Within the next 12 months I’ll be eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship. However according to their forms and such like I’ll have to declare each and every absence from the country, including all of my hundreds of trips in the truck to the US over the past 4 years. This will of course bring me under the 1095 days of physical presence required for a straight forward application and will have to go in front of a citizenship judge to determine whether my work related absences are legit and allow them to be counted towards the 1095. From what I can gather this is just a procedure and apart from the time delay it wont actually affect my application. Has anyone on here applied for citizenship when they’ve spent all or most of the prior 4 years crossing the border in the truck every week etc and if so what were your experiences with the application, the citizenship judge and so on? I’ve only ever spoken to drivers who have applied and attained citizenship that got PR and then spent the next few years doing Canada only work so I don’t have any one elses precedent to go on here.
Sounds similar to getting a green card here, it can take a year and in that time not leave the US for any reason. You must get written permission to exit the country for any reason.
When we did our citizenship test , we also had to do an interview prior , when I mentioned to the Judge that I was a trucker and went South sometimes it suddenly became an issue , which I managed to back track on a bit and honestly say that the time I’d spent outside Canada was minimal , a few days here and there blah blah . Make sure you have the correct status or you’ll be binned and will have to start again at your own expense .
It’s a long winded process so get it right first time , an old Phillipino mate sat his test on the same day as us and failed , he’s still waiting to be called for a further interview with the Judge and has been told to allow 2 years 
flat to the mat:
When we did our citizenship test , we also had to do an interview prior , when I mentioned to the Judge that I was a trucker and went South sometimes it suddenly became an issue , which I managed to back track on a bit and honestly say that the time I’d spent outside Canada was minimal , a few days here and there blah blah . Make sure you have the correct status or you’ll be binned and will have to start again at your own expense .
It’s a long winded process so get it right first time , an old Phillipino mate sat his test on the same day as us and failed , he’s still waiting to be called for a further interview with the Judge and has been told to allow 2 years
On the forms it asks for a complete list of each and every time you cross the border, even for work with the truck. I’ve just gone through my 2010 log books and it was over 40 times that year alone. According to CIC being out of the country on business of a Canadian company, ie a truck driver or working for an airline is meant to count towards citizenship days but has to be cleared by a judge first. Most of my jobs have involved weekly trips over the border and I’m definetely out of Canada more often than I’m in it due to the job, which im sure is true for almost all long haul drivers.
Hate to say it , but if it has to cleared by a Judge you could be in for a long wait . Forgetting your time spent in the land of idiots how soon would you qualify for citizenship ? Might be worth saving the aggro .
I asked this question on another forum last year and was advised by a dozen or so people including a pilot not to go the route of counting days outside of Canada and going in front of a judge.
The pilot had done it that way and said if he had only waited to get his time in, in Canada, he would have got his citizenship about 18mths before he actually did.
He also said the counting of the days was a nightmare 'cause when coming or going, what time of day you cross depends if you can count that as 1 day or 1/2 a day and any time before getting PR are only counted as 1/2 days
Although I had a fair few days in Canada in the first 3 years, I decided to forget about them and get my time in en-block, I’ve spent 3 years in Canada on June 12th so will be applying then.
The problem is that due to the job, I’m inside the US about 80% of the time. I’m only in Canada either when I’m at home or doing a quick tip or load in NB or NS, then back over the border again. If I’m only counting days of actual physical presence, I’ll never, ever be eligible as I’d never get the required 1095 days within the four year time frame, unless counting the days spent out of the country with work, and hence the judge.
When we’re saying to “forget” about those days out of the country, are we saying to just tell them that I haven’t actually crossed the border with the truck and count all time here as days present, save for trips back to the UK etc? I’d be seriously worried about doing that in case they actually knew about my absences and then threw my application out. I know they scan my PR card each time I arrive back at the Canadian border, but unless they share information with the US side, they wont know when I’ve actually left. It would still be a huge risk to take. Unless that’s what every one does?
According to their calculator on the CIC website, I’ll be eligible to apply on January 28th 2014, that’s without declaring my days away in the truck though.
Is’nt the key word ’ residence’ here ? True it was back in 1982 when i became a USC but then you had to have lived in the US for seven years, i was on long distance and been to Canada a few times but the immigration interviewer did’nt care about that, i’d been a US resident for the seven years. It would seem to me Robinhood that you have a residence and a job and are paying taxes in Canada so i’d class that as living in Canada, no matter what your job is.
But as usual i’ve probably over simplified the situation 
Charles
They want 1095 days of “physical presence” in Canada in a four year period. So three years in four. Any days spent outside of Canada, for whatever reason have to be declared, even if they’re for work with a Canadian company, such as myself being a truck driver, or someone working for Air Canada etc etc. These days are then not counted towards the 1095, which would mean under normal circumstances I’m not eligible and in which case it would go to an citizenship judge to decide whether I’m to be given citizenship or not. From what I’ve been reading that adds years to the process and they could simply turn around and reject me any way.
