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Comments: Physical presence concerns - multiple day and over night trips to USA not declared.
Outcome of review: ON HOLD.
Next processing stage
File to: Grant interview ready in person
I am really worried about the interview.
I got an Interview required update in the tracker yesterday for July 21 for Canadian Citizenship. I am currently in US and . . .
Interview: Sheduled for 21st July 2026
Once I receive travel history, I will check for the missing entries and will try as much evidence as I can to ensure I am in Canada on those days.
Generally being required to participate in an interview does not, not in itself, signal there is a serious issue. Remember, until Covid
ALL adult applicants were interviewed.
Generally, those who are interviewed just need to be prepared to present originals of all documents submitted and answer questions truthfully during the interview.
Moreover, the interview is a verification step in the process. It is not a hearing. In particular, it is not a hearing at which the applicant presents evidence and proves that they met the physical presence requirement.
That said, if you can identify what discrepancies there are between what you reported and what CBSA records show, and be prepared to address those in the interview, that very well could help the interviewer verify your physical presence.
To be clear, that could be a big
IF.
It is apparent IRCC has concerns about the physical presence calculation.
But the real gist of it is whether or not you accurately and completely reported your travel history. If you did, the odds are good there will be no problem so long as you show up for the interview and truthfully answer questions. That is, again, if you accurately and completely reported your travel history.
Leading to . . .
I have, maybe 7 or 8 overnight trips and about 25 days trips to US within 5 years. I am hundred percent sure, I declared them all correctly while applying for citizenship in 2025, based on my records what I have. In fact, I declared the same in 2024 as well when applying for PR extension.
Despite your saying that you declared the same dates in the citizenship application as you did in a 2024 application for a PR card, that is not likely and best not be true; in particular, I doubt you overlooked reporting days in and days outside Canada for the period between January 1, 2025, and the date you made the citizenship application in September 2025, which of course you would not have declared in the PR card application in 2024. (I confess to being rather picayune for mentioning this discrepancy in what you've reported here. Consider it a reminder we all make mistakes we do not realize we are making.)
Meanwhile, the GCMS information as to discrepancies in travel history, in conjunction with the lack of much buffer, and occasions in which it appears you deliberately squeezed two days physical presence into brief, over-midnight trips for a few hours, together with a spouse residing outside Canada, and your residency outside Canada since applying, are all factors which could elevate the level of scrutiny your application is encountering, especially in regards to physical presence.
But if you are in fact a "
hundred percent sure" you accurately declared every date you exited and entered Canada, odds are any discrepancy between the travel history you reported and CBSA records for you are minimal, not a serious problem. In which event you mostly need to be prepared to answer questions truthfully during the interview.
But, a bigger but, it appears IRCC apprehends you did not declare some dates of travel.
That's not about a mere discrepancy in dates of travel. That's about failing to report travel. That indicates there are CBSA records showing dates you exited or entered Canada which you did not declare. Beware, there is very, very little indication that CBSA makes mistakes of that kind.
CBSA records can be off (they too make mistakes, like all of us) but are not likely to be off actual travel dates by much. There are some reports, for example, of discrepancies between applicants' accounts and CBSA records for near-midnight border crossings (for example, where an applicant reports entering Canada before midnight but CBSA records show an arrival after midnight) resulting in a one day discrepancy for that particular trip. And, at least in the past, CBSA records have been known to sometimes fail to include dates of departure, or less often even dates of entry.
But from almost all accounts, CBSA records rarely, very rarely, inaccurately report travel dates for trips the PR did not make.
That is, for CBSA records there can be discrepancies in the precise date of a reported trip, or the records may omit some travel dates, but it is highly unlikely that CBSA has a record of a border crossing you did not make.
So, if this really is about IRCC identifying dates you made trips to the U.S. that were "not declared," probably best to be prepared that those mistakes are yours, not IRCC/CBSA.
It will be good news, nonetheless, even if the mistake(s) are yours, if whatever you failed to report was day and overnight trips to the states; that would not change the physical presence calculation. If indeed this is the concern, the interview could be focused on merely an opportunity to examine you in person, hear your response, your explanation, and assess your credibility, no serious problem.
If you made mistakes that change the physical presence calculation, reducing your days in Canada, that's different. Obviously, any mistake resulting in fewer than 1095 days credit would mean this application is not going to lead to citizenship (in which case better to withdraw, although you could continue with processing until there is a referral for a hearing with a Citizenship Judge many months down the road, perhaps more than a year, and the CJ denies the application . . . there is no discretion to grant citizenship if the applicant is short, even for an applicant just one day short).
The question is whether you made a number of omissions (mistakes) that in conjunction with other factors leads IRCC to question whether you have met your burden of proof, that your evidence shows beyond a balance of probabilities that you spent at least 1095 days in Canada during the eligibility period.
I understand the way in which
@armoured discussed this. But, to avoid confusion, the PR's standard of proof for days present in Canada is the same for meeting the citizenship physical presence requirements as it is for meeting the PR Residency Obligation. Beyond a balance of probabilities. I do not claim to know what
@armoured actually meant, but perhaps it was about how there can be a big difference in the level of scrutiny IRCC employs when checking information for a citizenship application compared to a PR card application. That is, or so it appears, IRCC seems to go digging deeper
if-and-when there are concerns about a citizenship applicant's information.
Among reasons why IRCC might have concerns leading to digging deeper, discrepancies between the applicant's report of travel history compared to CBSA records are, of course, among the more obvious ones. And once IRCC starts digging deeper, there are other aspects of your situation that risk inviting further scrutiny and, perhaps, even skepticism. For example:
Obviously your quick trips into Canada to count days towards RO while staying in the US don’t look great especially if done fairly frequently.
Even though the officials who are processing your application are essentially total-stranger-bureaucrats, they review and process citizenship applications day after day, for hundreds if not thousands of applicants. They are familiar with virtually any and all immigration scenarios, and to quote the modern Bard, they "
don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
In other words, they figure things out. It appears there may be a pattern in your travel history, in conjunction with other circumstances, not the least of which is your residence outside Canada since shortly after applying, which could lead IRCC to be more skeptical of you.
Which leads back to the gist of things: if IRCC is mostly concerned about some omissions in your account of travel history as to day trips and one-night-trips, but that has no change or only a minimal change in the physical presence calculation, things should go fairly smoothly if you show up for the interview and answer questions truthfully.
Otherwise is a more complicated, and difficult conversation.
