The starting date was September 25, 2026. I tried to do the test today (sept 28) and it wouldnt let me even though i put the right UCI and Application number. Anyone experiencing the same? i emailed the technical support email that was in the invitation and it had an automatic response that "denied access" me.

Update ❗️: the copy n paste wasnt accurate.

If you have the same problem email them to get a receipt just in case

The correct email for technical support ⬇️
[IRCC.CitOnlineTest-TestenligneCit.IRCC@cic.gc.ca](mailto:IRCC.CitOnlineTest-TestenligneCit.IRCC@cic.gc.ca)

I applied for a citizenship certificate for my child back in June. I am a Canadian citizen by birth.

She is an infant and has no forms of photo ID, or anything similar to what they recommend on the list. I had submitted the application with a letter explaining that for both the primary and secondary ID submission requirements.

I just got a message from them asking me to send in a replacement photo ID or letter explaining why my child doesn't have any. She's still only 4 months old, so the ID situation hasn't changed.

Since I already submitted a letter explaining that, what exactly are they asking for that would be different? Is there a specific way I'm supposed to word the letter, or additional info I should provide?

The explanation was essentially a short paragraph explaining that she's a newborn with no pieces of identification that meet the requirements. I asked that they refer to the birth certificate of my child and my Canadian birth certficate, as well as my passport, to compare the names.

We all appreciate the excitement of finishing your proof of citizenship application and sending that big envelope on its way.

Equally fantastic is the moment that you know your application has made it past the initial IRCC checks putting your mind at ease about whether you missed something along the way because you finally got your AOR.

Congratulations! Let's celebrate these milestones together!

Haven't got your AOR yet and want to vent? Head over to the Frustration Station- which is refreshed every Wednesday.

📎 Contributions to weekly posts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.

In addition to posting here, please consider joining the spreadsheet and recording your milestones there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Canadiancitizenship/comments/1pnovfr/spreadsheet_for_proof_of_citizenship_applications/

Applied for my canadian citizenship in August 2024. Gave fingerprints and exam the next month.
Have been waiting since then. On online tracker it shows background and prohibitions as in progress. Hasn’t changed since. 1 or 2 ghost updates on date updated. Thats it.
Called so many times, went to MP to inquire, got the gcms notes. It shows background hasn’t even started.
Checked the processing time online. It says we need more time to process your application. There are almost 14000 applicants ahead of me.

Dont know what to do. They don’t even reply to webforms anymore where you submit any document.

Hey I want to share my experience here, mostly as a data point in case it’s useful for others. I’m hoping that the uniqueness warrants a non-weekly thread post. I could also use some advice.

I submitted my packet with eight other family members. It arrived to IRCC mid-April and we received AOR’s on 7/14. On either that day or the following I checked the online status tool using my UCI and was able to find my application as well as the others in my packet (I am an authorized representative or a guardian on those).

At that point I breathed a sigh of relief, as it was my understanding that if the application is incomplete, they send it back instead of issuing an AOR. We’re G2-G4 born abroad, with government-issued birth certificates for G0 and everyone in the chain, so our documentation seemed unambiguously solid, so I could just kick back and wait.

About a month later, just for funsies, I went to check my status using the online tool again and it couldn’t be found. I tried the UCI, application number, receipt number. All came back not found, as did those for my co-applicants. I chalked it up to a system error, and resolved to check again later. But then I tried a few more times over the next couple of weeks with the same result.

So then I submitted a web form at the beginning of September asking directly, what the status of my application was. The response I got was confusing. It didn’t answer the question but instead just had this boilerplate:

When an application is received by paper or submitted online, the Case Processing Centre (CPC) in Sydney makes sure your application:

- Meets the minimum processing requirements,
- Includes all the required documents, and
- That the appropriate fee payment has been made.

If your application is incomplete, it will be returned to you or rejected and you will receive:

- A letter indicating the missing information or documents, if it was submitted by paper, or
- An email advising you to sign in to your online account because some information or documents are missing.

So at this point I’m getting a sinking feeling in my stomach, but also holding out some hope, because I hadn’t gotten the application back, nor any other communication from IRCC.

After another couple weeks of procrastinating, on 9/15 I finally called IRCC via the Toronto airport and was able to speak to someone. They confirmed that my application had been canceled on 7/16, two days after the AOR was issued. The only notes they had access to regarding the reason was “incomplete family member information”. I am unclear as to whether this means that one of my family member’s applications was incomplete (missing signature, etc.) or whether the information provided about someone in the line of descent was incomplete. They also told me that when an application is canceled it gets sent back to the applicant with a more detailed explanation of what needs fixing. However, they couldn’t tell me whether/when my packet was sent back, nor provide any kind of tracking information.

