Start with your PR date and travel dates
Record the date you became a permanent resident, then list trips outside Canada with both the departure and return dates. The PR date anchors the first period. Time before that date is not PR presence in this counter, even if you were already living in Canada.
Any part of a day in Canada counts as a presence day. A departure date and a return date therefore count in Canada; only the dates strictly between them are away. For a departure on 1 July 2026 and a return on 6 July 2026, the away dates are 2, 3, 4 and 5 July: four days. A next-day return has no whole date between the boundaries.
Keep the residency count separate from the printed expiry on a PR card. The count is based on the PR start date, the date being checked and the travel history. A card-renewal heading is a useful reason to review the records, but the card's expiry does not restart the residency window.
First period versus a rolling lookback
During the first 5 years, the initial period starts on the PR date and ends the day before the 5-year anniversary. The counter compares days already spent in Canada with the days still available before that end. This makes future return planning part of the arithmetic.
After the anniversary, older presence days can leave the rolling window. For an examination date, the lookback covers the preceding 5 calendar years and excludes that examination date. The calculator instead displays a count through its selected Date to check: it includes that date and uses the corresponding lookback ending there. Keep those two date labels distinct when comparing totals.
A rolling total is not a lifetime total. Days from the beginning of PR can stop contributing as the window advances. That is why a person with many past Canada days can still see the current total fall during a long period abroad.
Example: Alex’s latest return to Canada
Example: Alex became a permanent resident on 10 January 2025. By 4 October 2026, there are 608 counted Canada days after a trip leaving on 15 December 2025 and returning on 10 January 2026. Those travel boundaries count in Canada, while the 25 dates between them are away.
The initial period ends on 9 January 2030. The gap from 608 to 730 is 122 days. Assuming no further time away after returning, a return on 10 September 2029 leaves exactly 122 Canada days through that initial end date. The calculator therefore shows 10 September 2029 as the be-back-by date for this example.
That date depends on the assumed future stay. Add a later trip and fewer days remain available before the initial period ends. When the count is below the line after the first anniversary, the model has no equivalent initial-period return date to display. Read the count and the window together.
How Passport Days counts it
Passport Days counts presence after the PR date, uses calendar-year boundaries, and shows the current window plus the initial period. Its return projection uses the entered trips and an assumed stay in Canada afterwards. This count follows your days physically in Canada. Accompanying a Canadian spouse or parent abroad, some Canadian employment abroad and humanitarian considerations have separate treatment; the government’s guide in Sources explains those cases. Citizenship uses a separate count; compare the same trips in the Canada citizenship calculator.
Let Passport Days do this
Keep the count on your iPhone, with your trips already there. Counters and automatic tracking are Premium.
Watch your Canada PR days
Keep your permanent-resident residency goal alongside your recorded trips and status dates.
Fix a date once
Add or edit any stay. Later automatic tracking never overwrites your correction.
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Export CSV or a PDF summary from your phone; your records stay open when a subscription ends.
Questions
Must the 730 days be consecutive?
No — add your counted presence days within the relevant 5-year period. Separate stays can contribute to the same total.
Do departure and return days count in Canada?
Yes. Any part of a day in Canada counts. Only dates strictly between departure and return are away in this model.
Does renewing the card reset the day count?
No. The counter uses the PR date and the relevant calendar-year window, rather than beginning a new count at card renewal.
What does be back by mean?
It is a return-date projection from the counted days and available future days. It assumes the entered trips and the subsequent stay in Canada used by the calculation.
