Soft landing and Unemployment impact on Citizenship application

[Canadavisa92]

Dear all,
I am really sorry for being repetitive, I might sound like a broken record but its my nature to dwell over stuff that hasnt happened yet or that are in the far future.

Now my case is that I soft landed in Canada on Nov 21st 2019 and came back to the UAE in December 2019. I was planning on going back in March but due to the Covid situation, I was delayed and will be going there next month for good.
Given the above situation, It will be counted as me being outside Canada for a total of around 8 months.
Secondly, when I land in Canada, I will be looking for a job and might stay unemployed for a bit (lets say 6 months or so) and if I am lucky I will land a casual job on my first month there until I get something related to my field but anyways lets say its 6 months of unemployment.
Finally I might be staying with a friend without paying rent for a month or two until I figure out where I will find the job and where I will be living

Now combining the three conditions above, does any of that or a combination of the three of those situations affect my citizenship application in the future?
Given ofc that I will be filing taxes every year until submission and most probably those 8 months will be my only period of absence.

 

[hviveka]

Your employment situation has no impact on Citizenship process as long as you live in Canada and have the right proof of living in Canada..
Even if you are unemployed for a tax year (let's say you come back in Nov'20 and dont find job until Jan'21), you don't owe anything to CRA - so, you don't have to file taxes - but its helpful if you file taxes and declare your income as $0.

 

[Canadavisa92]

Your employment situation has no impact on Citizenship process as long as you live in Canada and have the right proof of living in Canada..
Even if you are unemployed for a tax year (let's say you come back in Nov'20 and dont find job until Jan'21), you don't owe anything to CRA - so, you don't have to file taxes - but its helpful if you file taxes and declare your income as $0.

Thanks for your answer.
But I have read that being outside for long and being unemployed for along period of time might cause scrutiny as to proving the physical presence in Canada, or was that in the old system?

 

[issteven]

as long as you are confident that you satisfy all requirements, nothing to worry about. this is 0 or 1 game, either you are qualified or not.

 

[Canadavisa92]

as long as you are confident that you satisfy all requirements, nothing to worry about. this is 0 or 1 game, either you are qualified or not.

I understand any basically all applications are like that, but my question is how this will impact

 

[Lex2019]

I understand any basically all applications are like that, but my question is how this will impact

The short answer is no, it won't impact anything as long as you are straightforward and clear when applying. They might have questions, but not to disprove your application based on the grounds of being unemployed or underemployed or for soft landing which many if not most do anyways. Nothing is said anywhere about one's being employed or otherwise being a decision criteria. What if you have legal means to live and it is your choice not to be employed? You are totally fine there.

 

[Canadavisa92]

The short answer is no, it won't impact anything as long as you are straightforward and clear when applying. They might have questions, but not to disprove your application based on the grounds of being unemployed or underemployed or for soft landing which many if not most do anyways. Nothing is said anywhere about one's being employed or otherwise being a decision criteria. What if you have legal means to live and it is your choice not to be employed? You are totally fine there.

How about changing addresses?.During my soft landing I was staying in an Airbnb and when i land permanently I will stay for a friend for a month or two until I figure any paying job. Then I will be renting something under my name. Is that ok?

 

[shazahsan]

How about changing addresses?.During my soft landing I was staying in an Airbnb and when i land permanently I will stay for a friend for a month or two until I figure any paying job. Then I will be renting something under my name. Is that ok?

Yes, that should be fine too. As long as you are honest and complete in all your answers, none of these should be a problem.
Just make sure that when you apply, you meet the physical presence requirement.
One thing I would add is that if you're going to spend more than 183 days (6 months) in a row in UAE you will probably need a police certificate from UAE when you apply for citizenship, so keep that in mind.

 

[Canadavisa92]

Yes, that should be fine too. As long as you are honest and complete in all your answers, none of these should be a problem.
Just make sure that when you apply, you meet the physical presence requirement.
One thing I would add is that if you're going to spend more than 183 days (6 months) in a row in UAE you will probably need a police certificate from UAE when you apply for citizenship, so keep that in mind.

Thank you , I really hope so, the thing that is worrying me most is the employment or to be more clear how fast can I land a job to be used as a solid tie to Canada. I think you have face that issue too.
With regards to the PCC, I will be issuing one a week before I leave here or should I apply for it after coming to Canada?

 

[Canadavisa92]

@dpenabill your insight is really appreciated, I think you have made it clear to me with regards to the soft landing issue, but what about extensive unemployment periods and several residence addresses

 

[dpenabill]

@dpenabill your insight is really appreciated, I think you have made it clear to me with regards to the soft landing issue, but what about extensive unemployment periods and several residence addresses

I do NOT recall any particulars about your situation. And, I am NO expert. I am NOT able to offer any personal advice.

