Citizenship: COVID-19 program delivery

These are COVID-19 program delivery instructions for citizenship applications.

First consult

• General processing measures: COVID-19 program delivery

On this page

• Cancellations
• Missed appointments
• Document requests
• Permanent residents applying for citizenship upon return from abroad

Cancellations

As of March 14, 2020, all knowledge tests, retests and ceremonies have been cancelled.

• All testing and retesting events and ceremonies scheduled from Saturday, March 14, 2020 until Saturday, April 11, 2020 are cancelled. No further testing, retesting or ceremony events should be scheduled effective immediately.
• Clients will be notified by IRCC national headquarters via email that their event has been cancelled.
• Clients who have not provided an email address must be contacted by telephone. A list will be provided to each office.
• For ceremonies, please contact all volunteer presiding officials (VPO), special guests and venues as soon as possible, to advise that the event has been cancelled.
• All itinerant service trips will be cancelled during this time.
• Local offices are responsible for cancelling hearings on itinerant services.
• All test-ready and ceremony-ready applications must be set aside until further notice. Offices should continue to work on other citizenship activities during this stoppage.

Missed appointments

For the safety of clients and staff, as of March 17, 2020, until further notice, IRCC has cancelled all citizenship

• ceremonies
• tests and retests
• hearings
• interviews
• itinerant service trips

Clients will be sent a new notice to appear when appointments resume in local offices, which will be treated as their first notice.

Document requests

Officers are required to provide applicants with an additional 90 days to send documents to IRCC once applicants have notified the local office that they have been affected by COVID-19, are in self-isolation or have recently returned from abroad.

Request for Medical Opinion forms

Officers will provide applicants an additional 90 days if they have been affected by COVID-19, are in self-isolation or have recently returned from abroad.

Permanent residents applying for citizenship upon return from outside of Canada

Extra days spent outside of Canada due to the virus shall not count as days in Canada. Applicants must meet the physical presence requirements as per normal procedure.