Thank you for your detailed answer. My wife & I are both seniors. I am a born Canadian and my wife is a Mexican National
who finally received her PR in July 2021..Prior to covid we spent 6 months in Ontario & 6 months
in Mexico. Her first visit to Canada was April 2018 and up to receiving the PR she had accumulated
815 days x .5 = 407. The CIC says max for these days is 365. So if things do not level out re the covid
she will have her 1100 days by July 2023.
The reason for my question is the fact we did not travel to Mexico during the long PR process as did not want
any glitches. It says being present 1100 days in the past 5 years. How close is this window applied by CIC
as her first entry was April 28/ 2018 , five years will be April 28/2023. She will not have enough days until
July 2023.
Taking ordinary trips after applying for citizenship, for a holiday or to visit, is no big deal at all. (Some here say the same about relocating abroad, but that tends to be a more or less defensive posture and not an honest assessment; at the least, that view understates the risks.)
For calculating when to apply use the online physical presence calculator.
It is fairly easy to do drafts of the presence calculation, testing different scenarios. There really is no decent substitute for using the calculator to determine when is the best time to apply.
A buffer or margin over the minimum is recommended by IRCC, and more emphatically by all who are sensible. How much depends on the individual. My sense is that 30 extra days is a good buffer for most but some will want a bigger margin (see, for example, comments about pre-PR credit and documentation of status below). However, many in this forum suggest that 7 to 10 days extra is enough.
The minimum, 1095 days credit (that is, at least 730 days present in Canada after becoming a PR plus credit for pre-PR days in Canada, up to maximum of 365) technically is enough. But that is an absolute minimum. Which is a big part of why a buffer, a margin over the minimum, is a good idea.
Those relying on pre-PR credit will generally want to pay particular attention to what documents their status in Canada during that time.
*** Technically, for example, if the individual was in Canada with visitor status, those days count. HOWEVER, for some visitors there is no formal documentation to prove they were in Canada with visitor status, and for these individuals it is safer to wait longer to apply, long enough to fully cover any period of time in Canada for which status is not formally documented.
Similarly, where an individual had implied status bridging the time between when their formally documented status expired and the next formal grant of status, technically that time should count, but the safer approach is to wait to apply with a buffer that fully covers the period of time they were in Canada with implied status.
*** Explanation: The applicant for citizenship not only has the burden of proof to establish the physical presence requirement was met, but also the burden of proving they had status in Canada. Practically this means little or nothing for most applicants since their status in Canada is usually and readily evidenced by their GCMS records, their IRCC-client records, and this is screened and confirmed when the citizenship application is first opened by IRCC at CPC-Sydney. There is no need, usually, for the applicant to submit anything more. The GCMS record may, however, have gaps if there was no formal documentation of status. Typically visa-exempt visitors, for example, are simply waived into Canada without being issued a visa or even a Visitor's Record. So GCMS might not show they were in Canada with status. And that can be an issue (might even result in the application being returned as incomplete). An applicant can more or less insist on credit for those periods of time, but that can mean non-routine processing and delays and inconvenience, typically much more burdensome than just waiting longer to apply with a buffer that covers such time periods.
