Citizenship Application: Handling a Temporary Resident "Restoration Gap" in the Online Calculator

[Pipipi990]

Hello everyone,

I am preparing my Canadian Citizenship application and have a quick question about entering a historical temporary resident status gap into the online physical presence calculator.

My Background & Timeline:

• Eligibility Window: Oct 2021 to Oct 2026
• Oct 2021 – Oct 12, 2022: On a valid PGWP (Authorized TR)
• Oct 13, 2022 – Aug 1, 2023 (293 Days): Status Gap. My physical PGWP expired. I received a 2022 Interim Work Authorization email, but due to an IRCC mix-up, the automatic OWP extension was never issued. I applied for Restoration of Status within the 90-day window (Jan 2023), which was eventually refused in July 2023. However, I maintained authorized stay/work due to consecutive Interim Work Authorizations and a new public policy application filed in May 2023.
• Aug 2, 2023 – Sept 30, 2024: Status restored under a new Public Policy Work Permit (Authorized TR)
• Oct 1, 2024 – Present: Permanent Resident (PR)

My Strategy: Because time spent waiting for a status restoration decision does not qualify for the 0.5-day temporary resident credit under the Citizenship Act, I am acting conservatively and claiming 0 days of presence credit for the 293-day gap.

To maintain factual accuracy (since I did not leave Canada), I am leaving a blank gap in the temporary resident status history section of the calculator for those 293 days, which forces the system to award 0 credits. Even after completely omitting this period, my official calculator total is 1,109 days (safely above the 1,095 requirement). I will also be attaching a detailed Letter of Explanation and all supporting interim documents.

My Questions:

1. For those who submitted a clear Letter of Explanation for a zero-billed status gap, did your file stay in the regular queue, or did it trigger an automatic referral to the long-term "non-routine" delay pipeline?

Thank you in advance for your insights!