Does your Canadian parent need 1,095 days in Canada?
Learn when the 15 December 2025 connection rule may apply and how to avoid common physical-presence mistakes.
Does the 1,095-day rule apply to your parent?
Not in every case. Start with whether a qualifying parent was Canadian at the birth or adoption. Then identify the exact legal basis of that citizenship.
The date matters only after those questions.
Was the birth or adoption before 15 December 2025?
For a foreign birth before 15 December 2025, the new 1,095-day rule does not apply. Parentage, status timing, historical deeming, and exclusions still need proof.
A foreign adoption before that date may use the separate section 5.1 grant without the new connection threshold. It still must satisfy every adoption condition and receive IRCC approval.
Royal Assent on 20 November 2025 did not start the rule. The commencement date was 15 December 2025.
What about an event on or after 15 December 2025?
For a later foreign birth, section 3(3) applies the connection rule to specified citizenship categories. For a covered foreign adoption, section 5.1(4) applies a parallel rule.
A parent born in Canada or ordinarily naturalized before the event generally transmits without this test. A parent in a listed descent, direct-adoption-grant, remedial, or historical category may need 1,095 days.
A parent's foreign birthplace is not enough to choose the category.
How are the days treated?
The days are cumulative. They do not need to be consecutive.
They must belong to the same qualifying Canadian parent. Never pool one parent's days with the other parent's days.
Only days before the legally relevant birth or adoption count. Days accumulated afterward cannot repair the statutory test for that event.
Do not replace physical presence with:
- Canadian residence on paper
- ownership of Canadian property
- tax filing or tax residence
- remote work for a Canadian employer
- an intention to live in Canada
Those records may help corroborate a period. They do not automatically prove the person was physically in Canada on each claimed day.
How should the parent document presence?
IRCC's CIT 0555 form page provides the current physical-presence calculation form. Download it again when filing.
Build a day-by-day ledger and compare it with independent records such as passports, entry and exit data, work and education records, leases, government records, and other reliable evidence.
Overlaps, partial days, transit, gaps, and conflicting records need manual review. This site does not publicly conclude that the threshold is met.
What is the Crown-service exception?
Sections 3(5) and 5.1(5) contain precise exceptions for listed overseas service in or with the Canadian Armed Forces, federal public administration, or provincial public service.
The rule can involve the parent or, in specified circumstances, the parent's parent or adoptive parent. Locally engaged people are excluded. Contractor or diplomatic-family facts do not automatically qualify.
Collect employer-issued proof of the role, employer, posting, transfer dates, and locally engaged status. Every Crown-service claim needs specialist review.
What should you do next?
First classify the parent's citizenship basis and its effective date. Then fix the exact birth or adoption date.
If the rule may apply, make one ledger for one parent and stop it at the event date. Keep the other parent's case separate.
Read the descent and proof guide or the adoption guide for the correct process boundary.
Sources checked: 27 August 2026. Verify the current Act, CIT 0555, and IRCC filing instructions again before filing.