Guides · Time outside Canada
How long can a PR stay outside Canada?
To keep your permanent residence, you need at least 730 days in Canada in every five-year period. The 730 don’t need to be in a row, so the rest of the five years can be spent abroad — and some time outside Canada counts towards the 730.
Checked against IRCC’s pages on 17 October 2026. Sources: Understand permanent resident status, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, section 28, Guide 5445: applying for a permanent resident card, IRCC Help Centre: can my time abroad count toward my PR status?, Application for Canadian Citizenship – Adults (CIT 0002).
Which five years
- A PR for five years or more: the five years before you are examined — for a PR card, the five years before you apply.
- A PR for less than five years: the question is whether you will be able to reach 730 days within five years of the day you became a PR (IRPA s. 28).
Time abroad that counts
- Days with your spouse or common-law partner who is a Canadian citizen — or, for a child, with a parent who is one.
- Days working full-time outside Canada for a Canadian business, or for the federal, a provincial or a territorial government.
- Days with a permanent resident spouse, partner or parent who works full-time abroad that way.
IRCC’s Help Centre sets these out, and the PR card guide asks for documents for them from anyone who was outside Canada for more than 1,095 days.
Try a trip before you book it
The calculator opens on the PR card. Add a trip and tick “Planned” to see what it does to your 730 days, and to your citizenship date.
Keeping your PR status
858 days
in Canada in the last 5 years. 730 needed · it holds.
Becoming a citizen
19 February 2027
By this count, you reach 1,095 days in Canada then — 124 days from today.
34 days later with the plan.
More about these dates
By this count, you reach 1,095 days on 25 March 2027.
That is 158 days from today. 113.5 of them are credit for days before PR. The planned Brazil trip moves it later by 34 days; without it, by this count, 19 February 2027.
PR card: by this count you have 858 days in the last 5 years — 730 needed. It holds.
Your five years since PR end on 15 April 2029. The planned Brazil trip keeps the 730.
Estimates. Confirm with IRCC’s physical presence calculator before you apply.
Keep counting with an account: these dates and trips go with you, and the count stays up to date.
This browser didn’t let the page keep your dates, so they can’t go with you. Make an account anyway and add them there.
These are example dates — replace them with yours.
The days left
Every day, five years
25 Mar 2022 – 24 Mar 2027 · 1,826 days
The five years start 25 Mar 2022, but nothing counts before 1 Sep 2023, so the calendar starts there. The window slides with the date.
Every day from 25 March 2022 to 24 March 2027. 3 trips taken, 58 days away in all. 1 planned trip. By this count, the 1,095 days are there on 25 March 2027. Without the plan, 19 February 2027. Today is 18 October 2026. Brazil: 20 Dec 2024 to 8 Jan 2025, 18 days away. Portugal: 1 Jul 2025 to 21 Jul 2025, 19 days away. Brazil: 19 Dec 2025 to 10 Jan 2026, 21 days away. Brazil, planned: 20 Jan 2027 to 24 Feb 2027, 34 days away.
The same count has a page of its own: the PR card calculator.
If you can’t reach 730
You stay a permanent resident until an official decision is made on your status, even when you don’t meet the obligation. An officer can find that humanitarian and compassionate reasons justify keeping it; on the PR card application, that is question 5.7.
A long trip and citizenship
The days that keep PR are not the days that make a citizen: citizenship needs 1,095 in the five years before you sign — see how IRCC counts your days. And 183 days or more in a row in one country, in the four years before you apply and since you turned 18, means a police certificate from that country.