Do the day you leave and the day you return count?

You fly out on the 1st and land back home on the 15th. How many days were you away? It depends on which rule is asking, and the answers differ by up to two days per trip. Over a few years of travel, that adds up to weeks.

Two ways of counting, side by side

The residence rules ask how long you were away from home. You were at home for part of the day you left and part of the day you got back, so neither is a day away. The Schengen rule asks how long you were in the area, and you were there for part of both days, so both count.

Some people are counting both at once. Sam lives in the UK on a work visa, holds a passport that doesn’t need a Schengen visa, and takes the train to Paris. Pick a trip below.

Out to Paris on 1 Jul, back on 15 Jul

30JUN1JULOUT23456789101112131415BACK16

Away from the UKAustralia and Canada count the same way13 days away

In the Schengen areathe 90/180 rule15 days of stay

A whole day awayTravel day, counted as a day at homeDay of stay

Back the same dayBack the next dayTwo weeks

Sam lives in the UK and takes the train to Paris. The same dates give fewer days away from the UK than days of stay in the Schengen area, because the two rules treat the travel days in opposite ways.

Same dates, different answers: a fortnight in Paris is 13 days away from the UK and 15 days of Sam’s Schengen allowance. A day trip is no days away at all for the UK, but one day in Paris.

Australia: travel days are days in Australia

Home Affairs’ procedure for the general residence requirement, released under freedom of information, says:

“Days where the applicant arrived from outside Australia or departed Australia are counted by ICSE as days in Australia for the general residence calculation.”

We checked this against the department’s own Residence Calculator. A trip from 1 June to 31 August 2026 is 90 whole days away and passed the 90-day test; a trip from 1 June to 1 September, one day longer, is 91 and failed it. At the edge of a limit, the travel-day rule decides the answer.

One quirk for the paperwork: the travel list on Form 1300t leaves out countries you entered and left on the same day. “If you have travelled to and departed the same country within the same day, do not include travel details.” More in The Australian citizenship residence requirement, explained.

Canada: travel days are days in Canada

IRCC’s Physical Presence Calculator explains its own counting, with two examples:

“The day you leave Canada and the day you return is NOT considered an absence. Both are counted as days of physical presence because you were physically in Canada for a part of the day of departure or arrival. For example, an absence between July 1, 2013 and July 15, 2013 equals 13 days of absence. As another example, if you leave Canada on July 1, 2013 and return on July 2, 2013, this equals 0 days of absence. You must still declare this as an absence.”

Note the last sentence. A trip that counts as zero days still goes on your application, and so does a day trip: “List all absences, even if you come back the same day.” More in Canada’s 1,095-day physical presence rule, explained.

United Kingdom: only whole days away count

For settlement routes under Appendix Continuous Residence, the Home Office’s caseworker guidance says:

“You must only include whole days when calculating an applicant’s absences. Part day absences, less than 24 hours are not counted. For example, if the applicant was absent for 180 days during the 12-month period and started their journey back to the UK on day 180 but arrived on day 181, day 181 would not be a day of absence and the period would not exceed 180 days.”

The result is the same as Australia and Canada: 1 to 15 July is 13 days away. More in The UK’s 180-day rule for ILR.

Schengen: both travel days are days of stay

“The date of entry shall be considered as the first day of stay on the territory of the Member States and the date of exit shall be considered as the last day of stay on the territory of the Member States.”

So a stay from 1 to 15 July is 15 days, a weekend from Friday to Sunday is 3, and a day trip is 1. More in The Schengen 90/180 rule, explained day by day.

Overnight flights and time zones

• For the residence rules, use the date you left home and the date you landed back, each in local time. A flight out of Sydney at 11:30 pm on 3 March still makes 3 March a day in Australia.
• For Schengen, what counts is the date you crossed the area’s external border, in each direction. Fly overnight from New York and land in Paris on 2 July, and 2 July is your first day of stay, not 1 July.
• If you aren’t sure, count the extra day. For a limit you must stay under, counting one day too many costs you a day of margin. Counting one too few can cost you an overstay or a refused application. CitizenDays counts Schengen stays from the day you leave home for this reason.

Why a day either way matters

Two days per trip sounds trivial. But someone who travels ten times a year and counts both travel days as days away overstates their absences by around 20 days a year: over four or five years, enough to push an application date back by months, or to make them think a trip breaks a limit when it doesn’t. Counting the Schengen way for a residence rule does the opposite of what you want, and so does counting the residence way for Schengen.

CitizenDays applies the right convention to each rule automatically, so one trip log gives the right answer for all of them.

Questions people ask

Does a day trip count as a day away?

Not for Australian or Canadian citizenship or UK settlement: you were home that day. Canada still wants it listed. For Schengen, a day trip is one day of stay.

I left just before midnight. Is that a day away?

No. For the residence rules, the departure date is a day at home whatever time you left.

I came back the day after I left. How many days was I away?

None, for Australia, Canada and the UK. IRCC’s own example: leaving on July 1 and returning on July 2 “equals 0 days of absence”.

Sources

1. Home Affairs: General residence requirement procedure, released under FOI (PDF)
2. Home Affairs: Residence Calculator
3. IRCC: Physical Presence Calculator, frequently asked questions
4. Home Office: Continuous residence guidance
5. European Commission: Short-stay calculator user manual (PDF)
6. Home Affairs: Form 1300t, Application for Australian citizenship (PDF)

We last checked these sources on 5 October 2026.