Huzzah!

Hmmm! Interesting!!

So – today I received an email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). It contained the following document (which I have redacted appropriately):

This – the first acknowledgement from IRCC that I have, indeed, applied for Canadian Citizenship – is the reason for the “Huzzah!” in the title of this missive.

The “Hmmm! Interesting!!” at the head of the post comes from the realisation – reinforced by a quick scan back over previous posts – that I did not actually report to this journal the fact that I had finally submitted said application back in July.

Given that I have logged exhaustively to this channel every other little detail concerning my odyssey to the New World – including last year’s renewals of both my Permanent Resident card and my UK passport – that is remiss and should be corrected immediately.

The final process of application for citizenship – having lived in Canada as a Permanent Resident for six years – was relatively straightforward. The first thing that one does is to check that one is eligible. This entails going through a checklist of requirements – including that of having been resident in Canada for at least 1,095 days over the 5 year period leading up to the application. IRCC provides a handy online calculator (the Online Physical Presence Calculator – CIT 0407) for this part of the operation, the results of which feed forward into the application itself.

The application is effected by completing form CIT 0002 (10-2020) – the latter part of the form number being the current version number which will change from time to time. Form CIT 0007 (06-2021) is the accompanying document checklist. In my case this indicated that I should submit the following:

• The application form itself (CIT 0002)
• The output from the Online Presence Calculator (CIT 0407)
• A colour photocopy of every page of my UK passport
• Photocopies of two personal identification documents – which must include name, photo and date of birth
• Two identical citizenship photographs
• The fee receipt – the application fee having been paid online in advance
• The document checklist itself (CIT 0007)

If one completes the application form online – as did I – one also generates a couple of pages of barcodes, the which should be printed and submitted as part of the application.

IRCC do not respond in any way until they actually start processing the application. In my case I posted everything off back in July and – as you see above – have only just received the acknowledgement that the application has been received.

The IRCC Application Tracker – to which I can now log on – tells me that my application is ‘In Progress’ – which is good news. Even better news is that – because I am (well) over 54 years old I do not need to take (or pass) the citizenship test, or to provide proof that I can in fact speak English.

Now – following that brief flurry of excitement – it is back to the waiting game!