I've been searching for a very long time here and elsewhere. Interested if others had the same situation.
My country of citizenship is Turkey and place of birth is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
ALL of my documents from Turkey list it as "Cidde" -- name of that city but with Turkish local spelling. And no country.
In all Canadian application forms, I gave "Cidde" as the "place of birth, as shown in the passport". I take it literally -- copying what is seen in the boxes as "place of birth" in my passport without adding the country or changing the name to its English equivalent. If they separately ask about the country, I say Saudi Arabia.
Naturally in most cases they just assumed the country must be Turkey, based on the nationality, and they issue papers based on that mistaken assumption.
My study permit displayed Turkey. I had a call with IRCC and explained the situation. The officer said he'd fix it.
Next, my work permit displayed Saudi Arabia, so I thought it's fixed.
Next, my COPR displayed Turkey. I did the landing and when the officer asked about any mistakes on the form I told about this. The officer corrected the official COPR (but not mine), and also updated the records on the computer. Told me the PR card would come out as Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately once again the PR card shows Turkey as my country of birth.
Not that I have a problem with that, but whenever I make another application (citizenship, passport, security check, job, visa, ...) I have to declare the country of birth. If I say Saudi Arabia, it will be inconsistent with my documents and cause refusal/delay/scrutiny. If I say Turkey I'd be technically lying/misrepresenting. I'm sick of having to worry about this already.
Currently I'm trying to apply for citizenship and started worrying a lot about this possibly causing delays or problems, given the very long timelines involved. I called IRCC to explain and get advice, but even the officer couldn't be 100% sure. Note that I have no birth certificate. Saudi Arabian consulate doesn't offer anything. I'm trying to contact the hospital but I don't know if anything will come out of that. Got an "international birth certificate (formula A)" from Turkish consulate yesterday, for the first time in my life. They manually added the country just for that paper so it's listed as "Cidde / Saudi Arabia" even though it's not in the records. I have my baby passport which makes the case very clear (consulate in "Cidde" gave the passport, same as the birth place, has Saudi Arabian visa, etc) but getting all those translated would be a big hassle and I still don't know if it's necessary or enough.
IRCC officer said in theory the birth place should be listed under its English name so it would be Jeddah / Saudi Arabia in any Canadian records from now on. Does anyone have any facts or experience related to this? I think that's the most sensible option but I wonder if it not matching my current passport could be a problem. Two passports for the same person with apparently different birthplaces (albeit really the same city).
The 100% safe option would be to first apply for amendment of records, get that document, then apply for citizenship. But that I feel I don't want to wait that long.
The 90% (?) safe option would be to apply for amendment of records, and then apply for citizenship adding any file/tracking numbers about that to my citizenship application so they can cross-check. Also add the same detailed explanation letter and same supporting evidence to both applications.
I'm still thinking what evidence to add. Feels like the Formula A should be okay and if I can something from the hospital that would be perfect. Maybe get a paper from the consulate in Jeddah confirming the city name and country being correct? Of course if they agree to give that. And I could include copies of pages of my baby passport but I'm worried it may unnecessarily complicate things with all that Turkish & Arabic text. Probably no need to go that far.
I'm sure I'll eventually solve it. Just sharing in case someone has anything to add, so that others will have a future reference. I'll add updates but it would take more than a year to finalize.
My country of citizenship is Turkey and place of birth is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
ALL of my documents from Turkey list it as "Cidde" -- name of that city but with Turkish local spelling. And no country.
In all Canadian application forms, I gave "Cidde" as the "place of birth, as shown in the passport". I take it literally -- copying what is seen in the boxes as "place of birth" in my passport without adding the country or changing the name to its English equivalent. If they separately ask about the country, I say Saudi Arabia.
Naturally in most cases they just assumed the country must be Turkey, based on the nationality, and they issue papers based on that mistaken assumption.
My study permit displayed Turkey. I had a call with IRCC and explained the situation. The officer said he'd fix it.
Next, my work permit displayed Saudi Arabia, so I thought it's fixed.
Next, my COPR displayed Turkey. I did the landing and when the officer asked about any mistakes on the form I told about this. The officer corrected the official COPR (but not mine), and also updated the records on the computer. Told me the PR card would come out as Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately once again the PR card shows Turkey as my country of birth.
Not that I have a problem with that, but whenever I make another application (citizenship, passport, security check, job, visa, ...) I have to declare the country of birth. If I say Saudi Arabia, it will be inconsistent with my documents and cause refusal/delay/scrutiny. If I say Turkey I'd be technically lying/misrepresenting. I'm sick of having to worry about this already.
Currently I'm trying to apply for citizenship and started worrying a lot about this possibly causing delays or problems, given the very long timelines involved. I called IRCC to explain and get advice, but even the officer couldn't be 100% sure. Note that I have no birth certificate. Saudi Arabian consulate doesn't offer anything. I'm trying to contact the hospital but I don't know if anything will come out of that. Got an "international birth certificate (formula A)" from Turkish consulate yesterday, for the first time in my life. They manually added the country just for that paper so it's listed as "Cidde / Saudi Arabia" even though it's not in the records. I have my baby passport which makes the case very clear (consulate in "Cidde" gave the passport, same as the birth place, has Saudi Arabian visa, etc) but getting all those translated would be a big hassle and I still don't know if it's necessary or enough.
IRCC officer said in theory the birth place should be listed under its English name so it would be Jeddah / Saudi Arabia in any Canadian records from now on. Does anyone have any facts or experience related to this? I think that's the most sensible option but I wonder if it not matching my current passport could be a problem. Two passports for the same person with apparently different birthplaces (albeit really the same city).
The 100% safe option would be to first apply for amendment of records, get that document, then apply for citizenship. But that I feel I don't want to wait that long.
The 90% (?) safe option would be to apply for amendment of records, and then apply for citizenship adding any file/tracking numbers about that to my citizenship application so they can cross-check. Also add the same detailed explanation letter and same supporting evidence to both applications.
I'm still thinking what evidence to add. Feels like the Formula A should be okay and if I can something from the hospital that would be perfect. Maybe get a paper from the consulate in Jeddah confirming the city name and country being correct? Of course if they agree to give that. And I could include copies of pages of my baby passport but I'm worried it may unnecessarily complicate things with all that Turkish & Arabic text. Probably no need to go that far.
I'm sure I'll eventually solve it. Just sharing in case someone has anything to add, so that others will have a future reference. I'll add updates but it would take more than a year to finalize.