The answer to how long will it take to get citizenship in Canada is 7 months. To get citizenship, you must first become a permanent resident. However, being a Canadian PR is not enough as there are other criteria to meet too. It is important that the applicant meets all the requirements of citizenship before they apply.
After meeting the requirements and submitting the application, IRCC will take a separate amount of time to process your citizenship application.
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How soon does IRCC process citizenship applications?
As of 03rd October 2024, IRCC is taking about 7 months to process a Canadian citizenship application. This processing time is counted from the date IRCC receives a completed application and ends when the individual takes the citizenship oath.
In case an applicant submits an incomplete application, IRCC will return it.
IRCC may process your application sooner, if:
- They don’t have a large backlog of citizenship applications waiting to be processed
- They are not expecting to receive a large number of applications to process
- And, they have plenty of hands on deck.
Canada Citizenship Application Updation
In case you need to update your application after submitting it, you may inform IRCC about the same. You can update your application if any of the following circumstances apply to you:
- You changed your contact address
- You are charged with crime(s)
- For some reason, the application processing time has passed and you are unable to track your application
- You are planning to travel out of Canada for over 2 weeks or 14 days continuously
- You first applied as a group, however, now, you wish to continue the application alone
- You request an exemption for:
- the citizenship oath
- the citizenship test
- language proficiency test results
What to do after submitting a citizenship application?
After submitting the Canadian citizenship application, you must take the citizenship test. Taking a test is usually mandatory for applicants of age between the range of 18 to 54 years.
Once you pass the citizenship test, IRCC may invite you to attend an interview with a citizenship officer and then attend the citizenship ceremony.
Before 1 to 2 weeks of the citizenship ceremony, IRCC will send you an invitation email or mail. The invitation will contain the date and time of the ceremony, as well as the video conference link or location to attend the ceremony. Further, the invitation will mention in which language the ceremony will be held.
In case you wish to attend a bilingual ceremony, meaning you wish to attend a Canadian citizenship ceremony in both English and French, contact the office from where you received the invitation.
After you attend the ceremony, your Canadian citizenship process is completed.
So, from Canadian citizenship application submission to taking the citizenship oath, the whole process should be completed within 7 months. Hence, the answer to question, “How long will it take to get citizenship in Canada?” is 7 months.
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