Canadian Citizenship Question while being on conditional CR1

[2Ps 49]

Hello everyone, I have a unique scenario.  I hold a conditional greencard and I can remove the condition at the end of this year. Before this, I was a permanent resident of Canada. I am originally from Nepal. Because Nepal doesn't allow dual citizenship and I liked living in Canada, I had applied for Canadian citizenship on 2019 , but the caveat is I had already applied for CR1 in 2018 because I am married to an American. I do plan on moving to Canada at some point and I applied for Canadian citizenship after consulting with a lawyer. I passed my citizenship test for Canada back on April 2021 and I took the test from seattle.  I recently got a message from Canadian Citizenship Office in Vancouver asking: 

1)  when I plan to return to Canada ( to provide travel arrangements)

2) If I am already in Canada, to provide proof of travel documents.

 

While I plan to return to Canada at some point (maybe retirement), it won't be for long term in the immediate future, but was planning to visit my sister there. I emailed the lawyer who originally advised me, but she has moved firms and I haven't heard a response back. I need to respond to the Canadian Citizenship Office, but don't know how to respond to the questions above. I was so close with my citizenship process.

 

Should I just say I plan to go to Canada on so and so date as I was planning to visit my sister there....so torn, as I do not want to jeopardize my Green Card in the US in any way either. Should I just give up my hopes to be a Canadian?

 

Any suggestions for a good Canadian immigration lwho is well versed in US immigration would be very much appreciated!

Edited February 25, 2022 by 2Ps
typo

[Chancy 6,239]

*** Moved from General Immigration-Related Discussion to the Canada regional forum ***

 

[Ontarkie 14,133]

Do not give up. You are allowed to live abroad as long as you meet the requirements to continue with the citizen process. Other will come along who know more about the process then I do. Good luck. 

[204 59]

5 hours ago, 2Ps said:

Hello everyone, I have a unique scenario.  I hold a conditional greencard and I can remove the condition at the end of this year. Before this, I was a permanent resident of Canada. I am originally from Nepal. Because Nepal doesn't allow dual citizenship and I liked living in Canada, I had applied for Canadian citizenship on 2019 , but the caveat is I had already applied for CR1 in 2018 because I am married to an American. I do plan on moving to Canada at some point and I applied for Canadian citizenship after consulting with a lawyer. I passed my citizenship test for Canada back on April 2021 and I took the test from seattle.  I recently got a message from Canadian Citizenship Office in Vancouver asking: 

1)  when I plan to return to Canada ( to provide travel arrangements)

2) If I am already in Canada, to provide proof of travel documents.

 

While I plan to return to Canada at some point (maybe retirement), it won't be for long term in the immediate future, but was planning to visit my sister there. I emailed the lawyer who originally advised me, but she has moved firms and I haven't heard a response back. I need to respond to the Canadian Citizenship Office, but don't know how to respond to the questions above. I was so close with my citizenship process.

 

Should I just say I plan to go to Canada on so and so date as I was planning to visit my sister there....so torn, as I do not want to jeopardize my Green Card in the US in any way either. Should I just give up my hopes to be a Canadian?

 

Any suggestions for a good Canadian immigration lwho is well versed in US immigration would be very much appreciated!

You can continue your citizenship process and hold your Canadian citizenship in the future. Couple years ago, IRCC removed "tie to Canada" as a requirement when apply for citizenship. 

[2Ps 49]

5 hours ago, 204 said:

You can continue your citizenship process and hold your Canadian citizenship in the future. Couple years ago, IRCC removed "tie to Canada" as a requirement when apply for citizenship. 

Hi 204 thank you. Do you know exactly on where this condition is stated? I thought I read that the intent has to be to stay in Canada.

[2Ps 49]

Also I meant recommendations for immigration lawyers in the last sentence*.  That would be very much appreciated. I emailed 2 lawyers so far, but haven't heard back.

[204 59]

5 hours ago, 2Ps said:

Hi 204 thank you. Do you know exactly on where this condition is stated? I thought I read that the intent has to be to stay in Canada.

You can check out this link from IRCC website. 

