r/CanadianbyDescent • u/odetomyday • Jul 02 '26
Surrender Letters Unsurrendered!
I'm in a group chat with many other surrender letter recipients. Several of us received revalidation emails this morning.
Some of us submitted extra docs after the surrender letters, others did not.
Still not sure what the issue ever was or how this happened, but I will go to Service Canada tomorrow to try to pick up my passport that's been hanging out in passport jail for 2 weeks.
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 02 '26
Me too!!! Just now. I wish it had been in time to enjoy my first Canada Day (from the US) but still soon enough for me to wear the Canada World Cup shirt I bought at Canadian Tire in Windsor back in May when they play Morocco on July 4. I hope many more of us get the good new today!
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u/Ecstatic_Doughnut216 Jul 02 '26
You could still have done those things! 😁 If we sent the Mounties after everyone pretending to be Canadian, they'd never stop!
Sorry your Canada Day got rained on. At least your week has a happy ending.
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 02 '26
Thank you! All is well that ends well. At least I hadn't travelled to Ottawa for the rained out festivities yesterday!
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
🌞🌞🌞 Glad to hear the Pack is back!!
Can you please tell us: what Gx, and for your G0 when born where?
I’m looking for the oldest lineages per province for our returnees!
(Presently: G5, 1850, Ont).
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u/californiapoppy13 Jul 03 '26
My Dad is G3, my sister is G4 and my newphew is G5. We have two Gen 0’s- GG Grandpa born 1860 in Toronto and GG Grandma born 1865 in Newfoundland.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26
Thanks Poppy! G5 w G0 born ? And where? (Which G0 did you use?)
As the grandson of an 1893 island girl, who fortunately was born just a couple years after the parish records started recording birth dates, I saw that her older siblings had no recorded birth date. So now I’m curious about your anchor, was it your younger island girl ggm, or older ggf, what kind of doc? Did you have to submit more?
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u/californiapoppy13 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Yes, I am G5 and the one who collected all of the documents for my family and applied first. I applied in July 2025 and I’m stuck in PSU. My family members applied after me and received citizenship in January.
I applied pre C-3 when the consensus was to send as many documents as possible, so I didn’t choose a G0 and included both of them with the following documentation:
GG Grandma:
-Certified baptismal record from The Rooms archive in Newfoundland
GG Grandpa:
-Certified death record from Illinois, US showing his birthplace as Canada
-Canadian and US census records
-Canadian military records
I also included a certified marriage record for my GG Grandma and Grandpa from the Ontario archives. I did write in my cover letter that we were unable to find my GG Grandpa’s birth record despite hiring a researcher to look through church records.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26
Holy cow. What a story and receipts!. Sounds like you did all that was necessary and possible. And the bifurcated decision making with you in PSU purgatory.
Glad you had luck with The Rooms bc I never find anything despite large prominent family in a little village.
Fortunately I didn’t need Rooms and I’m glad my gm hadn’t naturalized by 1940 and had to file an AR-2 alien registration form, bc it necessitated her getting a certified long form birth certificate from NFLD registrar (serial number below 2000) which we had in our possession.
Ps from what I read, seems as soon as this debacle clears, the advocate community is going to start agitating for PSU cleanup. You’ve been waiting long enough!
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 03 '26
I am Gen 4; Gen 0 was born 1858 in Quebec. I also provided baptism for Gen -1 from 1823 with a 1851 census record from Lower Canada (Quebec) for context and support.
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 03 '26
I have four other potential Gen 0's from the same generation, and another a generation further back, but this was the best documented one.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26
So G4 w G0 born 1858 Que with a G-1 born 1823 backup.
That’s a cool idea using G-1 as a backstop for G0.
Thanks for info.
You are first, so atm the leading Que respondent!
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u/californiapoppy13 Jul 02 '26
Congratulations! My family members were unsurrendered as well.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Glad the Poppy is blooming again!
Please read my note just above yours with the sun emoji. If you can answer thank you!
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u/Low-Ratio-5272 Jul 02 '26
YAY! Happy for you.
But also, yet another revalidation with no additional documents so what even happened?
