@phewphew --
The nature and scope of IRCC's further inquiry into your physical presence now depends on internal IRCC decision-making. For now your influence in how it goes is limited to what you have already submitted. IRRC will request more information or documents if there is anything more you need to provide.
THUS . . . NO need to submit further information at this stage. NO need to send information to CBSA (to supplement the record to include your statement, your version, as to date of return not otherwise reflected in the record). NO need to submit further information to IRCC unless they ask for more. Nothing you submit now (unless IRCC asks for more information or documents) is likely to have any impact on the scope of further inquiry.
There is not much, well essentially nothing you can do to influence what happens next . . . well, except negatively (like doing something that constitutes a prohibition).
Your choice, now, is whether to wait, or whether to withdraw and re-apply. Actually I already said as much in my previous post, unpersuasively it appears. I am likely to repeat as much again. And elaborate . . . like right here, now . . .
Decision-making options:
Your decision-making options at this stage are not complicated, and it is largely a personal choice. No one here, and certainly not me, can say what is the best approach for you. But I can say that basically there are two options:
Wait or Re-apply. What to do now is up to YOU. In more detail, the options are:
-- just wait to see what happens (could be a week, or weeks, or months, or longer), and respond accordingly, or
-- wait to see what happens, respond accordingly, AND in the meantime gather and organize, and prepare to present as much proof of being present in Canada YOU HAVE; that is, prepare for a full blown Residency Case in which YOU do your best to present evidence that will suffice to PROVE your presence in Canada, or
-- withdraw this application and re-apply
I am NO expert, but I have been closely following residency/presence cases in both citizenship application processing and PR residency obligation enforcement for a decade and a half . . . so, even though it appears to be at the risk of following in the footsteps of Don Quixote, I will offer some further observations:
@dpenabill Hi there, I wanted to express my appreciation for your response. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to me. . . .
. . . I'm unsure whether it's necessary to correct the inaccurate information in the CBSA records or the I94. If it is necessary, could you advise me on the process to rectify it?
It is not clear to me that you are actually interested in my input. After all I clearly responded to this question in the post you thank me for:
Forget the CBSA travel history, but rather focus on what YOUR records verify, what YOU can PROVE.
There is nothing to be gained by submitting a request to CBSA to add to the record your information about a return to Canada on a date after you applied for citizenship.
Sure, nothing to lose by doing that either.
The thing to understand is that
even if that is what triggered more inquiry, in regards to whatever further processing of your citizenship application there is, that detail now has very little if any significance at all.
It is worth noting that it is NOT likely that detail, that omission/discrepancy in the CBSA record, is what triggered more inquiry, at least not in itself (the fact you applied claiming exactly 1095 days of physical presence credit almost certainly was a bigger factor), but again
even if an omission as to the date of return to Canada in CBSA records was what caused a Citizenship Officer to have sufficient concerns for IRCC to make further inquiry into verifying your physical presence, that inquiry is NOW about verifying at least 1095 days of physical presence in Canada during your five year eligibility period.
Another reason why it is not clear you are actually looking for real information, honest input from me is this:
I now feel more assured knowing that the information I provided in my application is entirely accurate.
and then you went on to further address what you meant by "
discrepancy."
But what I had posted, in regard to the discrepancy (which I understood despite it being a reference to an omission not an inconsistency), is:
No need to explain to me.
In further reference to the omission/discrepancy, I also stated: "
I am NOT trying to sort this stuff out." Rather, that post makes it quite clear that what matters is whether the totality of your information and what IRCC can verify establishes at least 1095 days of physical presence.
Moreover, in regards to how confident or certain, no matter how much "
more assured"
YOU are about your physical presence, my previous post emphatically stated
it is NOT what YOU know, if IRCC has questions and requires you to prove your physical presence,
it is what you can prove.
I do not mean to cavalierly underestimate, let alone callously disregard your confidence in the calculation of days you were physically present. The good news is that this means that after further inquiry there is a decent chance IRCC will conclude you met the requirements, approve your application, and schedule you to take the oath. How long that process will take is uncertain. That could happen quickly. Or not so quickly.
And your certainty as to the numbers also means you should be able to marshal the evidence that will prove your physical presence. That could be a big deal, what makes the difference, if you stay with this application the whole way.
Unfortunately, however, if your application is referred into processing as a "
residency case," or "
presence case," just the process of conducting further inquiry could mean it will take numerous months more. And there is a risk the case goes to a Citizenship Judge which would for sure mean no resolution for many months, perhaps a year or more. And if it goes to a Citizenship Judge, in order for the application to get approved you will need to go to a hearing and YOU will need to present sufficient evidence that proves, beyond a balance of probabilities, 1095 days of actual physical presence.
If a case goes to a CJ hearing, be aware that even though inferences of presence between known dates of entry and next date of exit can carry significant weight, the applicant will need to provide substantial evidence proving actual presence between those dates.
The Overall Situation:
The overall situation is not complicated. In making further inquiry into information relevant to assessing your physical presence IRCC may be satisfied and soon schedule you to take the oath. Or IRCC may refer the case for a more formal investigation, in which event there will likely be a lengthy delay before you find out what's next.
If there is a referral for a "
residency case" investigation, the possibilities are:
-- after the investigation is completed, IRCC approves the application and schedules you for the oath, OR
-- IRCC refers your case to a Citizenship Judge, who after a hearing will determine if you have met the burden of proving the physical presence requirement was met
There is probably (hard to say though) still a good or at least decent chance this will be resolved relatively soon, that after reviewing all the relevant information IRCC concludes you met the requirements and schedules the oath. Could happen soon, or in weeks, or a few months.
If, however, your application is referred for a more formal investigation, best outcome is it will be delayed by at least several if not many months, and if it goes to a CJ hearing that could easily mean it takes another year. Despite how certain you are about the presence numbers, no guarantee that means the application will be approved after a CJ hearing. Just plain too close to call if it gets to that stage.
No one here, and certainly not me, can say what you should do. It is up to you. But as I have said, repeatedly, the choices are not complicated It's all about WAITING or RE-APPLYING.
No one here can reliably say where this is headed, what will happen next. You have about as much information as you can get that will help YOU decide whether to WAIT or RE-APPLY. Again, YOUR choice. Wait or withdraw and re-apply.
I may revisit this and offer even more, longer observations, mostly to explain some of what is
under-the-hood, so to say. For now, again, I am mostly explaining why what
@scylla said about seriously considering withdrawing and re-applying makes sense and itself should be taken seriously.
