Apply for citizenship: Urgent processing

The application processing times show how long it will take us to process your application for Canadian citizenship. If you think you have an emergency and won’t receive your citizenship in time, you may apply for urgent processing.

We can only process citizenship applications urgently in special cases. We check every urgent request to see if it meets the conditions for urgent processing. If your application doesn’t meet the conditions, we will process it normally.

To apply for urgent processing, you must be eligible to apply for citizenship and have an emergency, such as:

  • needing Canadian citizenship to:
    • apply for a job
    • avoid losing your job
    • go to a Canadian school, college or university
  • needing to travel because of death or serious illness in your family and you can’t get a passport in your current nationality
  • receiving a successful Federal Court decision on an appeal on a previous application for citizenship

Even if these conditions apply to you, we may not be able to process your request urgently. If we do process your request urgently, we may not be able to do it in time to help your situation.

If you haven’t sent us your application:

  1. Download and print the application package you need
  2. Complete the application
    • answer all the questions
  3. Write an explanation of why you need urgent processing
    • include any documents that will support your explanation
  4. In your envelope, include your:
    • application
    • explanation
    • photographs
    • fee payment
    • required documents
  5. Write “Request Urgent Processing – Grant of Citizenship” in large, dark letters on the envelope
  6. Mail your application to the address in the instruction guide

If you have already sent your application and now need urgent processing:

Fill out the Web form explaining why you need urgent processing and include:

  • your full name, date of birth, email address and telephone numbers
  • your UCI or application number
  • any documents that will support your explanation
    • files must in PDF, JPEG, TIFF, DOC, or DOCX format
    • files must be 2 MB or smaller
    • if you include multiple files, the total size must be 3.5 MB or smaller
    • help for how to reduce file size

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