authorization to return now apply for citizenship

Be sure to answer all questions honestly and completely.

They know anyway.

If you submit your application this week, say by Friday August 5, the relevant time period that will count in the residency calculation will be from Aug 6, 2007 to Friday, August 5, 2011. Ordinarily time spent living in Canada prior to your landing in June 2008 and subsequent to August 6, 2007 would count at the rate of one half day for every day you were living in Canada. But, frankly, I am not sure about the credit in the circumstances you describe. And, more frankly, I would not count on that time. If that means waiting two more months (that's about all the credit you'd get from 2007) to apply, or three more months, that seems like a no-brainer to me. Why drag that history, by making it part of the residency calculation, into the calculation any more than it already will be?

Former refugee claimants seem to be scrutinized more than some other classes of PRs. Your history is going to invite some more scrutiny. You want to do this right. Better to not cut it close. Give yourself some margin and, frankly, enough distance from the 2007 stuff that it does not play a direct role in assessing your case.

I am not privy to the particular thought processes the CIC officers or CJs engage in when evaluating an application in such circumstances, but as a practical matter I'd note that when you left in December 2007 you were no longer "residing" in Canada and as such, for purposes of evaluating your citizenship qualifications, you really did not establish residency in Canada until June 2008.

So, whether or not technically you might get eight to ten weeks credit (half day credit for days in August to December) for being present in Canada in 2007, I do not know, but since that was before you came to Canada to live, again, I'd wait and not count on including that time in the calculation.