Canada citizenship with US GC

As far as I know there is no such requirement. As long as you have fulfilled the residency requirement, and you have applied, I dont think there should be any problem. Bcoz once you file your application, the days have your application date are not considered for residency. But I think you have to keep your permanent address in Canada still. Bcoz they might question you on that. And about the CIC call centre, I have had experiences in the past, they never give you their personal experience or suggestion, but only tell you the information that is given on their computer screens, whether it answers your question on your situation or not.

Question is how long ago did u apply? If it is only a matter of couple of months, you might as well stay in canada for that and then go back to US after u get ur citizenship. Then there will be no body to question you on keeping double PRs. One more thing, this might sound absurd to you, if you have decided to live in US, why bother getting CC, since that might jeopardize ur US GC...

While this site is sponsored by a law firm, I have never seen Mr. Singer or anyone else from the law firm post in these forums or in its previous rendition.

Occasionally some who post here claim to be certified "consultants" but I have never found their imput to be credible or reliable. They are, it seems to me, trolling for clientele.

While I personally know very little about how your Canadian status might affect your U.S. Green Card, it is my impression that unlike requirements for Canadian Permanent Residents, there is an intent requirement for U.S. green card holders, and thus if the GC holder goes abroad with the intent to live outside the U.S. permanently they are no longer eligible to retain their green card status. That, I believe, is probably what underlies the comment by the U.S. lawyers regarding being both a Canadian PR and a U.S. green card holder ... technically no go at the same time.

Except you are already a Canadian PR holder and the Canadian requirements are based on a residency requirement you have met and which (from what you say) suggests that your Canadian PR status is good for nearly another three years (basically a Canadian PR who has been continuously or near to continuously in Canada for at least two years can, at any time, leave Canada and remain away from Canada for up to three years before being in breach of the residency requirement, and intent has nothing to do with it -- meaning you can leave Canada with the intent to live permanently in the U.S. without that affecting your Canadian PR status ... until enough time has passed that you are approaching having less than 730 days in Canada during the previous five year time frame).

So there is no reason why you could not do what you did, that is go to the U.S. and be a green card holder, with the intent to live in the U.S., without jeopardizing your Canadian PR status for the time being.

Where does that leave you relative to your application for Canadian citizenship?

Strictly speaking, I believe, in terms of the "residency requirement," your eligibility for Canadian citizenship is based entirely on your status plus your residency in Canada during the four year time frame immediately preceding the day you submitted the application. Based on that you should be OK. Will taking the oath of citizenship be something inconsistent with the intent requirement for the U.S. green card? I do not know.

That said, however, foremost you need to appear at the times CIC schedules you for the citizenship test and interview; this can often be on quite short notice. And you need to appear at the time scheduled for the oath. Again, this is oft times on short notice.

Moreover, time you spend outside Canada after submitting the citizenship application can be examined by the citizenship officer and/or the citizenship judge. You will, of course, have to present your passport at the time of the test/interview and it will appear that you have landed in the U.S. as a green card holder, and, well, I do not know the odds at all, but there is a significantly increased chance that will evoke RQ, delaying the processing of your citizenship application, requiring you to provide extensive documentation relative to residency, and in effect push you to more affirmatively prove that you met the residency requirement. Again, strictly speaking, this should still be focused on your residency during the four year time frame leading up to the day preceding the submission of your citizenship application, but where you have gone since is, well, something that may affect how a citizenship judge assesses the evidence for the relevant four year time frame.

Short answer, then, is "yes, your move to the States can be an issue," but it should not preclude your being granted Canadian citizenship eventually and so long as you appear when scheduled, and so long as you satisfactorily prove you established a permanent residence in Canada and was actually, physically present in Canada for at least 1095 days during the four years immediately preceding the date you applied.

Edited by dpenabill - 26 Jan 2011 at 1:32am

They will look at your passport. They will, most likely, recognize that you have become a permanent resident in the U.S. No need to "worry" about this; more like count on it.

And, thus, it is my impression that they will elevate the level of scrutiny applied to your application because of that. Whether or not that means RQ, I cannot guess, though as I said I think the prospect is relatively high. Or, they may simply ask a few more detailed questions, perhaps ask you to submit some additional documents, without invoking the formal RQ.

I believe you are supposed to advise CIC of an address change and, in particular, if you have moved abroad during processing. I am not sure, however, to what extent a failure to do so affects one's case so long as the applicant is getting mail delivered (in some way) timely enough to appear when scheduled.

I doubt your rationalizations/explanations for wanting to still forge ahead with obtaining citizenship would help much. They might hurt. They make it clear you have no intention of really being a resident of Canada, but instead want the status of citizen to facilitate the immigration of an adopted child. Probably not a good thing to bring up.

There are a few cases in which it appears that Citizenship Judges have been less generous toward applicants who have obviously moved out of Canada since submitting the citizenship application. I do not recall the particular cases off the top of my head. If you are at all fluent in conducting database searches, you might try examining some citizenship cases yourself.

You can search Canadian Federal Court decisions either at the Federal Court's site for decisions or at the CANII site.

very interesting case dpenabill, thank you for sharing.