A few weeks ago I published an article where I
explained how to become a permanent resident of Canada. The whole process is
complicated and takes a lot of time, but everyone who has enough motivation
will achieve it eventually. The next step after getting PR is to apply for
Canadian Citizenship so you will have all the extra rights & benefits,
which I explained in the second post on this blog. In this post I will focus on
the requirements for citizenship in Canada and proposed changes to the
Citizenship Act by the Liberal government.
In order to be eligible to apply for Canadian
citizenship you must meet each of the following requirements:
1.
PR status - your permanent residency status cannot be in question. In other
words, you won't be able to apply for citizenship if you were involved in
immigration fraud, convicted of a serious crime or lived in another country for
more than 2 years in the last 5 years. This requirement is about the status,
not the PR card. Even if your PR card expired, you can still apply to become a
citizen if you meet all the other requirements.
2.
Time spent in Canada - according to the current rules, you must be a
permanent resident for at least 4 out of the last 6 years, and you must live in
Canada for at least 183 days during each of these years in order to be
eligible. They will count only the time after you become a permanent resident.
Proposed changes - the Liberals want to reduce the time to 3 out of the last 5 years before the date of application, plus they will consider some of the time spent in Canada as a non-permanent resident (for example temporary worker or international student). Every day will be counted as a half-day up to a maximum of one year. This means that it will take at least two years after you become a permanent resident to be eligible to apply for citizenship. Under the current rules it's four years.
This link may be useful for people who would like to check if they lived in Canada for long enough to apply : Physical Presence Calculator
Proposed changes - the Liberals want to reduce the time to 3 out of the last 5 years before the date of application, plus they will consider some of the time spent in Canada as a non-permanent resident (for example temporary worker or international student). Every day will be counted as a half-day up to a maximum of one year. This means that it will take at least two years after you become a permanent resident to be eligible to apply for citizenship. Under the current rules it's four years.
This link may be useful for people who would like to check if they lived in Canada for long enough to apply : Physical Presence Calculator
3. Income tax filling - in Canada you have to file income
tax return only if you worked during the year and there is a tax liability. If
you did not file your income tax return in any of the last four years and you
were supposed to do it as per the Income Tax Act, then you won't be eligible to
apply for citizenship.
Proposed change - reduce the time to the last three years
Proposed change - reduce the time to the last three years
4. Intent to reside - according to the current rules, you
must declare that you intend to live in Canada during the application process.
Once you get the citizenship it's up to - you can move to another country and
you will be able to keep your Canadian citizenship.
Proposed change - remove this provision from the Citizenship Act
Proposed change - remove this provision from the Citizenship Act
5.
Language proficiency - in order to become Canadian, you must pass a
language test to show that you can communicate in English or French. Both of
them are allowed since both are official languages in this country. As of now,
everyone aged 14-64 years has to reach CLB/NCLC level 4 or higher in speaking
and listening. If you have completed a secondary or post-secondary program in
either of these two languages in Canada or abroad, you may be exempted from
this requirement if you can provide evidence of such education.
Proposed change - narrow the age bracket to 18-54 years.
You can check you CLB level here: CLB self-assessment
Proposed change - narrow the age bracket to 18-54 years.
You can check you CLB level here: CLB self-assessment
6. Citizenship test - in addition to the language test,
applicants aged 14-64 years have to take the citizenship test to show that they
have adequate knowledge of Canada and the responsibilities & benefits that
each citizen in Canada has. The test is focused on Canadian values, history,
institutions and symbols.
Proposed change - similarly to the amendment related to the language test, the age range for this test will be also reduced to 18-54 years old.
There are three ways to prepare for the test:
Proposed change - similarly to the amendment related to the language test, the age range for this test will be also reduced to 18-54 years old.
There are three ways to prepare for the test:
o sign up for special courses designed for people interested in applying for
the citizenship
o study the official guide for the citizenship test from the government's
website: Discover Canada: The
Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
o do practice tests online, for example here: Practice Citizenship
Tests
7.
Criminal record - people who have committed a crime in or outside Canada
and are in prison are not eligible to apply. You cannot be convicted in the
four years before the date of application for citizenship.
Revocation provision - since I wrote about the
proposed changes by the Liberal government related to the requirements, I
thought that it would be a good idea to mention about this provision as well
since it's quite important. In mid 2015, the government (Conservatives who were
replaced by Liberals a few months later) made a change to the Citizenship Act
known as the "Bill C-24". This change allowed the government to
revoke Canadian citizenship from dual citizens who were engaged in terrorism,
high treason and spying offences. They also made it more difficult for
permanent residents to get the citizenship. They increased the age range for
requirements #2,3,5,6 from 18-54 to 14-64 years. In addition they removed the
provision that allowed permanent residents to count some of the time before
they become residents towards the Physical Residency requirement from 3 of 4 to
4 of 6 years. During the elections last year, Liberals promised to unveil the
Bill C-24 and so everything would be almost the same as it was before implementing the bill.
Whether this move will bring any good to this country we will find out in the
future, but to my way of thinking people who have been engaged in terrorism and
similar stuff should loose their rights so they don't do it again. On the other
hand, making it less restrictive for permanent residents to apply is a good
idea in my opinion.
What else is good to know about the citizenship in
Canada:
- Even if you married a Canadian citizen you still
have to meet all the requirements listed above. If your spouse is a
citizen, he or she can sponsor you to become a permanent resident and then
you have to go through the whole process as all the other people. There is no special treatment
for these applicants.
- If you are Canadian but your children were born
outside Canada, they may be citizens of Canada if they were born before
April 2009. If you children were born after 2009 or if your situation is
complex then you have to check the special rules here: Special Rules
- Canada allows to take foreign citizenship and
keep the Canadian one. Such people become dual citizens. However some countries
do not allow this so it's always a good idea to check with your home
country before you apply for Canadian citizenship.
- As of now, the application for citizenship
costs $530 for adults and $100 for minor children.
- Current processing time is 12 months. If you are
reading this post a few months after I published it, the processing time
may be different. You can
check it here: Processing Times
Hopefully you learned something new from this post. If
you are interested in more posts like this please:
- Like my page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1646910395636607/
- Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/newtocanada6194
- Subscribe to the blog here
- Join the group of international students and
foreign workers in Canada on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1742508492690628/
The more likes/followers I get, the more motivation I
have to write new posts.
I want to move to Canada to live and work there and to become a Canadian citizen. My dad was born in Montreal. I have the doc that says he emigrated as a young boy (ships manifest) but cannot find his birth certificate because the year was 1913!! All his docs say he was born in Canada including all the US census records and military records. I don't know why I can't find his birth certificate in "Family HIstory" but I can't. Is there any hope of me leaving the US for Canada?
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