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Additional Information on How CIC Processes Your Application for Canadian Citizenship

Children under 18 years of age do not take the citizenship test. Processing these applications takes approximately the same amount of time as adult applications.

Children’s applications cannot be finalized until their parents’ applications have been completed.

You cannot become a Canadian citizen if you:

• are under a removal order;
• are now charged with an indictable criminal offence;
• have been convicted of an indictable criminal offence in the past three years;
• are now in prison, on parole, or on probation;
• are being investigated for, or have been convicted of, war crimes;
• had your citizenship revoked in the last five years.

Please note that time spent in prison, on parole or on probation does not count towards becoming a citizen.

If your application for Canadian citizenship is not approved, you will receive a letter stating the reasons why and the options available to you.

If you do no not:

• submit documentation
• appear for a hearing; or
• attend the citizenship ceremony;

and have not contacted CIC, we may consider your application abandoned and close your file.

Making an inquiry about your application

• During the processing of your application for Canadian citizenship, you should only contact CIC if you:
  • change your address;
  • plan on leaving Canada for more than two weeks in a row;
  • are charged with a criminal offence;
  • have not received any information on your file within the general processing times.
• Before enquiring about the status of your application please be sure you have waited the appropriate processing time for each step.
• Make sure you have your receipt or file number available when you contact the Call Centre or access e-CAS.
• We will contact you if we require further information or documents in order to continue processing your application.
• The local office will write to you to inform you of the date and time of any appointments.
• Under Canadian privacy legislation we cannot give information about your application to anyone but you without your written permission.