacrifices. So, you should have anticipated some "huh" reactions here.
But of course your priorities are personal, your decision.
In any event, there is no end run around the requirements for a grant of citizenship. With exceptions not sufficiently relevant here to bother with.
Thanks for sharing this. Can you explain what you are basing this estimated time on? Any sources would be helpful.
Again, what's with the assumption of me not wanting to hear stuff? I posted to hear anything that's relevant and factual, positive or negative. There's no reason to sugar coat stuff, but no reason to assume stuff either. Thanks.
Was this different before 2015? What changed in 2015?
True. While it is of course most important to have a place to live and the fear of never having a stable home is always top of mind, I know that I can contribute most to society if I can do research in the field I am doing. I would really like to make myself useful to Canada and the world.
Unfortunately the answer is very clear cut and straight forward.
No, there is no way to make a case for applying for citizenship without the required physical residency days.
At some point you are going to have to make a tough choice. Good luck.
For applications made after June 2015, due to changes in the law under Harper's Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, the PR must meet an actual physical presence requirement to qualify for a grant of citizenship. While the newly elected (later that year) Liberal government promptly proceeded to table and adopt legislation walking back many of the more draconian elements of the SCCA, like the required intent to continue residing in Canada requirement, it only modified the actual physical presence requirement, rolling it back to a 3/5 rule rather than the Harper 4/6 rule. But it is still an actual physical presence rule. A PR must be actually physically present in Canada for at least 3 years in a five year period to be eligible for a grant of citizenship. (Again, there are narrow exceptions which are not much relevant here.)
For applications made prior to June 2015 Citizenship Judges had discretion to approve the grant of citizenship for PRs based on "residency" in Canada rather than actual physical presence, and indeed many were granted citizenship even though they spent less than three or even less than two years actually in Canada. That said, by 2008 or 2009 the Harper government had implemented stricter screening for "residency" based applications and even before the SCCA's physical presence requirement took effect in June 2015 that had made it increasingly more difficult for those who did not meet the actual presence standard (at that time it was a 3/4 rule).
Citizenship Judges have no such discretion at all now. The Minister has no authority to exercise such discretion either. There is no work-around the physical presence requirement . . .
. . . except in situations like a PR member of the Canadian armed forces getting credit for days deployed abroad, and a few very narrow other exceptions.
If you still have not established yourself in Canada long enough to obtain citizenship when you win a Nobel prize in Chemistry or Medicine, or made the scientific breakthrough that saves the world from climate change, you might qualify for a special grant of citizenship. Getting citizenship down that route, grossly understating the odds, is at the very best a long-shot, a very, very long-shot.