Just where did the time go? How time flies so fast and yet here we are now applying for our Canadian Citizenship.
I remember starting this blog for my Little R to one day read how we journeyed just to have him/her in our arms. That we can do anything and everything just for him/her even leaving our family and our home country. I documented everything for him/her even if we are still waiting 3 years after we landed and applied for citizenship.
Yes, you read it right, we have already submitted our Canadian Citizenship application in May this year but it is only now that I am blogging because of our busy schedule doing renovations in our home and the house blessing almost 3 weeks ago. Most importantly, I was waiting for our acknowledgment of receipt (AOR) before I post this page, LOL.
Well, what is really important before trying to apply for Citizenship is knowing your Physical Presence. I used CIC's Physical Presence Calculator to calculate our eligibility to apply for Citizenship especially that we went home to the Philippines last October 2018 for my father's wake. It is easy actually to maneuver said Calculator. You can log in to your old email address on your Express Entry profile, edit and/or save if you must, but once you are ready, you can print it off and use and/or attach this form in lieu of Form CIT 0407. Just remember that the date on the Physical Presence form must be the same as the date of Form CIT 002.
In addition to the Physical Presence, permanent residents must have 1,095 eligible days within the last 5 years before they can apply for Citizenship. For me and my husband, we have 1,104 credited Physical Presence based on the CIC's calculator, see below. Thus, making us eligible to apply for Citizenship. If you go out outside of Canada most of the time, it is stated on the Instruction Guide to give at least 5 days allowance on the 1,095 days just in case you miss a day out. You don't want your application to be returned and I will tell you later on why.😀 (Oh, I like that I can put real smileys now, LOL)
Before actually starting to fill up your forms, open CIC's Instruction Guide on Application for Canadian Citizenship to help you on the filling up process. It is well-explained on the guide what to do and what is not, what document to provide and attachment, if any. Also, consider printing or scanning out the Document Checklist just for heads up on what basic paperwork an applicant needs. We actually need 8 documents only per applicant. How cool is that compared to the bulky documentation we did during our Provincial and Federal applications, LOL.
Anyway, remember to read the right Form to fill up as almost every year, I think, CIC updates their Forms. Ours was CIT 0002 (02-2019) E. If you used the wrong General Form, your application will be returned. So keep that in mind. The Guide will tell you and the number of the Form is located on the lower left corner of the 8 pages Application for Canadian Citizenship Adults (18 years of age or older).
On said Form above, don't forget to tick important boxes for yourselves and the word N/A on all boxes that has no answer. Mind you, some application/s has been returned just by not ticking 1 box in their application and a blank/s on their Form. Yes, same as Provincial and Federal, no blank spaces.
What is really tricky on the Form which I find confusing (but the Guide will answer it as well) are the following:
The rest of the document checklist is self explanatory. I must say though that you need to pay your Citizenship upfront and attached the receipt on your application/s. The fee for adult is CAD630, minor I think is CAD100 (if my memory is right), please check.
Again, check, double check, triple check before submitting because Citizenship application is paper base. Once you commit an error your application will be return. We submitted our Citizenship application last 27 May 2019 and was received by "T Allen" on 29 May 2019.
More than 2 months has passed and of course the waiting game is killing me again. This is why I was anxiously nervous since last week waiting for our AOR. In Citizenship application, we wait for a minimum of 2 months for that magic AOR email from CIC. If you received your AOR, this just means that your submitted basic requirements are all good and complete. However, when your document is returned, the applicant must comply with whatsoever error made on the application, then mail "again", and wait for another minimum of 2 months.😏
See, so who will not panic if everyone on the forum is getting AOR except you, LOL, same feeling during Provincial and Federal.😀 So, I called CIC last Monday, 12 August, LOL, as per forum and inquired. I just gave our UCI Nos., I was only waiting for the agent to say, I cannot find your application nor your payment, blah, blah, blah (as per forum applicants' experiences) but nope heard nothing of it. The agent just says everything is good (it's like music to my ear, LOL) and we just need to wait because there is a bunch of applications. Oh, I know, LOL, just waiting for the magic words. But... we did not wait any longer, the following day, we finally received our AOR, see below.
Now, we can really relax and wait "again" but we can, however, go online to check status of our Citizenship application through ECAS. I just have no time yet to do it. What is important is we passed the first stage. Thank you dear Father God for all the guidance.
