Minors Citizenship Application
- Thread starter RajGill
- Start date
If neither parent was born in Canada or naturalized as a Canadian citizen prior to the birth, yes.
Google can define it. If you don't become a Canadian before the birth, you need to sponsor the child for PR.
Back in 2019, I assisted a friend's daughter to apply for citizenship using what we thought was the correct form for minors, CIT 0003 (subsection 5-2). She was 17 at the time. Fast forward to April 2021, when she finally received some news about her application. And of course, in the interim, she has had two birthdays and is now 19. In the letter, they apologized for the long delay, but said that because neither of her parents are Canadian citizens, she is not eligible to apply under Subsection 5-2, and that now that she is an adult she must apply using the adult application, which means having to pay an additional $530.
It was only then that we realized that she should have applied using CIT 0403 (subsection 5-1), which we had not even noticed on the website previously, as the 5-2 version (CIT 0003) is the only one that came up when doing a search for the application for minors. Although in part 8 of the CIT 0003 version that my friend's daughter used which asks about the Canadian citizenship of her parents, she left the section blank because they are not yet Canadian citizens. Nowhere on that form does it say "if your parents are not Canadian citizens, use CIT 0403, subsection 5-1", or words to that effect. That would certainly have been helpful and we would have eventually found the right form and submitted that instead. Or IRCC could have notified my friend that his daughter had used the wrong form and give them an opportunity to submit the correct form within a certain time frame, even if she had already turned 18.
Trying to speak to an IRCC agent at the 888 number has been futile so far, due to the huge call volume and the confusing menu options. So I'm wondering if anyone on this site could advise us what to do. Would submitting a CIT 0403 (subsection 5-1) application, back-dated to 2019, along with a copy of her original 0003 (subsection 5-2), together with a detailed letter of explanation be worthwhile? Or is applying as an adult and trying to come up with the extra money (not easy to do for this family) really her only choice now? Thanks in advance for any help.
It was only then that we realized that she should have applied using CIT 0403 (subsection 5-1), which we had not even noticed on the website previously, as the 5-2 version (CIT 0003) is the only one that came up when doing a search for the application for minors. Although in part 8 of the CIT 0003 version that my friend's daughter used which asks about the Canadian citizenship of her parents, she left the section blank because they are not yet Canadian citizens. Nowhere on that form does it say "if your parents are not Canadian citizens, use CIT 0403, subsection 5-1", or words to that effect. That would certainly have been helpful and we would have eventually found the right form and submitted that instead. Or IRCC could have notified my friend that his daughter had used the wrong form and give them an opportunity to submit the correct form within a certain time frame, even if she had already turned 18.
Trying to speak to an IRCC agent at the 888 number has been futile so far, due to the huge call volume and the confusing menu options. So I'm wondering if anyone on this site could advise us what to do. Would submitting a CIT 0403 (subsection 5-1) application, back-dated to 2019, along with a copy of her original 0003 (subsection 5-2), together with a detailed letter of explanation be worthwhile? Or is applying as an adult and trying to come up with the extra money (not easy to do for this family) really her only choice now? Thanks in advance for any help.
Right now it's too late for her to apply as a minor, her only option is to apply as an adult now. Sending a new application for minor under 5(1) and adding a LOE won't help.
Good luck!
Thank you, Das 67. Although you may well be correct, I am wondering if anyone has encountered this situation before. It just seems such a shame that this girl was in fact eligible to apply as a minor and now 18 months of waiting have been wasted because we were not aware that a slightly different form should have been submitted.
Sorry, but it is the applicant's responsibility to verify that he/she is using the correct form. It's clearly written in the instructions for CIT-0003 that if applying under 5(2), one parent must be a citizen or is applying for their citizenship at the same time of the minor. If you are feeling guilty for misleading the family into using the wrong application, perhaps you could help by giving them the additional $530 needed to make up the difference; seems only fair.
I'm kicking myself for not noticing the part in the instructions about the parents' citizenship, assuming that the instructions were worded the same way in 2019 (IRCC web pages are often updated). I wasn't with her when she filled out the application, but when she got to the fields which ask about parents' citizenship certificate, she left them blank because it did not apply. I thought that would have triggered a prompt to complete them (blank fields highlighted in red). If that had happened, it would have become apparent that she was using the wrong form.
@Yelsew Did you mean you helped her to apply for Canadian citizenship under 5(2) without an accompanying parent also applying for citizenship? Or was her application in accompaniment of one or both parents's citizenship application too? If it is the former, I think there is no recourse. If it is the latter, then her application is valid, although not sure how it works with the almost 2 years delay in processing.
@limhockkiong, I helped her to apply as a minor using the 5(2) application, not realizing that she should have used the 5(1) application, as her parents were not ready to apply for citizenship at that time. She has already started to complete the adult application, with the extra costs that involves. In 'normal' non-pandemic times, it probably wouldn't have taken so long for IRCC to return her application, and it might have been possible to submit the correct application before her 18th birthday. And I'm sure it will be at least another year of waiting.