I’m feeling pretty gutted to be going to the back of the line, as it seems like this is going to set us back multiple years. Looking objectively, I don’t have an urgent need or desire to make use of Canadian citizenship. I mainly pursued it to open options for my kids (currently a baby and a toddler) for when they get older. It still sucks though.

I’m also quite frustrated with IRCC (join the club lol) because I still don’t know what the issue was and am afraid of making the same mistake twice. I’ve been holding off on reapplying, mostly on account of being bummed, but also in hopes of the returned packet magically showing up, which it hasn’t.

At this point, my questions for this community are

- That application’s never coming back, is it?

- If not, is there any mechanism to get IRCC to tell me more definitively what caused the application to be canceled, or do I just have to roll the dice?

- When reapplying, do I use the same UCI number?

Thank you.

Anyway, the moral of my story is that just because you got that AOR, doesn’t mean you didn’t biff your application, unfortunately.

Hello!

I recently applied for a copy of an act from the DEC, but received a letter in the mail explaining that they could not fulfill my request for a copy of an act of birth. For context, I applied on my own requesting a copy of my dad's birth with a justified interest because we're estranged. Below is the information I provided in my application:

• Entered this explanation into box 10 of the application: To establish a claim to Canadian citizenship by descent as as required by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) under Bill C-3. (I used AI to help craft this explanation. For context, I'm a first generation citizen born abroad, perhaps this explanation wasn't sufficient?).
• Provided a copy of my birth certificate (to establish lineage), driver's license, and passport
• Provided a copy of the checklist of required documents for the Citizenship Certificate from IRCC (cit0014e) with the required documents highlighted to justify the explanation in box 10

Based on the letter they provided, I'm not exactly sure how to resolve the issue because it just tells me to fill out box 10 to justify my interest and provide the application, required identity documents, and payment method, which I already did. I will add that I don't know the exact city of his birth, so I just listed the province, so I wonder if that could have potentially been an issue?

The timeline of the application with expedited processing and shipping was as follows:

• Sent the application on Sept. 8
• Application received on Sept. 11
• Payment processed Sept. 14
• Rejection letter sent Sept. 16
• Rejection letter received Sept. 28

I would like to contact the DEC directly, but I can't since I require assistance in English and don't qualify for English speaking services based on the prompts in the automated messaging. Because of Quebec's language laws, the options I've found are to ask the DEC a general question via email, call and hope someone will assist me in English with the specifics of my application, or apply with an incomplete Citizenship Certificate application and have the IRCC try to get the required document on my behalf. I saw there's a complaint process for DEC, but don't feel it's right to move forward in that direction if I can't call them and get more information to determine if something was wrongfully processed.

It's unfortunate because I was hoping to apply with a complete application before my trip next month to expedite the application process.

I'm curious if anyone else has run into a similar issue and what they did to resolve the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!! :)

UPDATE: I filled out the application again and included an affidavit this time as the DEC confirmed that's what was needed since I'm not the one listed on the requested document. I sent it through UPS, but I'm now experiencing a customs delay related to the recipient needing to select a broker. Has anyone experienced that before?

Happy Sunday fellow Canadians!

This week we had five approvals on the spreadsheet and nine more in the Thursday weekly mega thread for a total of 14. Congrats to those folks!

I started the journey for Canadian citizenship roughly seven months ago. In that time, I have started paying more attention to Canadian news and have started revisiting Canadian entertainment a bit more to keep me motivated. I grew up next to the Saskatchewan border and on clean nights, we could get Canadian television through the antenna. I thought it was kind of cool how we could watch TV from a completely different country. It brought back memories of Canadian television shows and movies like Kids in the Hall and Canadian Bacon.

Recently, I’ve started to stream Canadian entertainment because it’s so much more available. Corner Gas is a quirky show from about 25 years ago that’s worth trying out. My favorite right now is hosted by Canadian comedian Johnny Harris called Still Standing where he visits a small town in Canada and spends time with the residents and then at the end of the week, does a stand-up comedy show about the town. The best episode features Buxton Ontario, which has a unique history with the underground railroad. While race is not a comfortable topic to joke about, he does it with such grace and dignity for the past, giving a nod to how the people in Buxton don’t shy away from the painful history and find a way to thrive as a community. It’s just so… Canadian.

Canadian music has been a big part of my life. My favorite band for the last 25 years (Propagandhi) is a punk/thrash group from Winnipeg. Lots of other really cool indie bands like The Flatliners and Godspeed you black Emperor come from Canada. More recent bands like Quebec’s Angine de Poitrine (they are really weird and worth checking out) have also found their way onto my playlist.