In my job I’ll never get 1095 days of “physical residence”, it will just never happen. In order to obtain that I’d actually have to move away to another province where local/Canada only work was available on wages that exceed the minimum wage.
Thanks for the explanation Robinhood, good luck on whatever you choose to do.
Charles
Robinhood, that’s correct and afaik, any days earned towards citizenship before getting PR are only counted as 1/2 days.
On the CIC website there is a calculator, even that’s hard to work out. If you cross the border late pm or come back in CA early am it determines whether you can count it as a day, 1/2 day, or even at all.
It gets very complicated working it out, then that CIC judge goes through it with a fine toothcomb and that’s why it takes so long.
When I was on long haul Can/US, I was in CA maybe 1-2 days then anything up to 7 days in US, sometimes turning around and going south on the same day again and again depending what time of day you cross border determines if you can count it.
All my time long haul was before my PR so would take forever to work out.
Also, what Remy says is what it should be logically, you are based in CA, live in CA, still pay your taxes in CA & work for a Canadian company, but it’s like a lot of other things here, doesn’t make sense.
neilg14:
Robinhood, that’s correct and afaik, any days earned towards citizenship before getting PR are only counted as 1/2 days.
On the CIC website there is a calculator, even that’s hard to work out. If you cross the border late pm or come back in CA early am it determines whether you can count it as a day, 1/2 day, or even at all.
It gets very complicated working it out, then that CIC judge goes through it with a fine toothcomb and that’s why it takes so long.
When I was on long haul Can/US, I was in CA maybe 1-2 days then anything up to 7 days in US, sometimes turning around and going south on the same day again and again depending what time of day you cross border determines if you can count it.
All my time long haul was before my PR so would take forever to work out.
I’ve had PR since March 2011 so I wont really have all that much pre-PR days to work out and if that is an issue I’ll just wait a bit longer until I have 3 years worth of full PR days. All of this could be academic though, if the citizenship judge decides that being out of the country in a Canadian truck is just unacceptable and dismisses my case.
Now I wish I could of stuck at the Canada only job I was doing in late 2011. Unfortuntely I just couldn’t live off $500-550 at most so had to go back down the road on US work.
neilg14:
Also, what Remy says is what it should be logically, you are based in CA, live in CA, still pay your taxes in CA & work for a Canadian company, but it’s like a lot of other things here, doesn’t make sense.
In all likely hood, this probably will be the case but for it to be so I’ll have to wait ages to see an citizenship judge for him to say that it is. The possible saving grace there might be my location for once. Given that the Maritimes has very low levels of immigration compared to the rest of Canada, the waiting time to see the judge might not be so long. Time will certainly tell.
remy:
Thanks for the explanation Robinhood, good luck on whatever you choose to do.Charles
Thanks Charles. I’ll weigh my options up closer the time and decide then. Unless I’m in a Canada only job at that point and its worth waiting for enough days without having to declare cross border truck trips then I’ll probably apply early next year and go down the citizenship judge route.
Can only suggest you contact your local CIC office and take their advice , either by phoning them or waiting on the doorstep . Must be a way around this situation for you but make sure you do it the way they want , however bizarrely that may be
No way around this problem mate, I know several here in MB that have waited over 12 month to sit before the judge, had my pr since 2008 and just renewed the card, I will eventually apply for citizenship but right now cba to be perfectly honest…it’s too much hassle for little reward.
I’m not really bothered about waiting to see the judge if they’re going to “ok” my application. But if they’re going to start messing me around because I’ve been driving a Canadian truck on Canadian business, earning money which goes in to my Canadian bank account to pay for my home and life in Canada then they can take their face for the proverbial ■■■.
But that is all the judge needs proof of so it’s no worry. By the time you get to see the judge it’s a done deal. His job is to weed out the ones living in Canada and working abroad for foreign companies.
As much as I love the USA and my American family I have no desire to become a US citizen, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. People who come here from Eastern European countries and poorer countries want citizenship and I can understand that because basically they come from crap holes where they were very poor. I on the other hand come from the best country on earth to live in, America is not the best place to live, it’s citizens are treated ike crap compared to British citizens, forced to do jury service etc with a pittiful copansation in return, if it’s a long drawn out case you could go bankrupt and loose everything. It citizens are actually taxed to the hilt on everything even the lottery is a rip off and fixed nationwide 
It is set up to roll over contantly to get the highest jackpot possible and research shows that for someone to not get the numbers is so much against the odds a roll over should only happen on rare occassions, when you enter it says $300 millions for instance but if you win you will only get about 60% of it because the money grabbing oficials take it in tax even though you already paid them when you bought the ticket. When you buy a car you have to pay sales tax, so the government gets that but is not satisfied ! When you sell it the next guy pays the tax also, then the next guy too so this country takes triple or more tax on everything. There’s no real healthcare and unless you are rich they don’t care if you die.
I am British and proud of it, I have no need to become the citizen of a worse society
If I didn’t have an American wife and children I feel I would be long gone to the land with the best healthcare system on earth and no greedy Republicans