Residency obligation for permanent residents in Canada

The residency obligation in Canada is 730 days in every five year period, and permanent residents lose status over it more often than over anything else. The days you spent abroad are usually not the argument. What those days count as is.

About this work

What actually counts towards the 730 days?

Physical presence in Canada is the obvious one and it is not the only one. Section 28(2)(a) lists four other situations, and whether a person's days abroad fall inside one of them is where nearly every one of these cases is decided.

Days outside Canada accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse, common law partner or, for a child, a parent, count. Section 61(4) of the Regulations defines accompanying as ordinarily residing with that person on each day claimed, so it is about the household rather than about the marriage certificate.

Days employed full time abroad by a Canadian business count, and this is the one most often claimed and most often refused. Section 61(3) requires that you be an employee of, or under contract to, a Canadian business and be assigned on a full time basis, as a term of that employment, to a position abroad, an affiliated enterprise abroad, or a client abroad. The assignment is the point: the posting has to run outward from the Canadian business, not be a local hire that happens to sit under the same corporate umbrella.

Days accompanying a permanent resident spouse or parent who is themselves so employed also count, and section 61(5) provides that you comply as long as the person you are accompanying complies. A child, for these purposes, means somebody under 22 who is not a spouse or common law partner.

Written by the firm. Pending review by Kapil Rathod, Barrister and Solicitor, Law Society of Ontario licence 77122E.

The clock

Which numbers actually bind you?

730 days in every five years

The five year period is rolling, not fixed to the day you landed. An officer examining you looks back five years from the examination, so the answer can change month to month in either direction.

730 daysPhysical presence, or a counted equivalent, in every five year period
5 yearsThe period assessed, looking back from the examination
60 daysTo appeal a decision made outside Canada, from receiving it
365 daysPresent in Canada at least once in this window, for a travel document
22 yearsThe age below which a child counts as accompanying a parent

The obligation is section 28 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and the counted equivalents are in section 28(2)(a). The appeal period is Rule 16(c) of the Immigration Appeal Division Rules, 2022, and the Division may extend a time limit even after it has passed under Rule 4(e). The travel document condition is section 31(3)(c), and the definition of a child is section 61(6) of the Regulations.

Side by side

Where were you when it was decided?

6 points of difference

This is the first question, because the two situations run on different provisions, different remedies and different consequences. People describe both as losing status, and they are not the same thing.

Decided outside Canada

How it arises
You apply for a travel document or a new permanent resident card at a visa office and the officer decides you failed the obligation
The appeal
To the Immigration Appeal Division under section 63(4) of the Act
How long you have
60 days from receiving the decision and any written reasons, Rule 16(c)
When status is actually lost
On a final determination, under section 46(1)(b). Status survives while the appeal is live
Getting to Canada for the appeal
A travel document under section 31(3)(c) if you were here at least once in the previous 365 days and the appeal is live
What can save it
Compliance on the numbers, or humanitarian and compassionate considerations

Decided inside Canada

How it arises
You are examined at a port of entry or inside Canada and an officer prepares a report under section 44(1)
The appeal
Against the removal order, to the Immigration Appeal Division under section 63(3)
How long you have
30 days from receiving the removal order, Rule 16(b)
When status is actually lost
When the removal order comes into force, under section 46(1)(c)
Getting to Canada for the appeal
You are already here
What can save it
The same, argued under section 67(1)(c) on the appeal

The route

How does the process run?

7 stages, each with its own clock

Each rule below is set by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act or its Regulations, and the provision is named beside it. The Regulations cited are current to the 2026 consolidation.

01

Seven hundred and thirty days in every five year period

IRPA s. 28(1), 28(2)(a)

A permanent resident must comply with a residency obligation with respect to every five year period. Compliance means that on each of a total of at least 730 days in that period they were physically present in Canada or in one of the counted situations below.

02

Days abroad with a Canadian citizen spouse or parent count

s. 28(2)(a)(ii), IRPR s. 61(4)

A permanent resident outside Canada accompanying a Canadian citizen who is their spouse or common law partner, or in the case of a child their parent, counts those days. Accompanying means ordinarily residing with that person on each such day.

03

So do days employed full time abroad by a Canadian business

s. 28(2)(a)(iii), IRPR s. 61(3)

But not in the way most people assume. You must be an employee of, or under contract to provide services to, a Canadian business, and be assigned on a full time basis, as a term of that employment or contract, to a position outside Canada, an affiliated enterprise abroad, or a client abroad. Being hired locally by a foreign branch is not an assignment.

04

And a company set up to make the days count does not count

IRPR s. 61(2)

A Canadian business does not include a business that serves primarily to allow a permanent resident to comply with their residency obligation while residing outside Canada. This is written into the Regulations, and it is the reason arrangements sold for this purpose fail.

05

A new permanent resident is judged on the future, not the past

s. 28(2)(b)

If you have been a permanent resident for less than five years, it is sufficient to show that you will be able to meet the obligation for the five year period immediately after you became one. Only at five years or more does the test become whether you met it in the five years before the examination.

06

The count stops once you are reported

IRPR s. 62

Days after a section 44(1) report is prepared, or after a decision is made outside Canada that you failed to comply, do not count, unless you are later determined to have complied. Returning and accumulating days after being reported does not repair the breach.

07

Humanitarian considerations can overcome a breach outright

s. 28(2)(c), s. 67(1)(c)

A determination by an officer that humanitarian and compassionate considerations, taking into account the best interests of a child directly affected, justify retaining permanent resident status overcomes any breach before the determination. The same considerations are available on appeal.

Before the meeting

What to bring to the first meeting

6 things to bring

Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.

