Yeah, for some applicants this is likely to be an issue. For most, however, just to reach the 1460 day threshold, it will not be an issue. Most applicants will not have been outside Canada six months total in the previous four years, let alone six months in one country.
But sure, again, for those affected, yes, this imposes a significant burden.
I recall seeing very little discussion or commentary about expanding the prohibitions to include foreign criminal charges and convictions, and frankly I have not examined the relevant provisions much either.
That said, to make this change seemed obvious. Over the years, for example, there have been queries in the forums from individuals who had various criminal charges in the U.S., relatively minor offences (retail theft, domestic assault, breach of the peace, driving while impaired), for which there was no jail time but periods of probation. These individuals faced no restriction relative to applying for Canadian citizenship, while someone similarly charged and convicted in Canada suffered the prohibition.
Frankly, while there were only a few such queries (I have seen anyway), those making the query seemed skeptical that they faced no problems in terms of qualifying for Canadian citizenship. Common-sense would suggest that a drunk driving conviction in Ontario or New York State would have similar if not the very same consequences relative to qualifying for a grant of Canadian citizenship.
They did not.
Now they do.
In contrast, in particular, until the SCCA, until June 10, 2015, the Ontario conviction resulted in a prohibition (my recall is that it was for three years) and the New York conviction was irrelevant, of no effect. Now both will result in a prohibition for four years and any time incarcerated will not count toward the presence requirement (obviously time incarcerated abroad will not count toward presence anyway). There is still some difference: the time on probabtion in Canada will not count toward the presence requirement, but this does not apply to foreign probation.
As I noted, there was minimal discussion about this while Bill C-24 was pending, and even less about it since the SCCA was adopted and became law. I recall seeing no discussion about this leading to the inclusion of police certificates in the application.
Perhaps this was no surprise to stakeholders (consultants, lawyers, others directly involved in the process with CIC). I did not see anyone in this or the other forums hint, let alone overtly predict, that the new applications would require police certificates to be included. I did not think about it and was quite surprised when late on June 11 I had my first glimpse of the new forms and checklist and saw the requirement to include police certificates for any country in which the applicant had spent a total of six months in the previous four years.
It is worth emphasizing, though, that this reaches back only four years, not the full six within the presence requirement time frame.
And while there is probably a significantly large number of immigrants in situations similar to the OP, the overall number of PRs applying for citizenship who have spent six months in any one given country abroad within the previous four years is probably a fairly small minority, among whom the majority (of those within that small minority) probably do have substantial ongoing ties to that country. This government, at least (but perhaps any government would be similar), tends to overlook the impact of these things on such a small minority when there is a clear objective in targeting the group. So here this is about targeting applicants spending 6+ months in four years in a particular country, recognizing that among this group the majority probably have significant ongoing ties in that country, and only a very small number will have transitory ties similar to the OP here.
The logistics of obtaining the police certificate:
As noted, I did not see anyone hint let alone predict this was going to be required. And indeed, for those affected, depending on the particular country, this could be a very substantial burden if not very difficult.
For now, for those affected, such as the OP here (except later posts suggest this is largely hypothetical relative to a future application, not about actually preparing an application to be submitted soon), I would suggest going to CIC's information for PR applicants regarding obtaining police certificates.
Last I noticed, even the U.S. police certificate application can sometimes take several months. Actual timeline has varied from time to time in the past.
BTW: Most police certificates do not have an expiration date. There is an obvious reason for this: they only represent information up to the date they are issued. They are, in essence, outdated the day after they are issued.
For PR applications, last I was aware CIC had a policy to consider older police certificates as outdated (after six months? my recall is fuzzy). This was CIC policy, not the policy of the country issuing the certificate, not about an expiration date for the police certificate. But this was not a hard and fast rule, more a guideline and I believe it could be flexibly applied relative to the applicant's actual geographical location.
Timeline to obtain the police certificate, however, can be unpredictable in many countries. For those who need to do this, this could indeed be a headache. Again, for now perhaps CIC's information for police certificates for those applying for PR would be the first resource to check.
