Why is February 29 (leap day) not counted as a presence?
The Citizenship Act states that an applicant for citizenship must have accumulated three years of residence. Three years has been interpreted in the jurisprudence as 1,095 days, which is why leap days are neither counted as a presence nor an absence. Q6: I think the residence calculator is making a mistake on my eligibility date. Looking at the number of days of residence I have, I think I should be eligible sooner than indicated. A6: In general, if you are missing a number of days to reach the 1,095 days requirement, you have to wait that same number of missing days before you are eligible. For example, if the calculation indicates you have 1,080 days of residence and you put today’s date as the application date, then you would normally be eligible 15 days after today. However, in some situations, you may have to wait longer to apply than simply the number of missing days.
