Hello,
I have spent 168 days in USA on a number of trips during the last 4 years. Some of my trips are 1-2 day trips while there are others where I have gone there for more than 10 days at a stretch. I also have some trips where I have flown to other countries after driving to Seattle and flying out of there. For these trips I am only counting the number of days spent in USA as 2. I do have flight tickets and hotel reservations to prove the fact that I have indeed flown to other countries from Seattle on these visits. I am slightly worried that IRCC might not believe me since I cannot get entry/exit stamps for these other countries.
Question for this forum: Should I include an explanation letter along with my application or should I apply for a PCC from USA and send it with my citizenship application although it is not necessary in my case?
The observations offered by
@ChippyBoy cover this quite well, including the explanation for the judgment call made given the applicant's personal situation and history.
The observations offered by
@rir170814, as it appears you discern,
miss the point. You are correct, the question is about days in the U.S. (or some other specific country)
NOT about days absent from Canada. So the presence calculator does
NOT provide an accurate way of counting days in another country.
Observation about populating information in the presence calculator:
It appears that one of your key concerns arises from traveling abroad transiting through the U.S. Remember, in completing the presence calculator the applicant declares the DESTINATION country for the trip. Ordinarily this would not be a country merely transited on the way to the primary destination for the trip. In the box for describing the purpose or reason for the trip, the applicant is instructed to identify all countries visited during that trip. There should be room to state: "transited U.S. # days." That should easily illuminate that no more than two days were present in the U.S. during that trip.
Observation about the 183 days threshold for triggering requirement to submit PCC:
The 183 days threshold is merely administrative. There is no statute or regulation which imposes a requirement to submit a police clearance certificate in a citizenship application. Either with the application or later in the process.
Section 23.1 in the
Citizenship Act authorizes the Minister to require that an applicant provide additional information or evidence relevant to the application. see
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-29/page-7.html#docCont
Section 22(3)(a) in the
Citizenship Act imposes a prohibition for criminal convictions in other countries during the four years prior to applying for citizenship. see
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-29/page-6.html#docCont
Thus, IRCC can request a clearance from other countries in order to verify the applicant does not have any criminal convictions in such a country for the four years preceding the date of the application.
IRCC has administratively determined (just as CIC did before the transition to IRCC) that applicants who spent a total of 183 days in any particular country, during the four relevant years, should submit a PCC
WITH the application. Citizenship Regulation 2(1), in Citizenship Regulations, No. 2, which you can see at
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2015-124/page-1.html#h-2, prescribes that an application must be made in the prescribed form and filed in the manner determined by the Minister, which gives the Minister (IRCC in practical terms) the authority to require a broad range of information and supporting documents, especially when considered in conjunction with Section 23.1 in the
Citizenship Act (link above). (Note: Citizenship Regulation 2(1)(a) through 2(1)(i) prescribe some things which the application
MUST require.)
The way bureaucracies tend to work is largely mechanical. Thus, this administratively determined threshold for requiring the applicant prove no prohibition for a foreign conviction, by submitting a police clearance, is likely to be implemented like an on-or-off switch in almost all cases. 182 days in a country, no clearance required. 183 days in a country, clearance required.
BUT the more time a person has spent in a country, the more it is possible other circumstances might nonetheless trigger a request for a police clearance REGARDLESS how much time the applicant was in that country. Again, IRCC has the discretion to request any applicant provide a clearance from any country in which the applicant has spent time or has ties or is a country in which IRCC perceives the possibility that the applicant is the subject of a criminal case.
Obvious example: a U.S. NCIC hit in the name-record databases. (There is a GCMS background check every time any action is taken on the application, and that check typically covers U.S. criminal name-records.) But there are other examples. I'd guess that in conjunction with a large number of days in the U.S. (but less than 183 total), factors like work history in the U.S., immediate family residence in the U.S., maybe a U.S. residence visa, among other circumstances, could elevate the risk that IRCC asks for a U.S. clearance.
So, my sense is that the closer to the threshold the total time in a country, the more there is SOME risk that IRCC will request a clearance (even though the applicant was not required to provide one with the application itself). BUT for most applicants, that should not be much of a risk. And for the U.S. in particular, my guess is the risk is less . . . which I will explain below.
Why Submit a Clearance Anyway?
Again, the observations offered by
@ChippyBoy cover this matter quite well,
including the explanation for the judgment call made given the applicant's personal situation and history. It is indeed a personal judgment call whether to submit any additional documentation not specifically requested.
Usually the better approach is to NOT submit anything other than that requested. BUT there are situations in which a prospective applicant can identify good reasons otherwise. (I submitted Notices of Assessment with my application; explained elsewhere.) As noted,
@ChippyBoy explains the decision to include the PCC with the application even though it was not requested IN THE SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES of
@ChippyBoy's situation.
For the majority of applicants who are not required to submit a PCC with the application, even if there is a significant risk they might nonetheless be asked to provide one later in the process, it should be no problem to apply without including a PCC.
If the applicant apprehends, given the particulars (such as your situation, coming very close to the 183 day threshold for Canada's immediate neighbour, a country in which many immigrants often spend a good deal of time . . . and more so if there is any reason to apprehend there might be a hit for your name in U.S. NCIC database), the applicant can in the meantime obtain a PCC so there is minimal delay in submitting it if one is requested later.
In the scenario you describe, if there is any subsequent request for a U.S. clearance, my sense is that would likely be made at the interview (and if you have the clearance in hand, you could hand it over then and there, resulting in minimal delays in processing) . . .
IF there is such a request for a clearance . . . . leading to . . .
A GUESS why there is NOT LIKELY to be a request for a PCC from the U.S.:
Or, identification of factors which, in contrast, might elevate the likelihood of a request for a U.S. clearance. The latter I referenced above: any NCIC hit for your name (if your name is John Smith with no middle name, odds are there are a number of persons with that name and your same date-of-birth, and that could trigger a NCIC hit which could lead IRCC to make a finger print request and/or request a U.S. FBI clearance). Or other circumstances, like being very close to the threshold AND having a work history in the U.S. Among other factors indicating ties in the U.S. which might, in turn, suggest the possibility of more time spent in the U.S. than disclosed.
Thus, for example, a key factor may be the extent to which some circumstances might suggest the possibility of additional time spent in the U.S. As you already discern, that could be the perception IRCC has due to the trip in which you transited the U.S. (But for a single trip of this sort, being clear about the "destination" for that trip and clearly identifying the U.S. as a country transited, in the presence calculator, should readily illuminate there was no additional time spent in the U.S., for that trip anyway.)
In the meantime, as I also previously noted, IRCC has fairly in-depth access to U.S. criminal history records. The U.S. and Canada share a lot of information related to criminal prosecutions and investigations. The GCMS clearance will usually reveal if there are any name-record hits in the U.S. criminal records databases.
Thus, I suspect that IRCC is likely to be less concerned with an applicant relative to time in the U.S. as long as it falls short of that mechanical threshold of 183 days. That's a guess.
