What the application requires
Naturalisation is voluntary and there is no deadline, so the question is rarely whether to apply and usually whether the days are there yet. The presence rule is the part people miscalculate, because it counts some time at half and excludes some altogether.
- 1,095 days in the five years before you apply. Not five years of residence. A specific count of days physically in Canada in a fixed window that closes the day before you sign, since the department's instructions state that you must meet the requirements the day before you apply and that the day of application itself cannot be counted.
- The department says 730 of them must be as a permanent resident. That figure is not in the presence provision of the Act, which sets 1,095 days and caps the credit for earlier time at 365. The 730 is what the cap leaves, and the department restates it as a requirement. Earlier time helps you reach 1,095 and does not fill it, although the deeming provisions for Crown service create counted days that are not permanent resident days, so treat it as the working floor rather than as an absolute of the statute.
- Earlier time counts at half, capped. Days as a temporary resident or protected person count as half a day each, to a maximum of 365 days of credit. Protected person time runs from approval of the claim, not from making it.
- One kind of day abroad counts in full. A day outside Canada residing with your spouse or common-law partner who was then a Canadian citizen employed outside Canada in or with the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration or the public service of a province. The equivalent credit for a child applies only where the Crown servant is a permanent resident, so the child of a citizen Crown servant gets nothing for those days.
- Three years of Armed Forces service can displace the presence requirement. For a first grant, three years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces in the six years before you apply, on the conditions the provision sets.
- Three taxation years of filing. Wholly or partly within the same five year window.
- Language and knowledge apply between 18 and 54. Speaking and listening at the fourth benchmark level, and a test on rights, responsibilities, history, geography, economy, government, laws and symbols. Outside that age band neither applies.
- The oath applies from 14. And your permanent resident card is collected or destroyed at the ceremony, which is why a passport becomes necessary straight away.
Work out whether your days add up
The presence rule in the form it is actually applied, including the half day credit and its cap. An indication only, and presence has to be proved day by day on the application itself. The five years is a fixed window of about 1,826 calendar days, so every day you enter below has to fall inside it and the three figures cannot overlap.
Your situation
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The prohibitions, which stop a qualifying application
| Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| Serving a sentence, on parole or on probation | A bar while it lasts, including a sentence served outside Canada for conduct that would be an offence in Canada |
| Charged with, on trial for, or appealing an indictable offence | A bar while proceedings are live, including an equivalent offence committed outside Canada |
| Convicted in Canada of an indictable offence, or of an offence under the Citizenship Act | A bar where the conviction falls in the four years before the date of your application, and a bar again where it falls between that date and the day you would otherwise be granted citizenship or take the oath. The Citizenship Act offences it covers, being those under sections 21.1(1) and 29.2(1) and (2), count whether or not they are indictable. This bar operates subject to the Criminal Records Act |
| Convicted outside Canada of an equivalent to an indictable offence | A bar where the conviction falls in the four years before you apply, and it applies regardless of whether you were pardoned or otherwise granted amnesty for the offence |
| Treason with a life sentence, or a terrorism offence with a sentence of five years or more, while a permanent resident | A permanent bar on a grant, with no time limit |
| Specified offences under the National Defence Act or the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act, while a permanent resident | A permanent bar on a grant, on the terms the provision sets |
| Service as a member of an armed force of a country, or of an organized armed group, engaged in armed conflict with Canada | A permanent bar on a grant |
| Matters under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act | A bar where you are under investigation, charged or convicted under the relevant sections |
| Requiring authorisation to return to Canada without holding it | A bar |
| Misrepresentation | A prohibition in itself, and a further five year bar after it. It covers withholding material circumstances as well as active misstatement, and it bites where an error could have been induced rather than only where one was |
| Citizenship previously revoked | A ten year bar on being granted citizenship again. Resumption is barred permanently for a person subject to a revocation decision or declaration, so the route back is permanent residence and then a fresh grant |
The two four year conviction bars are separate and are not qualified in the same way. The domestic bar applies subject to the Criminal Records Act, so a conviction can cease to be a bar through its operation, while the foreign bar applies whether or not the person was pardoned or granted amnesty, so a pardon does not help there. The permanent bars survived the 2017 amendments and were amended as recently as 2024, so although citizenship cannot be revoked for terrorism or treason, facts of that kind can still bar a grant to someone who is not yet a citizen. Whether a foreign offence is equivalent to an indictable offence in Canada is a legal question rather than a matter of the label used abroad, and it is worth answering before an application is filed rather than after.