Work Related International Trips & Residency Obligations

[Ibaadat]

I have a question in regards to the criteria of 1095 residency days within 4 years.
I travel for work alot to US. Its usually one week at a time, but per year it can be upto 60 days.
Now technically I meet residency requirement based on the date I first landed in Canada and since then living here permanently, and have a full time job. However, I travel to US, paid through Canadian payroll, as these are just short work related trips. Moreover, I have gone for a few weeks of paid vacation backhome. Now in order for me to count the residency days, do I need to exclude # of days I was on work trips to USA, and vacation trip, even though I was still employed by a Canadian company and was paying taxes here? This will take me alot longer if I have to exclude all those days in applying for citizenship.

I have been genuinely living here, and paying taxes, so I'm trying to figure out a way to qualify for citizenship as soon as I can. Any advice, specially from members who have been through citizenship process will be appreciated.

Before I moved to Canada permanently, I was on work visa in USA, will that go against me? Will I be given long questionnaires and will my application take longer then average due to current travel and prior work visa stay in USA?

Thanks everyone for your help!

p.s. please also see my other post, and reply if possible.

 

[Mary Chad]

You must mention and include each and everyday you spent out of Canada in/as absence, whether work related or personal.
Yes work visa to US can create issue (RQ) but its not necessary. There are other members on forum who were working
on H1B and got Residence Questionnaire.
Anyways best of luck.

 

[scylla]

The days you spend in the US (plus any vacations outside of Canada) must be excluded from your citizenship residency calculation. Only the days you physically spent in Canada can be counted towards this total. It doesn't matter that you were employed in Canada and paying Canadian taxes. The days outside of Canada don't count.

 

[mikeathome]

Business trips outside Canada while working for a Canadian company count against PR requirement but not citizenship, as mentioned above.
I was working on work visa in US prior to relocation to Canada, so were two of my colleagues. It didn't trigger a RQ for any of us. I think it depends on the circumstances and the nature of work. I have a Russian work visa in my old passport as well and a lot of stamps from travel to Asia and North Africa. That only presented an issue entering US sometimes...

Mike