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1- Wife applied for Canada Citizenship in Nov 2025
2- Applied for PR Card in Dec 2025
3- Left Canada to be with Parents due to medical issue for extended period of time- Out of Canada since Jan 2025 till present and plan to be there till end of year.
4- PR Card extension got approved in Mar 2026 but was asked to pick in person within 6 months. Have not picked up the card yet since she is out of Canada.
5- Test completed and Background check complete but LPP in process.
6- Is being out of Canada cause delay in processing the citizenship application? She has physical presence met and a lot of buffer as well.
7- Are there any new rules that causing delays in citizenship if out of Canada?
Given the relatively short timeline since applying, it would be premature to say there is much, if any delay at this stage.
That said, it is likely the applicant will not be able to take the oath until they are physically IN Canada, and some local offices will only schedule the oath after an applicant known to be outside Canada has returned to Canada.
The dates you describe suggest this applicant is not just outside Canada for an extended period after applying, which
can (not necessarily will) affect the process (more regarding this below), but was also outside Canada when the application was made and had been for an extended period immediately prior to making the application (from January 2025 until November 2025 when the application was made), which similarly
can (again, not necessarily will) affect how IRCC processes the application.
One factor in what you describe looms large: You describe this PR as being outside Canada from January 2025 until the present and yet they made a PR card application in December 2025. IRCC requires a PR to be physically IN Canada when they make a PR card application. This itself could have raised flags depending on the particular circumstances, the details. (BTW: If the PR card application was made while the PR was outside Canada, I am curious how they managed that.)
No being out of Canada doesn't affect citizenship application.
The delay might be due to the backlog at the office.
Being outside Canada can affect processing a citizenship application, and there are scores and scores of anecdotal reports illustrating this.
It is too early in the process to conclude there is a "
delay" for the OP's application, let alone diagnose or speculate what that is about.
Further Observations:
For a while now I have not been addressing what might be categorized as routine processing issues, instead focusing on just a few issues affecting Canadians with PR status related to contested or problematic matters, particularly those which can result in determinations of inadmissibility for a PR or otherwise involve adversarial processing including administrative or judicial adjudication.
Not sure why the forum has lately not been better responding to the citizenship applicant outside Canada situation, but there have a number of discussions here in which comments about being outside Canada has been misleading or, as here, simply erroneous. So I feel compelled to jump in.
"Is being out of Canada cause delay in processing the citizenship application?"
It
can. For many it has. This is not a binary yes or no factor. So, again it
can but that does not mean it necessarily will.
So, the claim that "
No being out of Canada doesn't affect citizenship application" is, at best, misleading because it can and in many cases it clearly has. At the least, generally the applicant must be back in Canada before they can take the oath, and in many cases the applicable local office has not scheduled the oath until the applicant affirms they are in fact back in Canada.
Beyond that,
any of an applicant's circumstances can influence how IRCC agents and officers evaluate various aspects of the applicant's qualifications, especially any circumstances which potentially invite additional scrutiny to verify information, especially to verify information that directly relates to the qualifications.
Example: 1095 days physical presence credit is enough to qualify for citizenship, but the nature and scope of inquiries conducted to verify physical presence will vary, and this can be influenced by a wide range of factors including how much credit over the minimum the applicant declares in the application, patterns in travel history, the applicant's work history (noting there is no requirement to be employed), and many other factors related to the applicant's ties in Canada, ties outside Canada, the latter obviously including lengthy periods outside Canada after applying.
Note regarding PP buffer: Again, 1095 days PP meets the requirements, but no advanced degrees in brain surgery needed to recognize that applying with little buffer over the minimum risks processing delays while IRCC conducts further inquiries to verify PP. While IRCC recommends applying with a buffer, it does not suggest how much; forum consensus seems to recommend a week or ten days; my sense is that it is better to have at least a full month, recognizing that for some more would be better (in my circumstances, given my work situation, I elected to wait a full year plus some). Of course for some prospective applicants, depending on their personal circumstances, adding more buffer is not practical.
It is very difficult to identify particular factors that could tip the scales and trigger non-routine requests for additional information or referrals for focused investigation, but if the IRCC agent processing the application identifies cause for that sort of non-routine processing, that can cause a significant delay, especially if a referral to CBSA/NSSD for investigation is triggered. Again, no advanced degrees in brain surgery needed to recognize that living outside Canada can invite an IRCC agent to, in effect, go digging deeper to verify the applicant's information in general and their PP in particular. Digging deeper means non-routine processing, and non-routine processing can result in longer processing times.
