Hired by a Canadian telecom consulting firm to work abroad

[smrt]

Hello everyone,

Thanks in advance for your quick response about my concerns.

I became PR on May 2006 and I have spent only a few weeks within Canada since then, I am currently outside Canada and I have been contacted by a recruiting/contracting firm to be hired as a full-time consultant to work outside Canada in the same country where I am right now.

To me sounds great because I believe it will help me to keep my PR status as I cannot return to Canada until Dec 2009 and I will need to renew my PR card in May 2011, so if I do not count the time working for this canadian contracting firm abroad, it will not be possible to meet the 2 years out of 5.

My concern is:
Since I will be hired for a 6-month temporary job (possible renewable) by this canadian firm (meaning that they will retain me taxes and so on, and I will have to pay taxes and file a return for my 2008 period working for them, can I use this 6-month period to comply with my residency obligation? Is this kind of businesses considered a canadian business under the law to renew PR status?

Another concern is:
When you count your days being absent from Canada, should you count the day you leave? shoud you count the day you return?

Thanks a lot!!!
Kind Regards,

[Leon]

I think your time spent outside of Canada when working for a Canadian company is not counted.

When I am counting how many days I am gone, I always count how many nights so if you are gone from friday to saturday, I would count that as one day.  I don't think they are that picky though.