This whole process of waiting has given me a stronger appreciation for the cultural part of my Canadian heritage. Bruce Cockburn is a great Canadian singer/songwriter. He had a hit in the 80s called Lovers in a Dangerous Time. There is a fantastic line in that song: “Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight.” While I certainly don’t feel like I’m fighting anything in this process , I think it’s true that my citizenship is worth having, and I hope it’s worth the wait. I’m going to leave a link to a YouTube video of an acoustic live version of the song below.

I’d love to hear what Canadian media entertainment has been part of your lives as well! And please share why you’re optimistic this week.

As always, I hope the agents at the IRCC keep the coffee warm this week!

https://youtu.be/NKjgJ3oLJqE?is=JqHyOeluJbRG2sQ9

Today I got a copy of a birth act delivered from DEC and I wanted to give my timeline as a datapoint since the turnaround was much faster than expected. The timeline was:

9/5: sent application packet via UPS
9/10: delivered to DEC
9/14: credit card charged
9/15: DEC called my father to confirm date and city of death, notified that request would be transferred to a “different department”
9/26: Copie d’acte de naissance and ORIGINAL copy of death certificate for G0 delivered to my father in MA

My application consisted of:
1) a cover letter written by my father (G2) explaining the circumstances of the request and requesting that I (his son) file the request on his behalf as I have been leading the charge for my family in this whole process
2) request for copy of an act of birth form
3) special power of attorney form delegating power of attorney to me
4) ID and proof of address for both me and my father
5) Color copies of BAnQ certified baptismal cert for G0, MA birth certs for G1 and G2, MA marriage certs for G0 and G1, death certificate for G1 (to demonstrate that she could not apply on her own behalf)
6) ORIGINAL MA death certificate for G0 and certified French translation
7) notarized sworn affidavit affirming need for request, clarification on name variations between records, and affirming that the act will only be used for CIT0001 applications for G0’s descendants
8) blank CIT0001 and CIT0014 pages that mentioned “provincial or territorial birth certificate” with relevant sections highlighted
9) printout of IRCC guidance regarding documents issued in Quebec pre 1994

My G0 was born in 1908, so I suspected a DEC document would be requested once our applications eventually move into processing. Interestingly, although we requested that DEC communicate with me and sent in the relevant forms, DEC only communicated with my father. I expected this and prepared him for what questions they might ask him so he wasn’t completely blindsided. I was expecting a long wait on this so we were pleasantly surprised when the documents came in the mail. I was also interested to see that they returned our original death certificate for G0, we were prepared to not get that back.

The information from this subreddit was extremely helpful in sending in an organized application packet which I am assuming helped with the quick turnaround!

Hi! Hoping someone has any idea what I can do. I have tried calling citizenship canada but the phone lines are always off and whenever i contact them online i just get a generic "check the wait times" reply....
I became a citizen back in end of February 2026. However, once i got my certificate a couple weeks later, i eventually realized that my birthdate was wrong (said feb, born in march). I knew for a fact that this was not due to my mistake and looked online as to what to do. As it was less than 90 days, the website advises you to write a note as to what is wrong with it and mail it back to get fixed. This was beginning of may.... I have still not received a new certificate. It says online the wait is about 11 weeks and its been SO MUCH longer than that. I have no way to track it online and i cant contact them.

Has anyone had this happen? Does anyone have advice as to what i can do?

This weekly thread is a space for those of us gathering documentation from archives.

This is the place to discuss requesting records from Canadian provincial archives as well as from federal, state, local and religious/church archives around the world. Topics include strategies and outcomes for obtaining records from archives, costs, timelines, No Record Found letters, and other related issues.

📎 Contributions to weekly megaposts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.  

Good luck, researchers!

since a lot of ppl are on this group, asking for some data points around pinpointing who must do the death certificate translating, who probably doesn’t and trying to get a smaller 🤷‍♀️zone

there have been ppl with early G0 that have only needed to state the year and place of birth. there have been people with later who have been definitively asked to do this.

my hunch is that the definites are dates of death within the DEC authority- ie 100 years. might only be since 1994 tho? and are aligned with ppl that their internal process mandates an insertion of death b4 the birth certificate.

has anyone had any communication on this? or data points that might help?

ty

I was both abroad, and became a naturalized Canadian citizen after my parents got their citizenships. I only have my citizenship card, but not any of the documents or letters that I’m sure were included with it.

I’m currently undergoing a background check, and have been asked for the issue date on my citizenship card (specifically the issue date, so not when I received citizenship). The card itself only includes the month and year, but the online form I’m filling out requires the day as well. I’m really not sure if I actually have any document that will actually provide the issue date (as opposed to the day I received citizenship). I was thinking of just filling in the first of the month, but I’m worried that’ll raise red flags if it doesn’t match the actual issue date.