As for the influence of any particular factors, like employment and unemployment history, or like address history, these things are generally very relative. In isolation these are not important factors. They only matter in context with all the rest of the information there is about the citizenship applicant. How they matter depends a lot on how they fit into or might not fit into the mosaic of the individual's life. And whether the emerging picture tends to reinforce a life lived in Canada, as declared by the applicant, or not.

For one applicant, in relationship to all the other circumstances in that individual's life, periods of unemployment may make perfect sense and fit into a pattern that reinforces the likelihood that individual was living in Canada during those periods of time.

For another applicant, in relationship to other indicators, periods of unemployment may be perceived to possibly have been times the individual was employed abroad. Raising questions.

The latter might be suspected, for example, if the applicant appears to have a lifestyle dependent on an income inconsistent with the reported periods of unemployment.

That is, overall, it is impossible to generalize how things like periods of unemployment or frequent address changes can influence the total stranger bureaucrats who evaluate the citizenship applicant's information and are weighing its veracity.

To some extent, nonetheless, sure there are patterns which tend to reinforce the impression the applicant was for sure IN Canada during certain periods of time.

But sure, in contrast, there are patterns which may not be so convincing or which may leave the stranger bureaucrat wondering. Any applicant who anticipates there are such periods of time would be prudent to wait longer to apply, to give herself or himself a bigger margin. Indeed, this is precisely what I actually did. Given the nature of my business, I waited for well over a year more before I applied for citizenship. BUT to be clear, this is a very individual, very personal level of decision-making, based on very specific circumstances.

Again, attempts to formulate general propositions or guidelines for these sorts of things tend to miss the point. Perhaps the more illuminating example is how travel history can influence things. For one applicant, frequent travel abroad may actually bolster the credibility of his case, but for another it may tend to raise questions if not outright concerns about the accuracy of her reported travel history. Context matters. Patterns matter. Corroborating circumstances matter. And they can go in both directions.

All that said, qualified applicants who accurately and completely provide the information requested, and who have properly followed the instructions, and who apply with a decent margin over the minimum, are not likely to encounter non-routine processing at all, let alone serious problems.

The biggest problem going forward is that IRCC now has a rather substantial backlog of applications and even now progress processing applications appears to still be very slow at best . . . so the timelines are going to go long. For almost everyone if not everyone.

 

[Canadavisa92]

I do NOT recall any particulars about your situation. And, I am NO expert. I am NOT able to offer any personal advice.

As for the influence of any particular factors, like employment and unemployment history, or like address history, these things are generally very relative. In isolation these are not important factors. They only matter in context with all the rest of the information there is about the citizenship applicant. How they matter depends a lot on how they fit into or might not fit into the mosaic of the individual's life. And whether the emerging picture tends to reinforce a life lived in Canada, as declared by the applicant, or not.

For one applicant, in relationship to all the other circumstances in that individual's life, periods of unemployment may make perfect sense and fit into a pattern that reinforces the likelihood that individual was living in Canada during those periods of time.

For another applicant, in relationship to other indicators, periods of unemployment may be perceived to possibly have been times the individual was employed abroad. Raising questions.

The latter might be suspected, for example, if the applicant appears to have a lifestyle dependent on an income inconsistent with the reported periods of unemployment.

That is, overall, it is impossible to generalize how things like periods of unemployment or frequent address changes can influence the total stranger bureaucrats who evaluate the citizenship applicant's information and are weighing its veracity.

To some extent, nonetheless, sure there are patterns which tend to reinforce the impression the applicant was for sure IN Canada during certain periods of time.

But sure, in contrast, there are patterns which may not be so convincing or which may leave the stranger bureaucrat wondering. Any applicant who anticipates there are such periods of time would be prudent to wait longer to apply, to give herself or himself a bigger margin. Indeed, this is precisely what I actually did. Given the nature of my business, I waited for well over a year more before I applied for citizenship. BUT to be clear, this is a very individual, very personal level of decision-making, based on very specific circumstances.

Again, attempts to formulate general propositions or guidelines for these sorts of things tend to miss the point. Perhaps the more illuminating example is how travel history can influence things. For one applicant, frequent travel abroad may actually bolster the credibility of his case, but for another it may tend to raise questions if not outright concerns about the accuracy of her reported travel history. Context matters. Patterns matter. Corroborating circumstances matter. And they can go in both directions.

All that said, qualified applicants who accurately and completely provide the information requested, and who have properly followed the instructions, and who apply with a decent margin over the minimum, are not likely to encounter non-routine processing at all, let alone serious problems.

The biggest problem going forward is that IRCC now has a rather substantial backlog of applications and even now progress processing applications appears to still be very slow at best . . . so the timelines are going to go long. For almost everyone if not everyone.

I totally agree and as always thank you for the detailed techincal response.
I think unemployment is a part of almost every immigrants life and its almost always inavoidable.
So to conclude I think what you were stressing on is that if the application is submitted with all true information and without missing any gaps regardless of the situation this should make for a solid case, right?