Citizenship & Long-Term Status
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Keeping status solid after years in Canada — and the fine print of becoming a citizen.
Renewing your PR card, cycle after cyclePR cards expire every five years but your status doesn't — long-term PRs mainly need to time renewals around travel and keep proof of their days in Canada.
Losing PR: residency breaches, appeals and renunciationPR isn't lost automatically by staying away — an officer must find you inadmissible or short of the 730-day obligation, and you can appeal on humanitarian grounds.
Citizenship math: the calculator and the tax-filing ruleBefore applying, run IRCC's physical presence calculator with every trip — and remember citizenship also requires having filed taxes for 3 of the last 5 years if required to.
Living with two citizenshipsCanada fully allows dual citizenship — the practical questions are whether your home country does, and remembering that dual citizens must enter Canada on a Canadian passport.
Your Canadian-born kids: citizens from day oneAlmost every child born on Canadian soil is a citizen automatically, whatever the parents' status — the provincial birth certificate is their first proof, and the rules differ for kids born abroad.