The 1,095-day rule
If your child will be born outside Canada on or after December 15, 2025 and you are Canadian by descent, you need 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before the birth. Three years, counted in days.
It reaches one group, and only one.
Most people who arrive on this page will find they are outside the test entirely. It was written for a narrow case, so the useful first question is not how to count the days but whether anybody is counting yours.
It applies to children born or adopted abroad from December 15, 2025.
And only where that child is beyond the first generation born outside Canada, which means the Canadian parent was born abroad as well. In that case the Canadian parent needs 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before the birth or the adoption.
It never applies where the Canadian parent was born in Canada.
A parent born or naturalized in Canada passes citizenship to a child born abroad outright. That child is the first generation born outside Canada and no day count has ever reached them. Nor does the test reach anyone born or adopted abroad before December 15, 2025: where the first-generation limit was the only obstacle, they became citizens on that date and apply for proof.
Two further exemptions catch people by surprise. The count does not apply where the Canadian parent was working outside Canada for the Canadian Armed Forces, or for a federal or provincial public service, at the time of the birth or adoption. It also does not apply where a grandparent was doing so at the time that parent was born. IRCC calls them Crown servants, and the exemption reaches a posting a whole generation earlier. Nor does any of this arise if you already hold a certificate and are simply replacing it.
Three years
1,0951,095
CUMULATIVE DAYS
of physical presence in Canada, before the child’s birth or adoption. Any periods, in any order, childhood included.
DAYS IN CANADASHORTFALL
One long period in Canada
1,250 DAYS · MEETS THE TEST
Three separate periods, added together
1,131 DAYS · MEETS THE TEST
365 + 366 + 400. SEPARATE PERIODS, ONE TOTAL
A shorter stay
980 DAYS · 115 SHORT
Days are cumulative. Separate periods add together and childhood years count. The count that matters is the one proven with records.
How the days are counted
Cumulative, never consecutive
The days do not have to run together. Separate stays add up, in any order, and the years you spent in Canada as a child count towards the total. Those are the ones people forget first.
A day is a day, however short
IRCC counts any calendar day spent in Canada, whatever time you arrived or left and whatever brought you. An afternoon counts the same as a full twenty-four hours, so the day you flew in and the day you flew out both belong in the total.
Only what happened before
Days before the birth or the adoption count. Time spent in Canada afterwards cannot make up a shortfall, however long it turns out to be.
Physical presence, and nothing else
Days you were actually in the country. Not tax residence, not owning a house, not holding a Canadian passport, and not intending to return.
These files turn on evidence, not arithmetic.
A parent can be certain they spent ten years in Canada and still be unable to show it in a form an officer can follow, and the showing happens when the application goes in rather than when the days were lived. Rebuilding a presence history usually means drawing on every one of these at once, so that each record covers the gaps in the next.
Travel history and entry or exit records
The spine of most files. They give every other document dates to be checked against.
Old passports and entry stamps
Frequently the only surviving proof of a stay that predates digital border records.
Tenancy, mortgage and home insurance
The only records that cover a continuous stretch rather than a single day. A lease running two years does work that a hundred entry stamps cannot.
Tax records and notices of assessment
Not presence on their own, but they corroborate the years a person says they were here.
Employment records and pay statements
They place a person at a workplace on dates an officer can verify independently.
School enrolment and transcripts
How childhood years get proved, and childhood years are worth as much as any other.
Medical and provincial coverage records
Coverage follows where a person actually lives, so the record follows the residence.
Employment insurance and social assistance records
Both are paid only to people living in Canada, which makes the payment itself a dated record of presence.
Gaps are normal. The reason to plan the evidence early is to find them while there is still time to fill them, rather than after the file has gone in.
If the days are not there
The child is not a citizen by descent, and that is a real loss. It is not the end of the road. They can be brought to Canada as a permanent resident and apply for citizenship later, which is the ordinary route and a slower one. Where a child would otherwise be left stateless, the Citizenship Act holds a separate provision for granting citizenship, and cases under it turn entirely on their own facts.
Start with what you know.
The first conversation costs nothing. You do not need documents, or even firm dates. Tell us what you have and we will work out which rule reaches your family.