Have stayed 21 months.

[sam_123]

Hi friend i m new here and need your help as i dont know to whom should i disscuss my case..

I became a permanent resident on 20th dec 2005..
After dat i went back to my country for studies and came back to canada on 1st april 2009...
From april 2009 to may 2010 i lived in canada
and then again i went back to my country due to some family problems and came back to canada after 5 months..
My question is
can i apply for citizenship after the completion of 3 years??Means am i eligible to apply for citizenship??
As from 2005 to 2010 i have stayed 21 months only...
and got my PR card renew which will expire in 2014....
Am really confused..plz guide me am i eligible to apply or not?/And ys if i m not eligible to apply
can i stay in canada with my PR card??

[Leon]

How did you get a new PR card when you only had 21 months in Canada?  The PR residency requirements state that you need 730 days in Canada and that is 24 months.  Did you have to appeal?

You can stay in Canada with your new PR card but you can not apply for citizenship until you have 1095 days (36 months) within a 4 year period.  That means over the 4 year period before you apply, you can only have been outside Canada for 1 year total.

Since you came back to Canada on April 1st 2009, you have spent 5 months away.  Therefore, you can not apply on April 1st 2012 because you are missing 5 months for 36 months.  You would have to wait until September 2012 or so.  If you leave Canada again, you must delay your application again by as long as you are gone.

[sam_123]

Hi leon,

Thanks for your reply
Back home my PR CARD was stolen...dats y i took permission from canadian embassy and came back to canada..
After coming back i apply for the new PR card and i got my PR CARD in november 2009....
I dnt know i am confused...I heard that my citizenship period counts from 2005 to 2010 becoz i became a permanent resident on 20th december 2005.....so few ppl told me that citizenship period starts from the day u became permanent resident???
And you are saying that my citizenship period starts from April 2009?

[Leon]

There is no set citizenship period.  You can apply for citizenship at any time you meet the residency requirements but you don't have to if you don't want to.  The citizenship residency requirements like I said are 3 years within a 4 year window.  If you apply now, they will look a the window from May 1st 2007 until today.  They will refuse because during this time, you had not stayed in Canada for 3 years total.  It is therefore a waste of your time to apply now.  You must wait until you can look back at the last 4 years and have at least 1095 days in Canada during that time.

The PR residency period is your first 5 years as a PR and a rolling 5 year window after that.  In each 5 year period, you must have been in Canada for at least 730 days (2 years).  These are different from the citizenship requirements.  By leaving again after you got your new PR card, you have managed to get to a point that you did not meet the residency requirements anymore in the last 5 year period but you seem to have gotten away with it.  As long as you have at least 2 years in Canada in the last 5 years before you have to renew your card the next time, you should not have a problem with that.

[sam_123]

Thanks for the information

Another question
I got my renewed PR CARD in November 2009....
So my citizenship period will start from November 2009 or from April 2009?
As i told u i came back to canada in april after 2005

[Leon]

Like I told you, there is no set citizenship period.  It is always the 4 year period before you apply for citizenship.  Since you have so much time outside Canada in the last 4 years, you do not qualify to apply for citizenship now.  If you qualify to apply in September 2012, your 4 year period will be from September 2008 until September 2012.  If you have in that period total 3 years in Canada, you are ok to apply.  You can also make it October 1st 2008 until October 1st 2012.  You are allowed one year outside Canada in this period.  If you spent the period October 1st 2008 to April 1st 2009 outside Canada, that is 6 months.  In May 2010, you said you left Canada and were gone for 5 months.   That means that total, you had 11 months outside Canada from October 1st 2008 until October 1st 2012, that is along as you do not leave Canada between now and October 2012.  If you do, you will have to delay your application a bit more.

[sam_123]

Ok i understand....
Thankyou very much for guiding me..God Bless You..