dabas said:
@Depenabill,
Thanks for your kind response. I made an application for citizenship calculating months I worked overseas for an incorporated Canadian employer which I was later told does not count towards citizenship. My application before June 2015 was RQed and I am looking at my options as to withdraw or wait and get it refused.
I was advised in the forum to focus on my PR status and here I am eligible if I count my work for Canadian employer overseas but based on your post on an appeal that was dismissed by federal gov, I realise that being successful in counting overseas work depends on the circumstances and interpretation of the CO and CJ. So, I am looking at risk-free options of strict count of physical presence with my strong ties to Canada (property, education, profession and assets). When I say 630 days that is physical presence and the rest to rely on overseas working count as one option. I do not have PR card application yet and I am thinking when, what and how. My husband also is in difficult situation and will be loosing his PR status because he choose to go for 100% sponsorship in Australia and it is important for me to retain my status so I can sponsor him when he is done..
I thought this is an informal community to share my mind and consider others experience and knowledge in the process of making informed decisions and avoid making fatal errors such as counting overseas work in my citizenship application.
Thanks for your assistance ..
This is indeed an informal online community.
You are correct to focus on being physically present in Canada for at least 730 days within the previous five years as the most Risk-Free option. But of course there is still the matter of actually proving compliance with the PR Residency Obligation, so even that is not entirely risk-free.
Unfortunately, even if you wait until you pass the 730 days within five years in Canada threshold, that will not guarantee the application for a new PR card will be routinely processed. Extensive absences raise questions. The burden of proof is on the PR. In another topic this morning I referenced and linked a number of PR RO cases, cases in which Removal Orders had been issued and the PR appealed. Some of those were PRs who claimed actual presence in Canada for more than the 730 days within the previous five years. Additionally, this forum has a significant number of participants whose application for a new PR card is bogged down in lengthy delays. This is not to discourage or frighten, but to alert you that the way forward can be a bit bumpy, and mostly to help you be aware of and prepared for having to go through the process of affirmatively establishing when you were in Canada and what your ties in Canada are.
Strong ties in Canada are important if and when there are questions about compliance with the PR RO. But strong ties abroad are also important (in a negative way of course), like a spouse living abroad. It is common for many to focus on what they perceive to be the positive factors in their situation and overlook the weight and impact of potential negatives. IRCC and CBSA tend to identify and give a lot of weight to the negatives, so it is a mistake to underestimate their significance.
A prime example of the latter is indeed the situation in which a PR relies on the fact a business is incorporated in Canada as sufficient to count time working abroad (for that business) toward Canadian residency requirements. As you have learned, there is no such credit toward the citizenship requirements. As apparently you apprehend, whether there is such a credit toward the PR RO is more complicated than just where the employer is incorporated.
Caution: there has been a lot of bad advice given to PRs by less than competent, oft times not so scrupulous so-called consultants, many if not most of whom are not authorized to be consultants. This has been particularly so relative to ways for PRs to meet the PR RO while working-abroad-for-Canadian-employers. I have no idea whether you have relied on or used a consultant at all.
Further down in this post I will include more in-depth observations about this; see below.
In the meantime, be very cautious about relying on credit for time working abroad for a Canadian business unless the circumstances in which you came to be employed abroad for a Canadian business fit all of the following:
-- the job abroad arose while you were employed by this business, at a position in Canada and actually working
in Canada, and
-- the plan included you returning to Canada to continue working for the business
in Canada, and
-- it was
the employer who decided to assign you to a temporary position abroad, and
-- the business is not run by you, a close family member, or close friends
All the above are not absolutely necessary for the credit, but you should be wary, very cautious, about whether the credit will be available unless
all of the above describe the employment abroad.
If the employment you had fits all of the above, and especially if indeed you were employed by this business before being assigned abroad, and you continued to work for the business
in Canada after returning to Canada, there should be good odds you get the credit. Otherwise, if your circumstances are close to what is described above, it may be worth your while to obtain a formal, paid-for consultation with a licensed, experienced and reputable immigration lawyer, to specifically go over the specific circumstances of your employment abroad to assess whether it is likely IRCC will allow credit for that time. Not a consultant, but a lawyer, a lawyer who is specifically engaged in immigration law. And to get the best opinion for a reasonable cost, make and keep the inquiry specifically focused on particular circumstances of your employment abroad. After all, if indeed you will be credited for this time, that makes your situation a lot, lot easier. And accelerates the time line for making the application to replace the PR card.
Caution IF, if you have used a consultant:
The following is a caution
IF if you have relied on or used a consultant in regards to your employment abroad:
As I noted above, there has been a lot of bad advice given to PRs by less than competent, oft times not so scrupulous so-called consultants, many if not most of whom are not authorized to be consultants. This has been particularly so relative to ways for PRs to meet the PR RO while working-abroad-for-Canadian-employers. I have no idea whether you have relied on or used a consultant at all. I go into this because it is so common, because there are so many PRs who have been misled by incompetent, or bad, even crooked consultants, regarding the credit toward the PR RO for those who are employed abroad by a Canadian business.
Thus, if you have relied on or used a consultant specifically in regards to the matter of working abroad for a Canadian employer, then:
-- if this consultant is
not an authorized consultant, consider any and all advice from this consultant to be false unless and until firmly established otherwise
-- even if an authorized consultant, if the consultant in any way arranged or help to arrange the business in Canada, or advised you about how to do this, be very skeptical unless and until you can verify the validity of the information relied upon
To find out more about using a representative or consultant, see:
-- Find out if your representative is authorized
at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/representative/verify-rep.asp
-- tips for choosing a representative at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/representative/rep-choose.asp