Urgent - Residency obligation and expedited processing of citizenship application

[enthuuu]

Hello,

I am very close to fulfill residency obligations and to apply for citizenship. Though I did have a couple of hiccups on the way and I am not sure how to count the required 1,095 days to be eligible for citizenship.

A little background: I moved to Canada in September 2012 on a student visa, became a temporary worker in Oct 2014 and landed immigrant on Feb 18, 2017. Suffice to say, I should have qualified for citizenship on Feb 17, 2019 since I could easily count 1 year spent before I became PR, so 2 years after and 1 year before PR - total 3 years.

However, I have had bunch of absences from Canada, mostly family visits in India. Here are the two questions I am looking answers for:

1) During my visit to India in Dec 2017 (after I became a PR), I had lost my PR card. My 3 weeks stay was extended to total 7 weeks because I was waiting to receive a PRTD. However, once my intended 3 weeks of stay was over, I started working full time from India itself (from home) for my employer in Toronto. I have pay slips to prove it. Moreover, when I applied for a new PR card after coming back to Canada, I mentioned the same thing that during my 7 weeks of stay in India, 3 were vacations and 4 weeks full time employed for a Canadian employer. I did receive my PR card no questions asked. I am now wondering if I can actually count those 4 weeks towards those 1.095 days to qualify for citizenship a month earlier? Now I know I should ideally wait for one extra month just to be safe, but waiting a month is a bit difficult, which brings me to my 2nd question.

2) I will soon be starting an MBA around july/august ithis year n USA. So I will be leaving Canada soon, but after satisfying my residency obligations and becoming eligible for citizenship. Is this reason enough to request an expedite process of my application? If I move to USA on my Indian passport, it just makes things too difficult as I have to come back to Canada in the middle of my studies for exam/oath and what not. Moreover, once I become a Canadian citizen, I have to apply for a US student visa again for my Canadian passport since I wont be able to continue studies on my Indian passport. Note that MBA is 2 years long and I see all of those changes happening in the middle of my studies. So it could be best if I had Canadian citizenship before I started MBA which is why 1 month wait is not easy.

Looking forward to advice/suggestions/comments.

Thank you very much!.

 

[Bs65]

1)your work outside Canada will not count given citizenship days must be physical days in Canada no exceptions. Those days would not even count towards PR residency given you were not on a temporary assignment from your employer but vacation.

2)cannot really comment whether you have a case for expediting anything but assume you have seen following link which seems to imply probably not given is a personal decision to follow through a masters in the US not Canada.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...p/become-canadian-citizen/apply/urgently.html

 

[itsmyid]

If there’s one thing that IRCC is good at, that would be giving special consideration for situations like this lol.... pretty sure there will be no chance for either questions you got there

 

[scylla]

Hello,

I am very close to fulfill residency obligations and to apply for citizenship. Though I did have a couple of hiccups on the way and I am not sure how to count the required 1,095 days to be eligible for citizenship.

A little background: I moved to Canada in September 2012 on a student visa, became a temporary worker in Oct 2014 and landed immigrant on Feb 18, 2017. Suffice to say, I should have qualified for citizenship on Feb 17, 2019 since I could easily count 1 year spent before I became PR, so 2 years after and 1 year before PR - total 3 years.

However, I have had bunch of absences from Canada, mostly family visits in India. Here are the two questions I am looking answers for:

1) During my visit to India in Dec 2017 (after I became a PR), I had lost my PR card. My 3 weeks stay was extended to total 7 weeks because I was waiting to receive a PRTD. However, once my intended 3 weeks of stay was over, I started working full time from India itself (from home) for my employer in Toronto. I have pay slips to prove it. Moreover, when I applied for a new PR card after coming back to Canada, I mentioned the same thing that during my 7 weeks of stay in India, 3 were vacations and 4 weeks full time employed for a Canadian employer. I did receive my PR card no questions asked. I am now wondering if I can actually count those 4 weeks towards those 1.095 days to qualify for citizenship a month earlier? Now I know I should ideally wait for one extra month just to be safe, but waiting a month is a bit difficult, which brings me to my 2nd question.

2) I will soon be starting an MBA around july/august ithis year n USA. So I will be leaving Canada soon, but after satisfying my residency obligations and becoming eligible for citizenship. Is this reason enough to request an expedite process of my application? If I move to USA on my Indian passport, it just makes things too difficult as I have to come back to Canada in the middle of my studies for exam/oath and what not. Moreover, once I become a Canadian citizen, I have to apply for a US student visa again for my Canadian passport since I wont be able to continue studies on my Indian passport. Note that MBA is 2 years long and I see all of those changes happening in the middle of my studies. So it could be best if I had Canadian citizenship before I started MBA which is why 1 month wait is not easy.

Looking forward to advice/suggestions/comments.

Thank you very much!.

1) No - you can't count the four weeks towards your citizenship residency requirement. You weren't physically present in Canada and only days when you were physically present in Canada count. There's no grey area here - you must wait an additional month before you can qualify and apply.

2) No - wanting to study outside of Canada is not grounds for expedited citizenship processing.

 

[itsmyid]

I just can’t believe after living in Canada for so long (if one is ready to apply for citizenship it would mean this person has lived here long enough), someone would still have this delusional idea that IRCC (or any government agencies in general ) would be like the hotel service desk that accommodates all your needs, treats you with plenty of courtesy, and make everything easy for you .... lol

 

[Copingwithlife]

Regardless how long he has “ lived” here, Canada compared to other nations around the world has a very lenient time period required for residency prior to applying for citizenship. If people complain, I’m sure the government can just as quick as change it to be more restrictive
Previously you had to be physically present 4 out of 6 years, and the time spent in Canada prior to becoming a PR meant zilch
One never knows what can happen if a new party is sworn into power
They typically like to change things according to their strategy or thinking
Bill C-6 dictates the rules that must be followed

 

[itsmyid]

Regardless how long he has “ lived” here, Canada compared to other nations around the world has a very lenient time period required for residency prior to applying for citizenship. If people complain, I’m sure the government can just as quick as change it to be more restrictive
Previously you had to be physically present 4 out of 6 years, and the time spent in Canada prior to becoming a PR meant zilch
One never knows what can happen if a new party is sworn into power
They typically like to change things according to their strategy or thinking
Bill C-6 dictates the rules that must be followed

True, but the more lenient requirement also has something to do with Canada needing those people more than other countries, with its aging population and low birth rate, if it makes immigration any harder it won’t get enough people to support the system

 

[Copingwithlife]

True, but the more lenient requirement also has something to do with Canada needing those people more than other countries, with its aging population and low birth rate, if it makes immigration any harder it won’t get enough people to support the system

Yah ok that totally makes sense