Canada's PR Residency Obligation: 730 Days
Permanent residents must be in Canada for at least 730 days in every five-year period. Here is exactly how the count works.
Last verified: September 2026
In short: a Canadian permanent resident must be physically present in Canada for at least 730 days in every five-year period. The days do not have to be continuous, and any part of a day in Canada counts as a full day. Some time abroad can also count. Falling short does not end your status by itself: you remain a permanent resident until an officer decides otherwise.
- Threshold
- At least 730 days in Canada
- Counting window
- Every five-year period
- A day counts if
- Any part of it is spent in Canada
- Time abroad that can count
- Accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse, partner or parent; full-time work abroad for a Canadian business or the public service
- Applies to
- Permanent residents, not citizens
- Legal basis
- Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, s. 28
The rule
Permanent residence in Canada carries a standing obligation to actually live there. In every five-year period you must have been physically present in Canada for at least 730 days, which is two years out of five. Three points decide most real cases:
- The days need not be continuous. They are a total, not a single stretch. Short visits spread across the five years count exactly the same as one long stay.
- Any part of a day counts as a full day. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada treats a partial day of physical presence as a whole day, so arrival and departure days both count.
- The five years are the five before the check. There is no fixed anniversary. The obligation is assessed when you are examined: a PR card renewal, a Permanent Resident Travel Document application, or an examination at a port of entry.
Certain time outside Canada also counts toward the 730 days. The main cases are accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse, common-law partner or parent, working full time outside Canada for a Canadian business or the federal or provincial public service, and accompanying a permanent resident who is employed that way. AtlasDays counts your days physically in Canada; credited time abroad is not tracked, so you add that up yourself.
How to count it
- Fix the window: the five years ending on the day you are checked. AtlasDays uses the rolling 60 months ending today.
- List every stay in Canada that touches that window.
- Count every day a stay touches, arrival and departure days included. Overlapping stays count once.
- Compare the total with 730. This is a target to reach, not a ceiling to stay under, so the number you want is going up.
Example. Checked on 7 September 2026, the window runs from 8 September 2021 to 7 September 2026.
Priya was in Canada from 8 September to 31 December 2021, which is 115 days. She then lived abroad, returned on 1 March 2025 and has stayed since, which is 556 days to 7 September 2026. Her total is 115 + 556 = 671 days, or 59 short of 730.
Because the window rolls, every further day she spends in Canada during 2026 adds a day at the front and drops a 2021 day off the back, and those 2021 days were counting for her. Her total therefore holds at 671 until the last of them leaves the window at the end of December 2026. From 1 January 2027 the days falling off the back are days she was abroad, so each day in Canada adds one, and she reaches 730 on 28 February 2027.
Beyond the day count
Missing 730 days is not the same as losing status. You stay a permanent resident until an officer makes a decision, and a refusal can be appealed; humanitarian and compassionate considerations can preserve status despite a breach. If you have been a permanent resident for less than five years, the test is instead whether you will still be able to reach 730 days by your fifth anniversary.
This obligation is also separate from every other Canadian day count. It is not tax residency, which turns on 183 days in a calendar year and on residential ties. It is not the six-month visitor limit, which applies to people admitted as visitors rather than permanent residents. And Canadian citizenship has its own separate physical-presence requirement, so meeting the residency obligation does not mean you have met that one. Where your case turns on credited time abroad or on a decision already made, get advice on the file itself.
AtlasDays tracks Canada's PR residency obligation automatically
Log your trips once. The Canada PR Residency Obligation tracker counts your days in Canada across the rolling five-year window, privately on your iPhone, and shows how many of the 730 days you have and how many are still missing.
Get AtlasDaysFAQ
How long can a Canadian permanent resident stay outside Canada?
About 1,096 days in a five-year period, because 730 of that period's roughly 1,826 days must be spent in Canada. Time abroad that qualifies under the exceptions is not held against you.
Do you lose permanent resident status automatically after too long away?
No. You remain a permanent resident until an official decision is made on your status, following an examination, an inquiry, or an appeal of a refused travel document.
Do arrival and departure days count toward the 730 days?
Yes. Any part of a day spent in Canada is counted as a full day, so both ends of a trip count.
About this article: AtlasDays provides general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice. Rules change and outcomes depend on your circumstances, so never rely on it alone: check the linked official source or ask a qualified professional.