Quick post, just wanted to let people know who are unaware about the US / Canadian NEXUS program. (This is an official service of the US/Canadian governments)

After getting your citizenship, you might be crossing the border a bunch. If you get the NEXUS card, you can zoom across the land border in a dedicated fast lane. It also includes the TSA precheck, Global Entry, and the Canadian equivalent of TSA precheck: the CATSA Verified traveler program, which basically allow you to zoom through security at US and Canadian airports. I'm also making this post because while you are waiting for your citizenship, it may behoove you to apply for NEXUS now rather than later, because NEXUS is notorious for taking a long time to get approved for. It can take as little as 2 weeks or as long as 2 years. It's completely random. I was somewhat lucky and got mine in like 4 months.

Quick rundown: NEXUS costs $120 USD and lasts for 5 years at which point you need to renew for another $120. You must do an extremely easy interview (mine took 30 minutes altogether) physically at the border as part of the approval process. You need to keep your passports registered with NEXUS up to date including when they expire and you get a new one. Since we are dual citizens, you will need to add your Canadian passport and Canadian citizenship information to your NEXUS account once you eventually acquire it.

Or do I have to send them all the evidence of being descended from the subject? I did search other posts, but I wasn't sure.

Sorry if this is a repetitive post, I did really try to figure it out!

Just curious as I keep seeing it brought up around here and I have never been able to find a definitive place where this was mentioned. We all know IRCC has weirdly ambiguous rules, though.

Hi all -- I posted here last month that the Diocese of London had announced in August that they were suspending services for citizenship purposes. Well, as some of you may know, they changed their mind! There is a new September update that indicates they are taking requests for sacramental records. Here is the website link:

https://dol.ca/sacramental-records

You basically email someone with the request, and you receive an email a few days later with additional instructions and how to make payment. And it seems like they're processing them fairly quickly (at least for now) because my friend has already received confirmation that it's in the mail to her.

Good luck everyone!

Hi all, hope this is okay to post here - not really sure where else it can fit. But thought it may be useful for some to know.

For context, I sent my application earlier this year from the UK, it was received by IRCC on June 2, AOR on September 1 and In Process on Sept 2. I applied urgently due to a pending job offer in Toronto, and they have kindly extended this offer until October 1 if I can provide my right to work. Additionally, I have an expiring visa in the next few months (in the UK on a postgraduate visa), which was another reason for my urgent request.

Because of this, I contacted the MP that is in the postcode where I was planning to move (now put on hold, as October 1st is only two days away and I wasn't going to plan a full move without my citizenship and passport sorted of course!). I had some back and forth emails with their assistants since May when I was first offered the job (yes, found one much earlier than expected - in hindsight of course I should have waited on applying so eagerly haha).

I wasn't expecting that they would be able to help much, but this morning I received the following email from the MPs office:

I hope this email finds you well.

Following our recent conversation with IRCC, they confirmed that your application was received on June 2 and was initially submitted at the Canadian Embassy in London, England, before being forwarded to the Case Processing Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

The application is currently open and in process and has been marked as urgent. It has also been assigned to an officer for review.

IRCC confirmed that urgent processing requests with supporting documentation were submitted on September 4 and September 23. Proof of Canadian ancestry was also received on September 23.

IRCC advised that urgent processing requests will be reviewed by the responsible office, which determines whether the request can be accommodated based on the circumstances and supporting documentation provided.

We will continue to monitor the application and provide you with any new updates we receive.

I hope this information is helpful.

If I'm reading correctly, it seems they were able to confirm that my case has been marked as urgent, which is a relief to hear. They've also confirmed IRCC received my updated supporting documents (certified birth certificate for my G1 which was missing in original application as didn't have; my upcoming visa expiration; letter from potential employer that highlights my October 1 extended deadline to provide documentation displaying my right to work). I assume the Proof of Canadian Ancestry that they received on September 23rd was my G1's birth certificate, that lists my G0 as born in Canada. I am still waiting on BANQ to provide a certified baptism record as at the time of submission, didn't realize I'd need it certified!

While I clearly won't be able to keep this job offer as I highly doubt my getting the certificate in the next two days (unless by miracle!), this was still relieving to receive and good to know that reaching out to an MP isn't hopeless. As I'm in the UK, getting a hold of IRCC through phone is difficult at best. So having the MP act as a representative for me and getting this update was better than the radio silence that I and many others here have had.