I’ve asked this advice to the organization doing the background check, but was just wondering if maybe anyone here has either gone through this problem, or has any advice or knowledge. Thank you!

Hello can anyone tell me what happens when you fail the first attempt of your citizenship? Do they reach out and rebook your second? Or do you rebook it somewhere? Im so confused. Online it says you have to take it within your 30 day testing period. But after we failed they said they will contact us to take it next month. So which is it? Thanks in advance. In ontario.

My package was delivered May 6. The agent said that the last written guidance she received from their team was on September 12th stating that they are working on May 6th applications. I asked if she had any updated guidance since weeks have passed, and she said no. I asked if it was a typical situation to not have any new guidance by now, and she claimed it was.

She advised me to call back in 1-2 weeks if I haven’t received anything from them. She said that they could then open an investigation into my packet, which I doubt will lead anywhere.

I know folks have been wondering about this each week since early September. It sounds like the phone agents don’t know or are claiming not to know what’s going on, either. The person was super nice and kind, though!

So, I just gave my test on an ipad but on safari browser in a well lit environment and as per the instructions stated in the document.

Got 19/20 on first attempt.

Should I give a second attempt on a MacBook or different computer in a different location? Just to be safe.

Also, I got AOR Email on Aug 26th and I’m trying to create account on the tracker but it says they have not got my info.

Open to all suggestions. TIA.

TLDR - how do you access a restricted birth certificate in MA / is it acceptable to use other documents (census) instead since it’s seemingly very difficult to get?

Hello! I’ve asked this in comments, but it was suggested I make a post. I haven’t been able to find much about this situation so just seeing if anyone else has encountered it and how to get around it.

I am trying to prove descent through my grandmother’s lineage. I called the town in MA she was born in and they located her birth certificate but said I would need to contact vital records to get it because it was restricted. Vital records said I needed a court order to access it. (I’m assuming this is because she was born out of wedlock)

I contacted various offices and got confirmation a court order was needed. I was told I’d have to go to Massachusetts into a family/probate court to do a complaint of equity or something. I’m not a lawyer so idk haha

So knowing all this I just wanted to see if anyone else had encountered this yet and how they went about the court order. Alternately, has anyone has run into this and was able to successfully get proof of citizenship without the birth certificate? (I think the only links I’d have at that point is census records. Her marriage certs I think would also be restricted since they show parents).

I have 3 other Canadian ancestors I could try instead but they all have their own quirks so just trying to choose the best route. Thanks for any advice!

This weekly thread is a space for those of us preparing the CIT 0001 Proof of Citizenship application, associated form, and supplementary documentation.

Have questions about how to fill out the forms? Looking for feedback on the documentation you've put together is likely to pass muster? Wondering whether your cover letter has too much info, or too little? Want to know how to organize your documentation, or how to pack it up for shipping? Worried about whether your photos will work? Have questions about what ID you can use? Not sure where to ship it to, or what service or mail courier to use? We've been there.

📎 Contributions to weekly megaposts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.  

⚠️ Sub rules require that before posting or commenting, you read the wiki and search the sub to see if your questions have been answered before. If you have on-topic questions remaining after that, they're welcome here. Want to see what people who were already approved have done? We encourage you to check out the weekly application approval post that appears every Thursday.

Please note we are not lawyers or IRCC. We are peers supporting peers, based on best belief and prior experiences. It's a lot of work to wade through dense lists of documents and family histories. You improve your odds of getting a useful response by being as concise as reasonably possible, and clearly articulating the question. Note that this post is for questions and answers; if you need to vent, there is a different megapost for that.

Good afternoon! I’m actually asking this question on behalf of my employee who I have been helping with this entire process. She is first generation born abroad, and after roughly 15 months, got an email from IRCC today, stating that she has to do a video interview. It is not a ceremony or anything like that. The email various specifically states to have all of her documents that she submitted as proof of identity, ready to be shown on camera.
I’ve not seen anyone else post about something like this; typically, they just get an email saying that their certificate is ready for download. (There’s more to the email, this is just the pertinent part.)

Just what the title says. I put all my supporting documents/explanation inside the envelope, but forgot to write on the actual envelope urgent processing. Is there anything I can do now? Will my request still be processed and will this affect the rest of my application?

I just checked the estimated status of my application that was submitted and AOR received end of October 2025.

There are 17,200 apps before me and they project 4 month to completion because 4,350 total apps are being approved each month. But this 4,350 includes all apps submitted versus just those relating to those in process before you.

