It may be very simple question for some but I’m little confused.
I landed on 06Nov 2022 and left canada on 12Feb 2023 due to some family reasons. I landed again last month 28Nov 2025 and planning to continue stay to meet RO.
My question is do I count 6th Nov 2022 and 12th Feb 2023 towards my RO or exclude any or these days, so days towards my RO counted as 97/98/or 99.
I’m aware my RO will be met sometime in august of 2027 if I continue to stay.
If you accurately fill in the dates you entered and exited Canada in a PR card application, using either the interactive pdf form or the online application, you do not need to count days at all . . . the application will count them.
Except it counts days outside Canada. It will not count the day a PR exits Canada or the day they arrive in Canada (both of those count as days
in Canada), but it will count every day in-between those dates as a day outside Canada. If the total number of days it counts as outside Canada is less than 1095, that means (and the application will indicate) the PR is in compliance with the Residency Obligation based on presence in Canada (depending, of course, on the reported travel dates being complete and accurate).
That is, skip the arithmetic, but get the travel dates right (complete and accurate).
Works particularly well for PRs who landed within the previous five years; no need to calculate days in Canada plus future days within five years of landing. The application counts the number of days outside Canada in the relevant time period and as long as that does not total more than 1095 the PR is in RO compliance (at least appears to be in compliance, based on the reported travel dates).
Some cautionary observations, FWIW or FWII or perhaps just for fun . . .
Note that departure and arrival dates are based on immigration control criteria (Canadian control), which might not exactly correspond to physical presence. Thus, for example (albeit this level of preciseness is more relevant for citizenship applicants cutting-it-close), even if the plane lands well before midnight, if the arriving PR does not pass through PoE control until after midnight, the date of arrival is the latter date, not the date they were physically "
in" Canada but the date they were legally given permission to enter Canada.
Somewhat similarly for a flight scheduled to depart before midnight, the date of departure is that date, the before midnight scheduled departure date, even if the plane ends up sitting on the tarmac well after midnight waiting its turn to take off.
One common mistake, again more significant in counting presence for citizenship (where being one day short requires denying the application) than PR, is reporting exit dates based on arrival date at the destination (typically relying on a passport stamp to show this) for flights that depart Canada either the day before (such as overnight trans-Atlantic flights) or departing even two days before (some trans-Pacific flights that involve both flying past midnight and crossing the international date-line); that is, the date of departure is the date on the day the PR departs Canada, not the date they arrive at their destination.
There can be anomalies. There are some U.S./Canadian land crossings, for example, which entail also crossing time zone boundaries (crossing at Pigeon River, Ontario, on an Eastern time zone clock, and just across the river the Grand Portage, Minnesota crossing, on a Central time zone clock, for example), so dates of exit and entry for crossings one side or the other of midnight can confuse things a bit. No worry for a PR (one day one way or the other is not going to change the outcome given the flexible and lenient approach taken in enforcing the RO) but it can make a difference for citizenship applicants cutting-it-close.
