How Canada counts your physical presence days

To apply for Canadian citizenship, you need to have been physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days during the five years before you apply. That sounds simple until you start counting real trips — which is where most people get it wrong.

1,095 days, inside a five-year window.

To be eligible, you need 1,095 days of physical presence in the five years immediately before the day you apply. Only those five years count — time before that window doesn't help you.

Two more requirements people often miss:

• You must have been a permanent resident for at least two years (730 days) within that five-year window.
• Days you spent in Canada before becoming a PR — as a temporary resident or protected person — count as half a day each, up to a maximum of 365 days.

IRCC recommends applying with more than 1,095 days as a buffer, in case a trip was miscounted. A small cushion protects you from a rejected application over a day or two.

The part that trips people up.

Here's the part that trips people up. When you take a trip outside Canada:

So a trip isn't "how many days was I gone" — it's "how many full days did I spend entirely outside Canada." This is how BorderLog counts every trip, following IRCC's absence guidance.

A full day, entirely outside Canada.

An absent day is a full calendar day spent entirely outside Canada — not a travel day where you crossed the border.

One more thing that doesn't count toward your 1,095: any time spent serving a sentence (prison, parole, or probation) is excluded from physical presence.

For cross-border work, the math gets slippery fast.

See the rule applied.

The pattern — absent days = nights away − 1 for a single continuous trip (the departure and return days are both present).