Hi All,
I am PR and travel frequently to US (flights & border crossing both). While calculating my physical present days in Canada, can I include the day on which I left Canada and the day on which I arrived back in Canada?
The rule says, "Number of days you were physically present in Canada". Technically, I am present in Canada on the days when I go out and come in.
For example, if I
- Traveled from Canada to US on 24.Jun
- Stayed in US for 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
- Traveled back from US to Canada on 28.Jun
By how many days should I reduce my stay in Canada? 3 days or 5 days?
Also, does it make any different whether I cross Border (driving car) or I travel in flight? I am asking as on border, they don't put stamp on Passport.
Thanks!
It is not clear why you are asking about this. This matters because this really is NOT a question that arises if one uses the online presence calculator and is following the instructions . . . that is properly, and completely, entering travel dates.
To be clear: BEST, by far, to use the IRCC citizenship online actual physical presence calculator. Enter the exact date of ALL exits from Canada. Enter the exact date of all entries into Canada. Do NOT use dates of entry into other countries as the date of exit from Canada (unless you are certain that was the date of exit from Canada . . . like leaving Canada by car at the U.S. border).
The online calculator will get it right so long as you correctly enter all the dates of exit and return.
Using the online calculator is especially important for any applicant with numerous trips abroad.
Note, for example, questions about which days count asked by persons using the online presence calculator are typically based on a confused understanding of what "from" and "to" means, as if the date to be entered in the "from" column might be the first day that counts as a day of absence. If this is what underlies your question, NO, the "from" date is the date the person physically exited Canada. And the online presence calculator will AUTOMATICALLY count that as a day in Canada (since, after all, in order to have left Canada that day, the individual had to actually be physically present in Canada that day, and any day in Canada, even partially, counts as a day in Canada). Likewise the date of return.
In contrast, if you are asking because you are using the paper form, CIT 0407 . . . the best anyone can offer is to emphasize
NO, avoid using CIT 0407 and
use the online actual physical presence calculator.
I do NOT know, but my sense is that just using the paper form, CIT 0407 (new version issued just this month, along with new version of the citizenship application) in conjunction with numerous trips may be enough to trigger some degree of elevated scrutiny . . . the MAIN difference between the forms, after all, is that the ARITHMETIC must be checked by IRCC if the CIT 0407 form is used . . . whereas using the online calculator all the arithmetic (counting days absent, days present) is done by the calculator, electronically, NO errors in arithmetic. While it is not at all complicated arithmetic, given the nature of the calendar it is arithmetic easily prone to mistakes.
That is NOT the only difference. The online calculator will not allow some types of errors in data entry, and for many other possible errors it will provide an ERROR message. So the online calculator dramatically reduces the chance the presence calculation includes an error. That means IRCC can more easily, more confidently rely on the output of the online calculator, needing mostly to verify the travel dates and only minimally cross-check and verify the calculation information otherwise.
And that goes both ways. The applicant is far less likely to actually make an error using the online calculator compared to CIT 0407.
Overall, it adds up to this: using the online physical presence calculator reduces the chance of error and increases IRCC's confidence in the information (subject to verification of travel dates). Easier for IRCC likely translates into easier AND faster for the applicant.
"
Also, does it make any different whether I cross Border (driving car) or I travel in flight? I am asking as on border, they don't put stamp on Passport."
This question typically arises in connection with the ERRONEOUS reliance on entry stamps into other countries when entering dates of exit from Canada. Sometimes those dates are accurate as to the date of exit. Many times they are NOT accurate, for a variety of reasons (ranging from red-eye flights, Trans-Pacific flights, layovers where passport was not stamped, among other circumstances).
Date of exit from Canada is the date the flight departs the airport with a destination outside Canada. Just like the date of exit when driving across the Canadian/U.S. border is the date one physically leaves Canada.
Being in Canadian airspace on an international flight is NOT being in Canada.
Date of entry into Canada is the date the person actually clears the border control . . . sitting in a line of cars on the Canadian side of the Lewiston-Queenston Height bridge for a half hour and then going through the border control after midnight, means the date of entry is that date after midnight,
NOT the day before when the traveler was sitting on the Canadian side of the Lewiston-Queenston Height bridge waiting to be cleared at the border.
If a flight lands at Pearson in Toronto BEFORE midnight, but it is AFTER midnight when border control is passed, the date of entry is the latter, the after midnight date when border control was completed.
