Canada Permanent Residency

Key parameters
Presence	730 days
Period / Window	Rolling 5 years
Counting	Any part of a day
Alternative	Time abroad credits

This applies to every Canadian permanent resident, however they obtained the status, for as long as they hold it.

The obligation is stated as a minimum presence rather than a maximum absence: 730 days inside Canada out of every 1825. That leaves roughly three years of the five available to spend abroad, and the days don't have to be consecutive.

The window rolls, and is applied to whichever 5-year period is being examined at the moment your status is assessed — when you present a PR card at the border, or when you apply to renew one. For someone who has been a permanent resident for less than 5 years, the test is instead whether they could still meet 730 days within their first 5 years, which effectively gives new residents time to arrange their affairs.

Three categories of time abroad still count as days in Canada:

• Accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse, common-law partner or parent abroad.
• Being employed full-time by a Canadian business or the public service, on assignment outside Canada.
• Accompanying a permanent resident spouse, partner or parent who is themselves employed that way.

Permanent residency does not expire on its own, and neither does an expired PR card end your status. The card is a travel document; the status is separate and continues until an officer formally determines it has been lost.

• An expired PR card doesn't end your status. Status continues until an officer formally decides the obligation was breached — the real problem is travel. Boarding a commercial flight back to Canada without a valid card requires a permanent resident travel document, applied for from abroad.
• Time abroad with a Canadian citizen spouse counts fully. This is the provision that most changes the arithmetic, and it applies to the whole period of accompanying them, not a capped portion of it.
• Working abroad only counts under specific conditions. The employer has to be a Canadian business or public service body and the posting has to be a genuine assignment — working overseas for a foreign employer doesn't qualify, whoever you are.
• Humanitarian and compassionate grounds can preserve status. An officer can allow status to continue despite a breach where the circumstances justify it, including the best interests of any children involved.

Breaching the obligation doesn't strip your status automatically — it takes a formal determination, made at a border crossing or on a PR card application, and that determination can be appealed to the Immigration Appeal Division. Losing the appeal means a removal order and losing permanent residence outright, which also ends any progress toward citizenship, since the residence you built no longer counts toward it. Professional advice is strongly recommended in situations like this.

Comfortable compliance with plenty of travel

You live in Canada but travel abroad for work several months a year, averaging about 200 days in Canada annually. Over five years that's around 1,000 days, comfortably past 730 with room to spare.

Years abroad that still count

You spend four of the last five years in Germany accompanying your Canadian citizen spouse. Physically you were in Canada well under 730 days, but the accompanying provision counts that time as though spent in Canada, so the obligation is met.

A card renewal that surfaces the problem

You've spent most of the last five years abroad working for a foreign employer, with about 400 days in Canada. Your PR card expires and the renewal application puts your day count in front of an officer — which is where the breach surfaces, not at some earlier point.

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — Permanent resident status
• IRCC — Apply for or renew a permanent resident card