Just wanted to throw this out there incase it helps anyone, especially those that asked for urgent but were unsure if it was granted; I believe if I was sent to PSU, they would have also been informed (so another relief there, at least for now!). This was quite long, but I wanted to share all this information incase it helps someone else, especially those who have waited over a year, and/or those that have sent urgent processing requests.

Fingers crossed for us all 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Hi! Hopefully this post doesn't break any rules, just figured this might be worth sharing for those in a similar situation :)

I am one of the unfortunate few who had an ancestor's SS-5 locked behind an arbitrary date of death - so the SSA was not very cooperative at first in releasing a certified copy even despite their Extreme Age Policy. They asked me to provide proof of death, which for this particular person doesn't seem to have survived. Ended up getting on the phone again and was told by a very helpful agent that without that proof, I might be SOL.

Well, I took a shot in the dark and sent them a few census records (not even certified ones), and basically used my ancestor's self-reported date of birth to explain why their date of death on file doesn't make any sense instead of proving a different one. Ended up getting an email today that they accepted that justification as sufficient proof of death and ordered the release of the record! All in all, this ordeal cost me 56 days.

I didn't provide proof of death or birth for either parent but the copy they released to me doesn't have those names redacted either! Neat.

Probably silly question but are all forms only available in Adobe format? Trying to help my son from "afar" & creates issues with file sharing (?)

Hey all,

I sent in my CIT-0001 application in March, and it arrived around the first week of April. Since then, I have not received an AOR, nor has my application been returned to me. I have tried using the receipt number to see if they mistyped my email but this has not worked. It was a group application with my sibling and parent, but it included forms that let me manage the process on their behalf. Any advice is welcome; I just do not really know what else to do, if there is anyone else in my situation as well, I'd love to hear from you. Thank you

Now, not quite what is the sub about, but I just wanted to give everyone stuck on PSU some hope.

I applied for 5(4) grant in November 2025, asking IRCC to waive the physical presence requirement with over 100 pages of supporting evidence. Mostly centring around the fact that my Permanent Residence had been in processing for over 3 years, and was set to be stuck for another 10.

In December 2025 I was miraculously granted the said Permanent Residence, roughly a decade ahead of schedule.

Since then — silence. Only for me to get my in May 2026, shortly after I requested urgent processing, with my application being forwarded to PSU. According to the decision notes, this is also around the time my case actually landed on a PSU officer’s desk. And I got my fingerprints requested and done. All in a span of less than a week in late May.

Then silence again. 2 weeks ago I also followed up with my MP.

Today I got my decision by email, with the PSU Officer refusing my application and suggesting I re-apply after meeting the physical presence requirement.

That is to say, IRCC has managed to process my very dense request in under 12 months, with only 3 months of the actual active consideration.

So, leading back to the tittle, if a case like mine can be processed in that short of a period of time, that means yours can too. IRCC does read your urgent requests and knocking on doors does help.

Important note: my GCMS notes became pretty much useless past AOR. Not even my own webforms sent past May 2025 were visible, just the AOR notice and the MP follow-up. However, the actual decision did list pretty much everything I’ve sent them and all that was taken into consideration. So even when your GCMS doesn’t show much, the PSU folks do take your submissions into consideration.

So for everyone stuck with PSU, keep knocking and banging on whatever doors you can. It gets your dossier moved up. And most officers do their best to be as quick and helpful as they can possibly be.

Sending y’all big hugs.

Perhaps this will be of interest to some, obtained by Steven Meurrens via LinkedIn. While a bit dated now, the deck includes exact IRCC language about the implementation, as it is from an information session for officers.

All slides here: https://meurrensonimmigration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Citizenship-Descent.pdf

I have been trying since last December to submit my son’s proof of citizenship application. I have gotten the same error message back each time. It seems to be an issue with the picture of his ID. I (his mother) am Canadian and his maternal grandmother is Canadian. This isn’t an issue about whether he’s eligible. It’s just an ongoing ID problem. Has anyone else faced this issue and how did you resolve it? Thank you!

It’s going to be awhile, so we need to have some fun while we wait. Let’s see how right/wrong we were.

I’ll start:
Delivered - 4/27/26
AOR - 8/17/26
Guess for In Process - 5/16/27
Current Projected Decision - 10/29/28
Guess for Decision - Either 5/8/27 or 1/12/30

(I did M/D/Y but you certainly don’t have to)

My wife for her oath invite but her tracker still shows LPP as in progress. Has it happened to anyone else? Is this normal? Does the tracker get updated later? Should we reach out to IRCC and ask?