In addition to the Physical Presence, permanent residents must have 1,095 eligible days within the last 5 years before they can apply for Citizenship. For me and my husband, we have 1,104 credited Physical Presence based on the CIC's calculator, see below. Thus, making us eligible to apply for Citizenship. If you go out outside of Canada most of the time, it is stated on the Instruction Guide to give at least 5 days allowance on the 1,095 days just in case you miss a day out. You don't want your application to be returned and I will tell you later on why.😀 (Oh, I like that I can put real smileys now, LOL)
Before actually starting to fill up your forms, open CIC's Instruction Guide on Application for Canadian Citizenship to help you on the filling up process. It is well-explained on the guide what to do and what is not, what document to provide and attachment, if any. Also, consider printing or scanning out the Document Checklist just for heads up on what basic paperwork an applicant needs. We actually need 8 documents only per applicant. How cool is that compared to the bulky documentation we did during our Provincial and Federal applications, LOL.
Anyway, remember to read the right Form to fill up as almost every year, I think, CIC updates their Forms. Ours was CIT 0002 (02-2019) E. If you used the wrong General Form, your application will be returned. So keep that in mind. The Guide will tell you and the number of the Form is located on the lower left corner of the 8 pages Application for Canadian Citizenship Adults (18 years of age or older).
On said Form above, don't forget to tick important boxes for yourselves and the word N/A on all boxes that has no answer. Mind you, some application/s has been returned just by not ticking 1 box in their application and a blank/s on their Form. Yes, same as Provincial and Federal, no blank spaces.
What is really tricky on the Form which I find confusing (but the Guide will answer it as well) are the following:
- No. 10.a: where they asked for your addresses for the last five years - if you notice our Physical Presence Form, our eligibility period is from 2014-05-26 to 2019-05-26. Thus, you need to key in your home addresses for the last 5 years including your country of residence before you become permanent residents. and
- No. 10.b: our answer is "YES" for this reason because in the last 5 years we lived in the Philippines for 365 days before we become permanent residents 3 years ago. And if you went out of Canada for travel or emergency like ours, just 14 days and is no more than 183 days then no need for a Police Clearance. I, however, attached our Police Clearance (NBI) which we submitted during the Federal stage and stated that we submitted it on our Immigration Application in Year 2015. A Police Clearance is only needed if you have a continuous 183 days pf physical absence in Canada.
Moving forward to passport. No need to print all pages. I only printed the biographical pages of our new and old passports.
On photocopy of proof of knowledge on English or French language. For mine, since I am the principal applicant on our Immigration application, I sent a photocopy of my IELTS which I submitted 3 years ago. I hope you still have a copy of yours.😀 For my husband, I made a Letter of Explanation for him and I quote:
"I am writing this letter to show proof of my English Language.
I did not take my IELTS General Training when I came to Canada because my wife, _______, is the principal applicant in our permanent residency application. In this connection, I am presenting my diploma in __________ as proof that even though I did not take my IELTS I know how to read and write in English because from Elementary to College we have English subject included in our curriculum. Please see also my attached Transcript of Record with English subjects such as: Grammar Development, Technical Writing, Speech Development and Public Speaking.
Gratefully hoping for your favorable consideration.
Thank you."
The rest of the document checklist is self explanatory. I must say though that you need to pay your Citizenship upfront and attached the receipt on your application/s. The fee for adult is CAD630, minor I think is CAD100 (if my memory is right), please check.
Again, check, double check, triple check before submitting because Citizenship application is paper base. Once you commit an error your application will be return. We submitted our Citizenship application last 27 May 2019 and was received by "T Allen" on 29 May 2019.
More than 2 months has passed and of course the waiting game is killing me again. This is why I was anxiously nervous since last week waiting for our AOR. In Citizenship application, we wait for a minimum of 2 months for that magic AOR email from CIC. If you received your AOR, this just means that your submitted basic requirements are all good and complete. However, when your document is returned, the applicant must comply with whatsoever error made on the application, then mail "again", and wait for another minimum of 2 months.😏
See, so who will not panic if everyone on the forum is getting AOR except you, LOL, same feeling during Provincial and Federal.😀 So, I called CIC last Monday, 12 August, LOL, as per forum and inquired. I just gave our UCI Nos., I was only waiting for the agent to say, I cannot find your application nor your payment, blah, blah, blah (as per forum applicants' experiences) but nope heard nothing of it. The agent just says everything is good (it's like music to my ear, LOL) and we just need to wait because there is a bunch of applications. Oh, I know, LOL, just waiting for the magic words. But... we did not wait any longer, the following day, we finally received our AOR, see below.
Now, we can really relax and wait "again" but we can, however, go online to check status of our Citizenship application through ECAS. I just have no time yet to do it. What is important is we passed the first stage. Thank you dear Father God for all the guidance.
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