Canada is a well-respected nation with strong roots of and value for immigration. It is a huge honor to become a Canadian citizen and avail a lot of great benefits that comes along. A pathway to becoming a citizen can be hurdle-free only if you understand and meet the requirements and been a law-abiding permanent resident of Canada.
Eligibility criteria for Canadian Citizenship
To qualify to apply for a Canadian citizenship, you must:
- Hold a permanent resident visa of Canada
- Have lived for 3 years out of past 5 years in Canada before the date of citizenship application submission
- Have filed all the taxes (if required) for at least 3 years
- Prove your language proficiency by scoring minimum CLB Level 4 or higher (if you are 18 to 54 years old)
- Pass a test about your Canadian rights, responsibilities and knowledge, i.e. 30 minutes long, written citizenship test based on “Discover Canada” (After you apply)
Application Process – Canadian Citizenship
Find out your eligibility
Before signing your application form, you must find your eligibility for Canadian citizenship. We have already explained the selection criteria, which you may refer.
Fill required forms
You’ll get an instruction guide and forms that you must fill out. You’ll also get a detailed document checklist to gather supporting documents. You must fill the forms with accurate information.
There is a different application for different applicants. including:
- Adult (18 years or older)
- Parent or Guardian applying for their minor child
- Minor child applying alone without Canadian parent
- Adult who served the Canadian Armed Forces
- Adoption by a citizen of Canada
- Stateless person who is born to Canadian parent/s
Pay the required application fees
Application fee also depends on whether an applicant is an adult, i.e. 18 years and older or a minor, i.e. under 18 years of age.
However, your fees may include a processing fee and a right of Citizenship Fee.
In case you are going to submit more than 1 application at a time, then you can make the payment for all the fees together. But, it is always advisable to pay the fees online only once your application is ready to be submitted and you should not forget to include the fee receipt along with your citizenship application.
Submit your application
You must ensure that you have properly signed and dated your application form and gathered all the required documents.
You can send complete and final application along with documents via email or courier.
In case you are applying for more than one person and wants the IRCC to process them at the same time, then you should put them in the same envelope. Else, the IRCC will process both the application separately.
Please note, for all the applicants who submit their application on or after April 1, 2015, their applications are processed within 12 months timeframe.
Get citizenship test and interview date
After submitting your application, the IRCC will review the same and may invite you for a citizenship test within few weeks after sending an acknowledgement of receipt letter.
They’ll send you a proper notice which will include the details like, test date, location and time. The Citizenship test is conducted either in English or French and will be of total 30 minutes. To pass the test, you must get 15 correct answers out of 20 multiple-choice questions.
After the test, you’ll have to appear for an interview with citizenship official. During this interview, you will:
- Get your citizenship test results
- Be checked for your language skills
- Be asked for application and original documents verification
- Be asked a few questions about your application
- Be evaluated as to whether you meet all the citizenship requirements or not