Retention: The residence requirement

The Citizenship Act also requires 3 years of residence out of the 4 years immediately preceding the date of the application.

(Note - Residence does not necessarily mean physical presence in Canada.)

Once the issue of whether or not an applicant has ceased under Section 24 of the Immigration Act has been resolved, a judge must consider if the person has met the required 3 years of residence.

The fact that an applicant is absent from Canada in the four years immediately preceding the date of the application and has voluntarily surrendered permanent residence status (even if status is not lost under Section 24 of the Immigration Act) is as a substantial indicator that ties and connection with Canada may have been severed. The judge must therefore make a determination as to whether the applicant can claim a "connection to Canada" after having voluntarily surrendered permanent residence status.

Even if Immigration decides not to pursue enforcement action against the client, voluntary relinquishment of the IMM 1000 may mean that the client does not meet residency requirements under the Citizenship Act. It is therefore very important that all information surrounding any relinquishment of the IMM 1000 be provided to the citizenship judge for a decision on residence. (These cases are treated as residence cases by judges.)

Citizenship officers are obliged to carefully review all such files before granting citizenship and should refer, for possible Ministerial appeal, approved applications where a person has surrendered an IMM 1000 and has had significant absences before or after the surrender of the document.

In rare instances a person who has physically resided in Canada for at least 1095 days before applying for citizenship, could have subsequently surrendered permanent residence status. In these cases, it is necessary to resolve, through Immigration, whether the person is still a permanent resident. Where immigration decides not to pursue the case, the file need not be treated as a residence issue for citizenship purposes.

If there is any indication that the applicant might be subject to loss of permanent resident status, contact Immigration for clarification.