The residence calculator is used to find out whether the adult (age 18 or more) permanent residents are eligible to get Citizenship in Canada. If you have permanent residence in Canada and you’ve lived long enough you can use this calculator, which will find out your eligibility. If not, it can also tell you when you will be eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship.
What are the requirements?
Before you apply for Canadian Citizenship, make sure you have completed at least 3 years (1,095 days) in Canada out of the 5 years (1,825 days). Please note that, without living in Canada for a minimum of 2 years as a permanent resident, you will not meet the residence requirements for citizenship.
Remember the following things while calculating your time in Canada:
- Preceding the date you file your application, only the 5 years will be taken into account.
- Before you became a permanent resident, each day you lived in Canada will be counted as half a day (for a maximum of 365 days).
- After you became a permanent resident, each day you lived in Canada will be counted as one day.
- If you ever served a sentence for an offense in Canada (for instance, prison, reformatory, probation, parole, penitentiary etc.), your time spent for that sentence will not be counted towards residence (there are some exceptions though).
- If you have less than 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada, it may affect your residence. However, whether you meet the requirements can only be determined by a citizenship judge.
The residence calculator does three different calculations to determine when you are eligible to apply:
- Basic residence,
- Basic residence considering the time spent serving a sentence, and
- Physical presence.
How do I use the residence calculator?
- Provide all the necessary information
- Put all the dates correctly
- If you ever spent serving a sentence in Canada in the last five years, you must list all the time
- If you have been away from Canada for a certain time in the last five years, make sure you list them as ‘absent’
The Calculation
After providing all the required information, the residence calculator will let you know if you meet the residence requirement.
If you meet the residence requirement, take a printout of that calculation and attach a copy to your Application for Canadian Citizenship – Adults. You need not fill in Physical Presence form (CIT 0407) once you have the copy attached. Please note that the date on the calculation printout, and the date of application used in this calculation, as well as the date of your signature on the application form, should be the same. Besides, the application signing date cannot be more than 90 days prior to your application received by IRCC.
If you do not meet the residence requirement, the calculator will then provide you the suitable date to apply for citizenship. You can take the print out of your result for your records. Before you send the application on that suitable date, make sure you redo the calculation. It’s because sometimes the circumstances change. For instance, the number of your absences may increase, which will have an impact on your eligibility.