How the calculator counts
- Add trips, stays or both. Add your trips outside Canada, or your stays in Canada with Canada as the place. With trips only, every other day is a day in Canada. Once you add a stay in Canada, only the days you've added count up to today, so add them all.
- Only whole days abroad are absences. Any part of a day in Canada counts as a day in Canada, including the days you leave and return.
- Any 5 years can be checked. The count covers the 5 years up to the window end date, today unless you set another.
- New permanent residents get until their fifth anniversary. Add the date you became a permanent resident to check whether 730 days can still be reached in time.
- Time abroad that counts can be added. Enter the days abroad you spent with a Canadian citizen spouse, partner or parent, or on assignment for a Canadian employer.
The PR residency obligation
Permanent residents must be physically in Canada at least 730 days in any 5-year period. The window rolls, so an officer can look at any 5 years when you renew your PR card or cross the border, and some time abroad still counts toward the 730.
Days for Canadian citizenship
Citizenship asks for more: 1,095 days in Canada in the 5 years before you apply. Time abroad doesn't count, apart from narrow public-service cases, but days in Canada before permanent residence count at half a day, up to 365.