Judging by the small group of invites in my virtual ceremony 2 months ago (of the 100+ attendees, only 3 other people had been invited to this program), I'd say it's not being offered to every applicant, or even to random applicants. My guess is that they only invited people who's applications are extremely simple and straightforward.
I’d just roll with the invite, since it sounds like IRCC is testing a faster handoff from oath to passport and folks in past pilots said it shaved some time off. I’ve had good experiences with programs that streamline long processes, kind of like how commercial aircraft pilot training helped me cut down delays in my own licensing path. If the portal link feels legit and matches IRCC domains, it’s usually worth using.
Any recent experiences? I’ve been waiting over a month (22 business days) and still haven’t received my passport.
Here’s my timeline:
Invited to the citizenship-to-passport pilot: May 27
Submitted my application and supporting documents via Canada Post Connect: May 28
Took the oath on June 2 and submitted the signed oath form the same day
The only update so far has been the confirmation in Canada Post Connect on June 18
I have travel booked for around July 16, which will be 31 business days (45 calendar days) since completed application. I thought that would be plenty of time, but I’m starting to get a bit nervous.
What are my options other than emailing cit2passport email id (just got automated response about timelines - not much help)?