Guys can anyone elaborate...I thought it was two out of five years but as I was browsing through I found this. Is it just out of date and has anyone got an uptodate link???

Becoming a Canadian Citizen


Here is useful information about becoming a Canadian citizen. Read this page to decide if you are ready to take this step.

To become a Canadian citizen you must:

be 18 years of age or older;
be a permanent resident of Canada;
have lived in Canada for at least three of the four years before applying;
be able to communicate in either English or French;
know about Canada;
know about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship;
Please note that time spent in Canada before becoming a permanent resident may be counted towards becoming a Canadian citizen.

(Direct post from CIC site - honest )

The above from CIC is correct, two out of five is what you need to maintain PR status.

Iain

Ian I'm sorry to be so dense (I'm really not having a good day) but they say "have lived in Canada for at least three of the four years before applying;"

isn;t that three of four not two of five?? My question is really when can I apply having landed march 03?

Read my post under the thread total figures to date for PR/citizenship. Right to keep PR status, should not be mistaken with citizenship requirements.

You need to amass at least 3 years worth of time spent living in canada before you can apply.

If you landed in March 2003 then you should be eligible to apply March 2006 taking into account that you didnt leave the country during that period, although I have heard that taking a week here and there is sometimes waivered although it might slow down the application.

Spongebob, thanks for doing my thingking for me yesterday, I appreciate it.

Mickj...sorry I was so dense, I was looking at your link but not seeing it. 'm not thinking straight at the moment. Its not everyday that you find out your husband of 15 years is having an affair(hence the post velow that I need help with a hotmail account) ...guess moving to canadda wasn't the right move for all of us
Thanks for your help

Sorry to hear about that, after 15 years, what a shock it must be. I guess these things happen all over the world, but it must be especially hard under the circumstances.

Hotmail is easy to set up and use, you just need access to any PC connected to the internet to access it. File sizes you can send and recieve are limited to about 1Mb, and you have a limited amount of space to keep old messages, but really its pretty foolproof. Its a little slow sometimes, and a pain if someone sends you a jpeg, as the window shows a bitmap version that will not allow you to save the original jpeg. You can however set up "outlook express" to access your hotmail, which gets around the attachment issue.

Just to clear up any remaining confusion about the time thing. To keep your PR status in Canada you have to be present in Canada for a total of two years in any rolling 5 years. Any less than that and they can take your permanent resident status from you.

Once you have been present as a permanent resident in canada for three years (1095 days) in any four year period (or in effect three straight years after you land as a PR) you can apply for Citizenship, which allows you to vote, do some government jobs and means you can leave canada indefinately, and still have the right to come back and live here later, to basically come and go as you please.

There is a background check done, and a basic test on canada(nothing to worry about), then a month or two later you are sworn in as a citizen, and issued with a card and certificate. FWIW I was sworn in today! "I am canadian!" . Took me 11 months from start to finish of the process, once the three year requirement was met. Worth noting that any time outside of Canada is deducted from you time here, including day trips to the US on business, vacations abroad etc. Time in canada on a work permit before PR was issued counts as half, up to a total of half a year (one year real time)

Hope this helps a little. I really wish I had some magic words to make everything seem better.

All the best

Iain

Iain, Thanks for the post. Congratulations too...how wonderful it must seem to be part of the club!!!

I do have a hotmail account...I was just trying to find out some details on the tart who thinks its 'fun' to cheat on her hubby with no thought for his or anyone else's feelings. Just thought I'd seen a lookup somewhere.

hi there,
Does anyone know how they(CIC) will deduct times when you are in out of canada ? suppose, when i left canada they didn't stample my passport for departure, even i didn't fill up any information sheet that allows to access my personal information. so, i need to clarify how they will count my status when i'm in out of country(Canada).

thanks for the hepl

You fill in the form, I dont know how they verify that the dates you give them are true and accurate. They did ask for a full copy of every page in my passport after they recieved my application, presumably to check for stamps to confirm dates, although for many trips to the US on business there is no stamp.

Honesty is definetly the best policy, as I am sure they have some way of checking...perhaps from credit card records or whatever.. i have no idea what personal records the government can access if it has grounds, but potentially there are the full resources of the RCMP and CSIS available to them. It is really not worth jeapordising the whole thing for the sake of waiting enough days to cover your absences. I am not sure, but from what I have heard, if they catch you cheating on the citizenship application they may fully investigate your PR status, so you could end up losing that too.

Iain

Congratulations Iain on becoming a "Canuck".

Want to celibrate at Tim Hortons in the Mall sometime.

I'll even pay just give me a call.

Frank C.

I came to Canada on a student visa in September 2000 before becoming a permanent resident in March 2003, when I can apply for citizenship?

Many thanks for your reply!

Iain
I don't have a specific reference, but as far as I'm aware, while day-trips to the US should be declared, a partial day spent in Canada counts as a full day.

I'd suggest asking the experts on the immigration forum.

Jeremy

The time you spent in Canada before becoming a PR will be halved, so if you were here for a year, that gives you six months. Then this follows:

Rules for becoming a citizen:

You are allowed to apply for Canadian Citizenship after you have been physically resident in Canada for three years (1095 days) out of the four years immediately preceding your application. Where exceptional circumstances exist, however, you may be allowed to apply even if you have not been physically resident in Canada for the required 1095 days.

In determining whether exceptional circumstances exist, Citizenship Judges examine the specific facts and circumstances of each individual case. Each case must be assessed on its own merits, and Citizenship Judges have considerable discretion in determining whether exceptional circumstances truly exist. Thus, it is extremely difficult to conclusively pronounce which circumstances will be deemed to be exceptional. The following is a list of factors which may, in some cases, lead Citizenship Judges to "bend" the 1095-Day Rule:

The applicant is physically present in Canada for most of the required period other than recent absences which occurred immediately before the application for Citizenship was submitted.


Even though the applicant leaves Canada on a regular basis, the applicant's immediate family and dependents continue to live in Canada.


The applicant's overall pattern of physical presence in Canada indicates that he or she returns home to Canada, and does not merely "pay a visit" to Canada.


Despite repeated absences, the total number of days absent from Canada are relatively few.


The physical absence from Canada is caused by a clearly temporary situation such as employment or study abroad for a limited period of time.


The quality of the applicant's connection with Canada is more substantial than that which exists with any other country, as reflected by the applicant's involvement in Canadian work and business ventures, community organizations, and payment of Canadian income tax.

Sorry, by day trip I meant go one day, stay the night, come back the next day. If you just pop over the border and come back the same day it doesnt count as far as I am aware.

As mick points out, if you base is in canada, but business trips to the US are keeping you below the time criteria, you can throw yourself on the mercy of a citizenship judge, but this really slows the process down, so if it is just a case of waiting a few days to make up the "lost " time, it is probably more pragmatic to wait and then apply.

Iain