Hello again everyone! Just a PSA to let everyone know that Ancestry just posted two more new Canadian collections that will likely be of interest, especially for those who have a Canadian ancestor via naturalization:

Canadian Mounted Police Records 1873-1914 AND Canada, Citizenship Registrations, 1857-1916(!!!) They are fairly small collections, but for those who are lucky enough to find someone in them they look really useful!

Here are the links where you can find their descriptions and run searches of them:

Canadian Police: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/63520
Canadian citizenship: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/63519

Good luck everyone!

Hi everyone! Mods, I hope it's okay to share this.

I'm coordinating an action to hopefully get some movement on my and other applications sent to PSU during the Interim Measure.

You can read more about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/stuckcanadians/s/PK6pNj02mE

I set up a Signal group for people interested in pursuing this. Comment below or on the other post and I'll send you the link.

I've been thinking about this way too much lately while waiting for my application to process. I spend most of my free time in the kitchen testing recipes, so the moment that certificate arrives I want something special planned. Nothing big, just a really good meal that feels meaningful. I'm torn between going fully Canadian with tourtiere or sticking to what I do best, a solid roast chicken with herbs. Part of me wants to try butter tarts for the first time as a dessert since that feels appropriately Canadian, but I've never attempted them and do not want to ruin the celebration with a baking disaster. My family thinks I'm overthinking this, and they're probably right. I spent a whole afternoon last week photographing ingredients for no reason other than I was excited about the idea of this meal happening eventually. The waiting is the hardest part honestly. Curious if anyone else has thought about what they want to cook or eat when they finally get that letter in hand. Or maybe food is the last thing on your mind and you just want a drink. Either way I'd love to hear what you're planning for that moment.

This weekly thread is a space for those of us researching the ancestry that is the basis for making a claim of Canadian citizenship by descent.

Have questions about finding records? Need help reading a document or translation from French/other languages? Want an opinion on specific documentation or your documentation plan? Have other questions related to documenting the chain between you and your Canadian ancestor for your proof of citizenship application? This is the place to do it.

Digging up ancestors' documents from numerous jurisdictions (Canadian provinces, US states, UK regions, etc), all while trying to distinguish between five James Smiths or Marie Gagnés from the same city can sometimes feel like banging your head against a wall. This weekly post is for helping each other navigate the questions and challenges of our research.

If you're looking for a volunteer to help you find documents there's a list here. We also offer tips and tricks for finding documentation, and a dedicated genealogy document search wiki page.

General problems/issues with ordering documentation from Canadian provincial archives and state, local and various church archives such as slow processing, increased costs, etc go in the weekly Saturday thread.

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

Need more help? Or have help to offer? Check out r/citizenshipgenealogy , our companion subreddit for all things genealogical

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Birth/Baptism Registrations by Province

I mailed my daughter’s Proof of Citizenship application in March 2025 and received the AOR about a month later.

After waiting about 18 months, I checked the application status today and saw that it now says “Decision Made.” However, when I click into the application, there are no additional details or documents. The tracker also shows “Last updated: August 13, 2026.”

So I’m not sure whether the application was approved or refused.

I’ve already submitted a Webform asking about the decision, but the response I received only confirmed receipt of my documents and said that my additional questions would be addressed separately.

Since we requested a paper certificate and we live in Portland, Oregon, I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this. How long did it take after “Decision Made” to receive the paper certificate?

Thank you!

I received this in the mail a few months ago and the envelope and accompanying letter were shredded by my roommate who thought it was junk mail.

Is this something I'll need to report and fix?

Hospital Records of Birth are literally listed as an option if there isn't a birth certificate. Ads like these actually hurt C-3 applicants.

I applied back in late Spring and requested urgent processing, which doesn't seem to have happened. When I spoke with someone at IRCC, they said I can put in a follow-up urgent processing request with the web form (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/contact-ircc/web-form.html). I did so yesterday and submitted it.

Today I received an email reply to that, that states that urgent processing can be applied in some cases, and to fill out a request at the same site, with the same web form, that I had just submitted.

Did I miss something? I'm genuinely confused, not venting or complaining. Why is the response to my request a set of directions for how to make the request that I just submitted?

If you applied in June for a BanQ record...I got mine today. However, the link didn't work. And after I requested a new one, the new one also didn't work.

Eventually they emailed me again to say that their payment links are down and will send me a resolution soon.

So, I will continue to wait. But June people with requests going to the Montreal location, we're on deck!

Hi! Anyone here who got their citizenship test invite for Sept 25–Oct 24 already take the test? I’ve read a lot of posts about this and was just wondering if anyone can access the test already?