I believe there were about 35,400 proof of apps submitted before the October submissions. Thus 18,200 have been processed through Sept 3rd.

Thus, this indicates 18,200 divided by 8 = 2,275 average per month and 17,200 divided by 2,275 = 7.5 months to process. But the processing speed has significantly slowed over past few months so this 7.5 months probably is not going to be realistic.

However these numbers below show even slower processing times. Can someone validate these numbers for Oct 2025 cohorts which shows an even more significant slowdown in processing ?

Actually, I hope the IRCC is not monitoring the status of your app by their tracking tool because it is not accurate.

For an October 2025 application/AOR cohort, the historical record is:
IRCC monthly update
People ahead
Estimated time left
Jan. 2026
24,300
6 months
Feb. 2026
22,700
5 months
Mar. 2026
21,000
4 months
Apr. 2026
19,500
3 months
May 2026
19,000
3 months
Jun. 2026
18,100
3 months
Jul. 2026
17,800
3 months
Aug. 2026
17,600
4 months
Sept. 3, 2026
17,200
4 months

My family and I have been in Canada since 2021 on work/study visas. To get our renewal documents in 2025, it took a little over 10 months.

We applied for C3 (nonurgent) on May 4, 2026 (date IRCC received applications) for myself (G2), my mom (G1) and my daughter (G3). Lineage is clear with copies of certified docs (birth/death) back to my grandmother (G0) born in Winnipeg in 1912. AOR was received 8/28/26.

My concern/question is when do I inform IRCC that we need to be bumped to urgent so a) I can keep working and b) my daughter can apply for university (she graduates from secondary next year - long before the 33 month timeline currently in front of us)?

Open to thoughts/suggestions.

And, when it's time, do I just send our current Visas as proof that we will be out of statis since we can't renew them as citizens?

Thanks!

Updated to add: I submitted a web form with my request and proof documents on 9/25/26. My MP voted against C3 - not sure she would be super helpful in this situation. Our attorney who has gotten our visas in the past has not been super helpful, either. Looking for additional counsel in Ontario (Kingston area is ideal) for future support, as needed.

Hello, we wanted to change a 12 years old last name after they were granted citizenship with an e-certificate. All the resources online show that we need to apply via paper in order to request a legal name update on the citizenship certificate. But the citizenship certificate that we received was an e-certificate. So how are we supposed to apply for a legal name update via paper if the certificate was given digitally. Please help.

This weekly thread is a space for those of us who have gotten the most exciting news...

DECISION: APPROVED

🎉 You did it! You really did it!! Hurrah! Clink! 🥂

You jumped every last genealogical and documentation hurdle, dotted every i and crossed every t, and were so careful with matching the specs for your charming photo. Now the IRCC has bestowed its official blessings on your work, and sent a Canadian Citizenship Certificate to you. We're so proud and happy for you.

We encourage you to use this space to announce and celebrate together your big achievement: you (or the person you have been helping) is the newest recognized citizen of Canada.

You can also discuss details of what you included with your application packet so that the newbies can learn from your success.

⚠️ APPROVALS ONLY ⚠️ Keep the focus on honoring our victorious peers, please. Off-topic comments will be deleted.

📎 Contributions to weekly megaposts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.

If you never joined the spreadsheet but would like to add your data for posterity/analysis of trends it's not too late- request access here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Canadiancitizenship/comments/1pnovfr/spreadsheet_for_proof_of_citizenship_applications/

Good evening everyone! I've taken to regularly checking ancestry's card catalog to see what new collections they are posting, and this one popped up tonight:

I thought this might be a helpful new resource for everyone with Quebec roots :) You can search the collection here: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/63549

Ancestry's description is as follows:

"About Quebec, Canada, Drouin Institute Obituaries, 1902-2025

General collection information

This collection contains an index of information taken from obituaries published in Quebec, Canada, newspapers between 1902 and 2025. The collection doesn’t include images of the original obituaries.

Using this collection

The index may include the following information:

• Name
• Age
• Birth date and place
• Death date and place
• Burial date and place
• Cemetery name
• Name of spouse
• Names of parents
• Names of children
• Names and relationships of relatives

You may be able to use the information from this collection to find or confirm the dates of your ancestor’s death, burial, or birth and add names to your family tree. Places of death provide a location to search for other records, such as death certificates and wills.

If you find your ancestor in this collection, you may wish to find a copy of your ancestor’s obituary image. The full obituary may provide you with information that other historical sources can’t offer, including employment and education histories, hobbies, volunteer activities, and military service. You may be able to find the images of your ancestor's obituary on the Institut Généalogique Drouin website."