About Citizenship
Canadian citizenship can be acquired in the following ways:
- By Birth – to those who are born on Canadian land, airspace, waters, Canadian registered ships, and aircraft.
- By Birth – to those who are born outside Canada if one of their parents, who was a Canadian citizen at their birth, was employed outside by the Canadian government or was born or naturalized in Canada.
- By Naturalization
One of the main reasons why people from around the world migrate to Canada is so that they can attain the citizenship of the country. The problem is that the process is not so easy and the applicant has to fulfill a lot of requirements in order to be eligible to apply for the citizenship of Canada. These include:
- The applicant must be 18 years of age or be 14 years or older if with a parent.
- The applicant must have stayed physically as a Permanent Resident in Canada for a minimum of 1095 days within five years before filing the application. However, there are certain exceptions for applicants from the Canadian Armed Forces and Crown Servants working aboard and applicants who had a temporary status within five years before filing the application. Time spent in prison/parole/probation does not count toward the citizenship residency requirements.
- The applicant must have filed the income taxes for any three taxation years that are fully or partially within the five-year period before filing the application. However, this condition must be fulfilled only if they are required to file the taxes under the Income Tax Act.
- The applicant must demonstrate that they can speak and listen in either of the two official languages of the country, English or French. If they are 18 to 54 years old, they must submit proof that demonstrates they can speak and listen in English or French at CLB 4.
- If they are 18 to 54 years old, the applicant must be able to show knowledge about the country in either language and understand the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.
There are some things that will affect your application in a negative way. In order to avoid that, the applicant must:
- Not serving a sentence outside Canada.
- Not serving a term of imprisonment, on parole or on probation in Canada.
- Not be charged with, on trial for, or involved in an appeal of an:
- indictable offense in Canada
- offense outside Canada
- Not have been convicted in the four years before applying for citizenship of an:
- indictable offense in Canada
- offense outside Canada
- Never have been ordered to leave the country.
- Not have been refused the grant of Canadian citizenship in the last five years prior to the current application due to misrepresentation.
- Not have his Canadian citizenship revoked at any point in the past.
- Have met the terms and conditions of their permanent resident status.