  • ✓Every passport you have held in the last five years, including expired ones
  • ✓A list of every departure from and entry to Canada, with dates
  • ✓The decision or the report, and any written reasons you were given
  • ✓If you claim days abroad with a spouse, their proof of Canadian citizenship
  • ✓If you claim employment days, the contract and the assignment letter
  • ✓Anything about children in Canada: schools, medical care, who they live with

Our approach

A clear path forward

The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.

Book a consultation
01

Understand

We take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.

02

Assess

You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.

03

Act

We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.

04

Report

You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.

Reported decisions

What has this work produced?

7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023

Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.

All case outcomes, including the client accounts

Where to go next

The residency obligation in Canada is 730 days in every five years, and these cases turn on what the days abroad counted as rather than on how many there were.

Where the numbers cannot be met, humanitarian considerations can overcome the breach outright, and the appeal against a decision made abroad has to be filed within 60 days.

Permanent residenceCanadian citizenshipRenewing the PR cardBook a consultation

Common questions

What do people ask about residency obligation?

8 answered here

Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.

Why do the Canadian business days so often fail?

Two reasons, and both are written into section 61 of the Regulations rather than being a matter of an officer's mood.

The first is the assignment requirement in section 61(3). A great many people work abroad for a company that is Canadian in some sense and assume the days count. They count where the person is assigned there on a full time basis as a term of their employment or contract. Where somebody was recruited in the foreign country, by the foreign entity, to work in that country indefinitely, there is no assignment and the days do not count however Canadian the parent company is.

The second is section 61(2), which says in terms that a Canadian business does not include a business that serves primarily to allow a permanent resident to comply with the residency obligation while residing outside Canada. Arrangements are sold on precisely this basis. They are excluded by the Regulations, and a file built on one is worse than a file that admits the days were short and argues humanitarian considerations instead.

There is also a definitional point that catches people out. A Canadian business has to have an ongoing operation in Canada. A corporation incorporated federally or provincially that does nothing here does not qualify under section 61(1)(a).

What happens if you are found not to comply?

It depends on where you are, and the two paths are genuinely different. Outside Canada, a visa officer refuses the travel document or the card and makes a decision that you failed the obligation. You have 60 days from receiving that decision and any written reasons to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division under section 63(4).

Status is not lost at that moment. Under section 46(1)(b) permanent resident status is lost on a final determination, so while the appeal is live you are still a permanent resident. That is not a technicality: it is what makes section 31(3)(c) available, which requires an officer to issue a travel document where you were physically present in Canada at least once within the 365 days before the examination and an appeal is pending or the appeal period has not expired.

Inside Canada, an officer prepares a report under section 44(1) and the route runs through a removal order, with an appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division under section 63(3) within 30 days. Status is lost when the removal order comes into force under section 46(1)(c).

In both cases the count stops when you are reported or when the decision is made abroad, under section 62 of the Regulations. Coming back and accumulating days afterwards does not cure the breach, and people who have been told otherwise have usually been told it by somebody who was not looking at section 62.

What does a humanitarian argument actually look like?

It is not a plea for sympathy and it is not a recitation of how much somebody loves Canada. Section 28(2)(c) lets an officer determine that humanitarian and compassionate considerations, taking into account the best interests of a child directly affected, justify retaining status despite a breach, and section 67(1)(c) gives the Immigration Appeal Division the same power on an appeal.

What carries weight is concrete: how short the shortfall was, why the person was abroad, whether the reason was within their control, what ties exist here, what happens to a child if status goes, and what was done to return once the reason ended. A person who was abroad for two years nursing a dying parent and came back the month after the funeral is in a different position from one who simply preferred to live elsewhere, and the evidence has to show which.

The best interests of a child directly affected are a mandatory consideration where a child is involved, and they are not a tiebreaker to be mentioned in a closing line. Where there are children in Canadian schools, the case is built around what happens to them.

The strength of the argument falls as the shortfall grows. Somebody 40 days short with a good reason is in a very different position from somebody who spent 700 of the last 1,825 days here, and it is fairer to say so at the first meeting than to charge for an appeal that was never likely to succeed.

How many days do I actually need?

730 days in every five year period, under section 28 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The period is rolling and is assessed looking back five years from the examination, so it is not measured from the day you landed and the answer can change month to month.

I work abroad for a Canadian company. Do those days count?

Only if you are assigned there. Section 61(3) of the Regulations requires that you be an employee of, or under contract to, a Canadian business and be assigned on a full time basis, as a term of that employment, to a position abroad, an affiliated enterprise abroad or a client abroad. Being hired locally by a foreign entity in the same group is not an assignment, and section 61(2) excludes a business that exists primarily to make the days count.

My spouse is a Canadian citizen and we live abroad. Am I covered?

Those days count under section 28(2)(a)(ii), provided you are ordinarily residing with them on each day claimed, which is how section 61(4) defines accompanying. It is the shared household that is being proved, so evidence of where you both actually lived matters more than the marriage certificate.

Can I just come back and build up the days again?

Not once you have been reported or refused. Section 62 of the Regulations stops the count after a section 44(1) report is prepared, or after a decision is made outside Canada that you failed to comply, unless you are later found to have complied. Before any of that happens, returning and accumulating days is exactly the right thing to do.

I am outside Canada and my card has expired. How do I get back?

Section 31(3)(c) requires an officer to issue a travel document where you were physically present in Canada at least once within the 365 days before the examination and you have an appeal under section 63(4) that has not been finally determined, or the period for making one has not expired. Status is not lost until a final determination under section 46(1)(b), so the appeal being live is what keeps this open.

Speak to someone this week

Bring your passports and a list of every entry and departure. The residency obligation in Canada is worked out from those before anything else is decided.

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