Citizenship Journey Complete: Experience + Tips

[Quiches]

Hey everyone! I hope you all are doing great!

I became an official Canadian yesterday and I would’ve posted this update but I was too busy celebrating it!

Since this forum and its people have greatly helped me on this sometimes stressful journey, I thought it would be appropriate for me to give back by recounting my experience and try to help as many with it as I can.

So, here is the summary of my personal experience with the citizenship application process. To even make this post more concise (because be prepared, this is going to be long), I split it up into 2 parts: Experience, where I go into details about my specific experience & Tips, where I list the most helpful points, just in case you are only interested in one aspect.

Also, keep in mind that this account is highly personal, and the process will differ for everyone. This is also meant to provide details and tips specific to the Vancouver CIC office and it will probably apply to you the most if you are also a Vancouver applicant.

 

[Quiches]

Here is my general timeline for reference:

App Sent: 2017/11/23
App Received: 2017/11/30
AOR: 2018/01/23
IP: 2018/02/13
Interview Invite: 2018/03/20
Interview Date: 2018/04/18
Decision Made: 2018/04/19
Oath Invite: 2018/05/25
Oath Date: 2018/06/22
Application Complete In (excluding transit): 204 days or 6 months and 23 days

 

[Quiches]

General Experience:

Interview (Copy-Pasted from my previous post)

Note: I was not required to complete the citizenship test, so this is an interview-only experience.

The interview was scheduled for 12:20 pm; arrived at 11:40 am; the doors of the main room didn't open until around 12:00 pm (the building, however, was open); many applicants were waiting downstairs and some went upstairs to line up in front of the door; public parking is right next to the building and very plentiful (I was concerned about this, haha).

At around 12:00 pm, an agent opened the door and signalled people on which room to enter (depending on if they had to take the test). People who accompanied the candidate could enter the main room, where the interview happens, but not the test room.

Interviews started at around 12:30 pm, before then, there were no citizenship officers. The interviews happen in booths, much like in a bank, and they will call your name.

During the 40 minutes of wait time, I started chatting with the security officer there. Despite his rather stern appearance, he was very nice and told me that the Vancouver office does test/interviews twice a week (Tuesday, Wednesday) and two rounds (9:00 am ish or 12:00 pm ish) of those on the two days. I recall that he said there are similarly four oath ceremonies on two days in Vancouver (but the CIC website seem to indicate there’s more). Interesting info.

The questions were very straightforward, much to the likes of "Do you have family in Canada?" and "Do you travel to the US often?". Passport and other two IDs checked. Passport stamps dates are then verified against your physical presence calculator. I stated that I also had official passport stamp translations, my COPR, among many other things that my over-prepared self brought, should the officer wished to see them. The officer did not need them. Finally, I signed on the margin of a document that I did not get to read. I assumed it was to match your signatures.

After all stamps are checked, you are done! Other small talk or questions might come up to your specific case, as I've (unintentionally) heard from adjacent booths, but that's pretty much it!

In the end, you will receive some reiterated version of:" you are all good! Wait for the oath in 2-5 months." , which seems to be Canada-wide.
The whole process for me is around 1 hour from my scheduled time on the invite, which 40 minutes is just simply waiting.

 

[Quiches]

General Experience

Oath Ceremony

Vancouver very consistently sends out oath invite exactly 4-weeks before the ceremony. I received my invite around 5 weeks after my interview.

My oath invite was at 8:00 am sharp and I arrived at 7:25 am. Same place for parking. The building is not open until 8 sharp so if you do plan on arriving early (which I’d suggest), you can go to the other side of the building where there’s a quaint local coffee store, 7-11, and a Starbucks.

At 8 am, an agent opens the door and everyone slowly files in (in a super polite, ultra-Canadian manner, haha). Guests and Candidates were separated at the entrance, one is directly escorted into the ceremony room and the candidates went into the room of the interview.

Once inside, a lady briefly instructed us on preparing our PR card and our oath convocations. She also stated we all have designated seatings so do not worry about being checked in later than others. People lined up under the instruction of the same security dude, usually depending on where they were sitting or standing.

Multiple booths were open for check-in and the process was fairly quick. My agent took my convocation letter, signed media release and prohibitions form, went back and brought out my file, asked me to sign on the document, took my PR card, and handed me some goodies such as a park Canada pass. I asked if PR card could be hole-punched and kept as a keepsake, the answer was no. I also brought various other documents like IDs, my passport and COPR, the agent did not need to see them.

After check-in, I went into the ceremony room and looked for my seat number. A lady was also there to assist with seating. Some people were taking photos with the Canada flag on the stages.

The ceremony started at around 8:40 am, with an introductory video of Prime Minister Trudeau’s congratulatory message and a cute montage of Canadian things (like people skiing and beavers). The clerk then explained the ceremony procedure and introduced the presiding judge. The citizenship judge addresses the applicants for about 10 minutes, then the oath was taken in both languages. Then, everyone filed in a line to receive citizenship certificates and shook hands with the judge. The judge congratulated us a bit more and we all (very sheepishly for some reason, maybe it was early) sang the national anthem.

The ceremony was no more than 30 minutes. The judge’s remarks were very brief. Afterwards, people lined up to take photos with the judge or with the flag.

I took photos with both and left the place at around 9:20 am. It was overall, very brief but effective. For this early in the morning, I was glad it was to the point.

When I left, some of the 10:00 am ceremony folks were already arriving. Apparently, Vancouver likes to schedule them back to back.

Overall, the ceremony was not as emotionally-charged as I thought it was going to be. However, it provides some well-deserved closure to all of our immigration journeys and it is still an incredibly special day.

 

[AmrAdel]

Congratulations

 

[0001buddies]

Hi buddy,
First of all congratulations n can u help me with Q-9 i checked yes then we have to fill cit177 or not? N this form is entirely not applicable on me.
Thanks in advance.

 

[osghar]

Congratulations, and thank you very much for sharing your entire application experience with such detail, this is really helpful for those who are in the middle of the process, like me.

You mentioned that you were not required to take the test, is there any reason why your situation was different? I haven't get to that point yet, as my application started processing 2 months ago and I haven't a get test or interview scheduled yet, but I'm curious since all the posts I've read everybody seems to have taken the test.

 

[rajibsam]

Test is required if you are in 18-54 age group.