How to get Canadian Citizenship- A complete guide

ByArindam Mallick

Introduction

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people get a chance to become Canadian citizens and enjoy all the rights and facilities the country offers. Getting Canadian Citizenship is challenging but not impossible. Many immigrants who live as Permanent Residents of the country apply for citizenship status and achieve it successfully every year.

This blog will take you through the different steps of becoming a Canadian citizen and will leave you with the right tips and strategies to approach this process right.

Let’s get started with what a Canadian citizenship status is. Citizenship status in Canada lets you become a citizen of the country, giving you the right to live, work, study, travel, and enjoy all the facilities the country offers. A citizen also receives social, political, and civil rights in Canada.

Canada is a multicultural and multilingual country that has been welcoming immigrants for a very long time. As a Canadian citizen, you get to become a part of a beautiful and gregarious community, getting a chance to grow and prosper as Canada moves forward too.

What is the difference between PR and Citizenship

 When you apply for Canadian Permanent Residency (PR), you are given a valid PR card for five years. You can choose to renew it later. As a permanent resident, you can live, work, study anywhere in the country, be eligible for healthcare and other social benefits, and be protected under Canadian law.

You are eligible to apply for Canadian Citizenship later on too.

With Citizenship, you are eligible for all the above and also become a citizen of the country permanently, without the need to renew your status periodically. You get all the rights any citizen by birth enjoys in the country, including voting and running for political office. Citizenship status is the ultimate residing status Canada offers to immigrants.

Benefits of Canadian Citizenship

Why are so many people waiting to receive their Canadian citizenship status? Here are all the benefits of becoming a citizen of the country.

  • Certain jobs in the country are eligible only for citizens as they can be offered without going through security clearances.
  • A Canadian citizen can vote and run for any political office.
  • People with PR statuses have to keep worrying about renewing their status and losing it in some instances. Once you become a citizen, you remain a citizen of the country and won’t lose the status except in very rare cases.
  • Canadian Citizenship gives you the ability to travel with a Canadian passport to anywhere in the world. Do note that Canada also allows dual Citizenship.
  • As a citizen, your children become Canadians by birth, and they do not have to go through the process of obtaining Canadian Citizenship later in their lives.

Canada Citizenship- Eligibility

Now, there are specific eligibility requirements for you to apply for Canadian Citizenship. Make sure you satisfy all the below criteria.

1.      You should be a permanent resident of Canada

While a permanent resident in the country, you should have fulfilled all the PR conditions required. Also, you should not have been under review for fraud or issued a removal order in the years you stayed as a permanent resident.

Do note that you can apply for Canadian Citizenship even with an expired PR card.

2.      You should have lived in Canada for at least three of the last five years

You should have lived in Canada for at least 1095 days out of the previous five years. The more days you stay in Canada, the better it is for your application. For children under 18, the three-year requirement is relaxed.

3.      You must have filed your taxes if you are eligible

In the last five years of staying in Canada as a resident, you should have filed your taxes at least for three years.

4.      You must be able to speak either or both of Canada’s official languages (English or French)

Your language skills will be assessed from the time you submit your application. That is why it makes sense to have more than one pair of eyes checking your application. Also, your language may be assessed when you communicate with the officials dealing with your application all through the process.

Ideally, you must meet the Canadian Language Benchmarks of Level 4 or higher to apply for Citizenship. It means you should be able to listen and answer back in either English or French and have a basic understanding of grammar too if you want your Canadian Citizenship to be processed successfully.

5.      You must pass the citizenship test

The citizenship test is a mix of multiple-choice and true/false questions that could be written or oral. You will usually have to answer 20 questions and get 15 of them right to pass. The questions are usually about geography, economy, history, government, symbols, and country laws.

Apart from these five requirements, if you belong to one of the below categories, you may have other specific requirements too.

  • You are under 18.
  • You are applying for citizenship status for your adopted child born outside the country.
  • You are applying under the fast track category.
  • You gave up your citizenship status in the past and are looking to get it back

How many years should you reside in Canada to get citizenship status?

As mentioned above, you should have lived for at least three out of the last five years in the country to be eligible to apply for Citizenship. That will be more than 1095 days of residing in Canada.

Application Procedure for Canadian Citizenship

There are three ways that you can apply for Canadian Citizenship.

  1. Apply online
  2. Get the application package and apply on paper
  3. Fast track application for urgent needs

To apply online, you need to register with the IRCC website, get your login and password and fill out the form, attach the relevant documents, and submit online.

To apply on paper, you get the application package and use the instruction guide to understand the process. Fill up the forms and include all relevant documents needed. You will now have to pay the application fees online. Once that is done, send all the forms and documents through mail or courier to the below address.

Address for sending regular mail  Address for sending a courier
Case Processing Centre—Sydney Citizenship Grants PO Box 7000 Sydney, Nova Scotia  B1P 6V6 Canada  Case Processing Centre—Sydney Citizenship Grants 47–49 Dorchester Street Sydney, Nova Scotia  B1P 5Z2

You may be eligible to apply under the fast-tracking (urgent-basis) category in the following cases.

  • You have to apply for a new job.
  • You have to start school or college.
  • You will lose your job unless you get a citizenship status.
  • You can’t get a passport in your current nation, and there is an emergency there.
  • You have received a Federal Court decision on the appeal of your previous Canadian citizenship application.

If you want to know if you are eligible for urgent processing of your citizenship, do get in touch with us.

Documents Needed for Citizenship

The common list of documents needed to be submitted along with your Canadian citizenship application is mentioned below. Note that this is not exhaustive, and you may need to submit other additional documents too, in certain cases.

  • Actual application.
  • Online Physical Presence Calculation.
  • Two citizenship photos.
  • Photocopy of your passports/travel documents during the last five years.
  • Photocopies of two personal identification documents, like your passport, PR card, driver’s license, or health insurance card.
  • Proof of language skills, including results of third-party tests or government-funded language training programs or a diploma or certificate from education programs in Canada where you took up English or French as a language of study.
  • Application fee receipts.
  • The document checklist page received as a part of the application package.

If you take the help of representatives to submit your application, you need to attach the Representative Form too.

About BunchBerry Immigration

BunchBerry Immigration Services helps immigrants across the world enter Canada for work, education, or travel purposes. Our services include immigration and sponsorship programs, obtaining study and work permits, getting temporary visas, and helping with PR and citizenship statuses.

Feel free to contact us to know the best way to get your Canadian citizenship.