Automated Border Clearance Toronto Airport

It's been ages since this system has been in use @ YVR, myself since I first landed I've been using it and when you're asked to scan your PR card the entry date gets automatically recorded on CBSA's database, so I don't see any sort of implications.

Reminder: there is no indication that CIC relies on any source of information as a definitive accounting of all entries into Canada, or all exits from Canada.

While CBSA POE practices have increasingly been capturing information regarding all persons entering Canada, such that the CBSA travel history is increasingly a more complete record for most persons returning to Canada, it is my strong sense that CIC will not rely on such records to be complete.

CIC never relied on passport stamps to constitute a complete accounting of all cross-border events.

CIC primarily examines such sources of information, such records, to compare with what the applicant has declared, or with other sources, to identify inconsistencies or incongruities, mostly looking for red flags. That is, their approach is not to look at such information/documents/records in order to prove dates of entry into Canada, so much as they are looking for proof the applicant failed to either accurately or completely report all travel.

Producing all passports and other travel documents at all relevant is, of course, one of the most important submission of documentation the RQ'd applicant needs to do. But applicants should not be confused about what CIC is looking for in those documents: it is about verification, not about buidling stand-alone proof.

The stand-alone proof burden is on the applicant. CIC mostly wants to see all potentially relevant documentation and information so that it can compare it to the applicant's declarations, so that CIC can more thoroughly assess the veracity of what the applicant has declared.

Another important reminder: The subtext of this is very important, and overlooked by many, even though I (among others) have highlighted this often: proof of actual presence more than 1095 days does not make the case if CIC finds evidence the applicant failed to declare all absences. While I do not think that minor errors in reporting travel are problematic, if and when CIC identifies a material discrepancy, what CIC perceives to be a material discrepancy, in the reporting of travel outside Canada, that is a big problem for the applicant no matter how many days of actual presence the applicant has otherwise documented.

I realize this last observation may appear to be beyond the scope of this topic, but it is the real crux of what underlies CIC's examination relative to the residency obligation declarations, passport stamps, other travel documents, and CBSA travel history.

Yes, in the past the so-called missing stamp loomed often in the RQ context, and in the issuance of RQ following the documents check at the test/interview event. During the years we discussed, here, the missing stamp concern, it was often overlooked that the mere absence of a stamp for an entry into Canada was not the issue (for a long time PRs from visa exempt countries, travel to Canada from a visa-exempt country, often did not have their passports stamped -- and for land crossings, many PRs did not even present any ID at the border -- for me, I did not have to present ID when entering Canada by land for more than a year after I landed as a PR); the issue was whether or not an expected stamp was missing, indicating the potential use of an alternative travel document. What many failed to grasp was that even the absence of stamps reflecting transit from one country to another, where expected by CIC, could draw attention and raise questions or concerns, and again, the concern was rooted in the possibility the individual had alternative travel documents not fully disclosed to CIC.

In this regard, while some here deny this, actually CIC personnel are usually very familiar with a great deal of information about the practices of not only other government agencies (like CBSA) but also with border control officials in other countries. Not perfectly of course. But enough so that they could screen for these things. And, again, since the screening is not about building a case on behalf of the applicant, but rather about looking for discrepancies, inconsistencies, or anomalies, this tends to largely (but not perfectly) suit CIC's objectives in examining this information.