IMM5444E - Travel History - Period to be assessed

EIToumesol wrote: i became PR in 2009, landed, spent a couple of months over the next 2 years, then came back in 2011 to settle "for good". i have lived here in Canada for the last 3 years consecutively, cumulating approximately 80 days of absence since 2011. Questions : - the subject questionnaire indicates "Period to be assessed" in the Travel history ; my understanding of it is that, in a case like mine, i should therefore be able to indicate 2011-2014 ; since the first two years were spent abroad, and i do not wish to include them (nor have the couple of months spent here accounted for) - Correct ? - following up on the above logic, i have many stamps in foreign language on my passports, which i have to translate obviously ; but i do not intend on translating anything prior to 2011, since again i consider the first 2 years "obsolete" - Thoughts ? - any experience with certification of the colored copies of the passports ? Some tell me it has to be done ; my translator says she is certified ; others seem to have done without; supplying only translated copies, without specific certification (notary ...etc).

I do not know the particular requirements for translations attendant applications to renew a PR card. Canadian certified translators will usually know what the particular requirements are for the particular purpose of the translation.

But, you do not get to choose a selective "period to be assessed" for purposes of submitting information to CIC. The period to be assessed is the five year period preceding the date the application is made for the new PR card (or back to the date of landing and becoming a PR, if that was less than five years previous).

Indeed, for any time an assessment of compliance with the PR residency obligation is triggered, the period to be assessed will be based on five years from the date of whatever it is triggered the assessment (or, again, back to the date of landing and becoming a PR, if that was less than five years previous).

You can decline to follow the instructions and not include whatever information you choose to not include. Whether or not, or to what extent, that causes a problem will probably vary, perhaps depending on what CIC apprehends about the failure to include the information. For someone with nothing to hide, the failure to include the information is more likely to cause undue suspicions than including it.

Reminder: If CIC requests the information, it is by definition relevant. Not all relevant information is material (material information, for example, has a direct bearing on requirements or qualifications, or which can lead to information having a direct bearing on requirements or qualifications). The failure to include material information is, of course, equivalent to misrepresentation, that is misrepresentation by omission, meaning fraud, meaning grounds to deem the PR inadmissible and potentially revoke PR status. The failure to include relevant information which is not material is not nearly so serious, but it probably tends to arouse suspicions. Again, if CIC asks for the information, by definition the information is relevant.

Short version: it would be foolish to not disclose travel history for the previous five years (or going back to date of landing if that was less than five years previous).