Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Citizenship

Before you travel to Canada

All travellers entering Canada must follow testing and quarantine requirements to keep everyone safe. Under certain conditions, you may be exempt from some of these requirements.

Find out if you’re exempt from any testing and quarantine requirements.

You need to use ArriveCAN

Use ArriveCAN to provide mandatory travel information required for entry into Canada.

Make sure you’re using the newest version of ArriveCAN. If you previously submitted your information using an older version of ArriveCan, you must download the latest version and resubmit your information.

If you’re a permanent resident

If you’re travelling or planning to travel, find out what you need to re-enter Canada.

You can use an expired permanent resident card (PR card) to

apply for Canadian citizenship
bring to your citizenship test and ceremony

If you’re a dual Canadian citizen

You can only enter Canada with a

Find out who can travel to Canada

Citizenship events

Citizenship tests and interviews

Due to COVID-19, we

cancelled all in-person citizenship tests and interviews
now offer online citizenship tests
have limited capacity to schedule online tests and interviews
are scheduling urgent requests for the tests and interviews if you qualify and apply for urgent processing

Online citizenship test

We’re now inviting some applicants to take the citizenship test online. Wait for us to invite you.

If you’re outside of Canada

If you get your invitation and plan to take the test while you’re outside Canada, send an email to the address in the Eligibility section of your invitation.

In your email

put “Outside Canada – Citizenship Test” in the subject line
in the body of your message, include
- your full name
- your application number
- the start and end date for your test

We’ll contact you with your next steps after we receive your email.

If you can’t or don’t want to do the test online, you may wait until in-person tests resume (date to be determined).

Video oath ceremony (virtual citizenship ceremony)

Due to COVID-19, we cancelled all in-person citizenship ceremonies. We’re inviting applicants to video oath ceremonies instead.

Please wait for us to invite you.

had a ceremony scheduled on or before March 15, 2020, and
haven’t received an invitation for a video oath ceremony

How we invite you

We’ll contact the email address or phone number you gave in your application. If your contact information changed, tell us using our web form.

By email

If you provided an email address in your application, we’ll email you the invitation.

To avoid missing our emails

add email addresses ending in “@cic.gc.ca” to your email’s safe sender list
check your junk or spam folder regularly if you don’t see our message

By phone

Our agent will call you if we don’t have your email address. Our call may show up as

an “Unknown caller” in your caller ID
a number from outside of Canada

Answer your phone when you see these numbers so you don’t miss our calls.

After you respond to the phone call, we’ll send you the invitation by mail.

You need to be in Canada to take the Oath of Citizenship. If you get your invitation while you’re outside Canada, reply to the invitation email to explain your situation in detail.

In your email

put “Outside Canada – Oath of Citizenship” in the subject line
In the body of your message, include
- your full name
- your application number
- a detailed explanation of your situation

We’ll contact you with your next steps after we receive your email.

How to attend the video oath ceremony

You’ll attend the video oath ceremony via a Zoom videoconference call. We’ll explain how to set up Zoom in your ceremony invitation.

Most in-person citizenship events are cancelled

To keep everyone safe, the following citizenship events are cancelled until further notice:

in-person citizenship ceremonies
- We’ll contact you to schedule a video oath ceremony
in-person citizenship tests and retests
- We’ll contact you to invite you for an online citizenship test
most retests, interviews and hearings (including videoconference hearings)
- Wait for us to contact you.
- If you need to change your appointment, contact the office that sent the invitation.
  - The contact information is in the letter we sent.
citizenship events in our temporary offices (itinerant service trips)

Processing your citizenship application

We’re still accepting new applications for citizenship.

Due to COVID-19, we

are prioritizing Canadians who are trying to return to Canada
have limited capacity to process citizenship applications
can’t provide accurate processing times

It’s taking us longer to

check that your application is complete
send you an acknowledgement of receipt (AOR) letter or email with your application number
- We send you the AOR after we receive your application and check that it’s complete.

Until you get your AOR

the Client Support Centre won’t have information about your application status
you can’t check your application status online
don’t submit a Web form to check your application status

Check your application status

After you receive your AOR, you can check your application status online.

If we ask you to submit documents for an application in progress

Last updated: April 12, 2021

Because many applicants can now provide the supporting documents needed for us to process applications, we’ll no longer automatically give more time to submit information.

We’ll contact you to request the supporting documents.
- This will happen in the next few months.
- You’ll have 30 days from the date we contact you to submit the information.
Start collecting your documents.
- Do this before we contact you. It can take time to get certain documents.
- Check the last email we sent you to confirm what you need to submit.
Don’t travel to another city or country to get the supporting documents.
We’ll consider extending your deadline if you have a reasonable explanation that shows you’re affected by COVID-19.

Find out what to do if you still have documents to provide for your application.

Urgent processing of applications

If you have an emergency, you can request urgent processing of your citizenship application.

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

Find out when and how to apply urgently

Time you’ve lived in Canada (physical presence)

Extra days spent abroad due to COVID-19 will not count as days in Canada. You must still meet the physical presence requirement for your citizenship application.

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