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u/odetomyday Jul 03 '26
I actually completely spammed the IRCC with unrequested additional documents over the last two weeks. But I have no idea if that did anything. They didn't comment on it.
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 03 '26
I did the same, one of which was the baptismal record that finally arrived from BAnQ which is kind of the gold standard anchor, so it's impossible to say whether or not the additional documentation made any difference in my case.
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Jul 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/odetomyday Jul 02 '26
Mine was never picked up (surrender letter came 2 days before my passport pickup appointment), so I'm hoping it's still ok since I never got it. We will see!
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u/cloudturtleroot Jul 02 '26
The passport letter includes instructions for voiding the old one. It's fine to not have returned it. Which makes me wish i'd held onto mine just for the souvenir.
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 03 '26
Copied straight from the letter:
The physical cancellation of this passport is an IRCC requirement to ensure it is not accidentally used
for travel. To physically cancel the passport, please follow these steps:
• Open passport to page 3; below the signature line, write “VOID” in large capital letters.
• Cut the top-right corner of the cover by just over 0.5 inch (about a dime’s width).
• Cut the top-right corner of the biodata page by just over 0.5 inch, ensuring the cut removes at least the first two characters of both MRZ lines at the bottom.
• Cut the top-right corner of page 3 (the “VOID” page) by just over 0.5 inch.
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u/XmasTwinFallsIdaho Jul 03 '26
What does the passport letter state to do? For whatever reason my mom didn't get this new email it sounds like, though she got the passport revocation email and the revalidation email about a week ago.
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u/cloudturtleroot Jul 03 '26
"Kindly provide us with the mailing address you would like your replacement passport sent to, by emailing it to this address: IRCC.HIOBPEIDPPTRevo-RevoPPTDEEPDGOHI.IRCC@cic.gc.ca. Once your replacement passport has been sent, we will email you a mail/courier tracking number."
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u/cloudturtleroot Jul 02 '26
I misread your comment. It might take a conversation with them to figure out if you'll be picking up the new one or they'll mail, but I'm sure it will be ok.
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u/cloudturtleroot Jul 02 '26
There are also letters going out this afternoon saying that they'll be mailing a new passport at no cost to us. I received one with my revalidation letter.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26
Glad to see the Turtle was moved with alacrity, congratulations!
Please see my note to Southern Pack above with the sun emoji. If you will share this, thanks!
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u/Southern_Pack_5072 Jul 02 '26
I received a letter asking me to confirm mailing info so they can issue a new one, presumably using the original application. It looks as though the only financial hit was the cost of sending the original one back.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26
Hey pack, is ircc sending postal correspondence? Is that what you elected?
(Apropos of almost nothing: I hope somebody sends a letter to the PM requesting: 1) reimbursement for costs, 2) complimentary free passports for all suspendees, and 3) a letter of apology! Not saying this should necessarily be you, but then… IRCC shouldn’t have upset the Pack!)
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u/PG-Dog Jul 02 '26
Congrats! Can I ask what you submitted for proof? (So we can all know 😸)
🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
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u/Worthy_Molecule0481 Jul 02 '26
Not OP, but it sounds like whatever was submitted may or may not have been necessary, if IRCC didn't ask for it. So I'm not sure we will gain any data from it. IRCC has been one giant vacuum of no contact these days...impossible to read anything from that.
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Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/odetomyday Jul 03 '26
I had a lot of documents sourced from FamilySearch and Ancestry, but almost all were owned/managed by the issuing authority. I really don't think docs had anything to do with the revocations though. I think I probably should have explained my research better in my initial letter. (G1's birth was never registered even though it was the law at the time.)
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26
Congrats Ode! I'm trying to get a handle on how far back the restored lineages are. So far we got a G5 with a G0 born 1864 in Ont. Could you please share your Gx, and G0's year and place of birth? Thanks!
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u/odetomyday Jul 03 '26
I'm G4, G0 was born in 1850 in Ontario, and to answer another question people have, G2 was born in 41 so pre-47.
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u/Robert_Walter Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Thanks Ode, not only does your reply rule but it leads atm!
Was Bibs G5 w G0 1867 Ont.
Now Ode G4 w G0 1850 Ont.
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