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2017/10/changes_to_the_citizenshipactasaresultofbillc-6.html

[waterlooengineer 30]

On 2/25/2022 at 3:56 PM, 2Ps said:

Hello everyone, I have a unique scenario.  I hold a conditional greencard and I can remove the condition at the end of this year. Before this, I was a permanent resident of Canada. I am originally from Nepal. Because Nepal doesn't allow dual citizenship and I liked living in Canada, I had applied for Canadian citizenship on 2019 , but the caveat is I had already applied for CR1 in 2018 because I am married to an American. I do plan on moving to Canada at some point and I applied for Canadian citizenship after consulting with a lawyer. I passed my citizenship test for Canada back on April 2021 and I took the test from seattle.  I recently got a message from Canadian Citizenship Office in Vancouver asking: 

1)  when I plan to return to Canada ( to provide travel arrangements)

2) If I am already in Canada, to provide proof of travel documents.

 

While I plan to return to Canada at some point (maybe retirement), it won't be for long term in the immediate future, but was planning to visit my sister there. I emailed the lawyer who originally advised me, but she has moved firms and I haven't heard a response back. I need to respond to the Canadian Citizenship Office, but don't know how to respond to the questions above. I was so close with my citizenship process.

 

Should I just say I plan to go to Canada on so and so date as I was planning to visit my sister there....so torn, as I do not want to jeopardize my Green Card in the US in any way either. Should I just give up my hopes to be a Canadian?

 

Any suggestions for a good Canadian immigration lwho is well versed in US immigration would be very much appreciated!

 

Hello,

 

IRCC is asking this so they can schedule an oath date for you. You can provide them with a date in the next few weeks/months with a flight ticket showing the arrival date to Canada.

Do keep in mind, that you need to be physically present in Canada during the oath (even though it is virtual now) and it takes a few weeks for the Citizenship certificate to arrive. 

[2Ps 49]

3 hours ago, waterlooengineer said:

 

Hello,

 

IRCC is asking this so they can schedule an oath date for you. You can provide them with a date in the next few weeks/months with a flight ticket showing the arrival date to Canada.

Do keep in mind, that you need to be physically present in Canada during the oath (even though it is virtual now) and it takes a few weeks for the Citizenship certificate to arrive. 

Hi waterlooengineer, 

 

Thank you for your response. If I give them a date of arrival, do you know if they send you the OATH date within a few days of returning back to Canada? or is it going to be a few weeks? 

 

I was just thinking of having the citizenship certificate mailed to my sister even if I do come back to the US.

[waterlooengineer 30]

20 minutes ago, 2Ps said:

Hi waterlooengineer, 

 

Thank you for your response. If I give them a date of arrival, do you know if they send you the OATH date within a few days of returning back to Canada? or is it going to be a few weeks? 

 

I was just thinking of having the citizenship certificate mailed to my sister even if I do come back to the US.

With IRCC, I would always keep a buffer of ± 2-3 weeks. Currently once the oath is done, citizenship certificates are being arrived within 3-4 weeks on average. Since you are in the US and traveling is fairly easy, you should be fine. 

And having the citizenship certificate mailed to you sister should be fine. 

[Kai G. Llewellyn 829]

On 2/25/2022 at 12:56 PM, 2Ps said:

Hello everyone, I have a unique scenario.  I hold a conditional greencard and I can remove the condition at the end of this year. Before this, I was a permanent resident of Canada. I am originally from Nepal. Because Nepal doesn't allow dual citizenship and I liked living in Canada, I had applied for Canadian citizenship on 2019 , but the caveat is I had already applied for CR1 in 2018 because I am married to an American. I do plan on moving to Canada at some point and I applied for Canadian citizenship after consulting with a lawyer. I passed my citizenship test for Canada back on April 2021 and I took the test from seattle.  I recently got a message from Canadian Citizenship Office in Vancouver asking: 

1)  when I plan to return to Canada ( to provide travel arrangements)

2) If I am already in Canada, to provide proof of travel documents.

 

While I plan to return to Canada at some point (maybe retirement), it won't be for long term in the immediate future, but was planning to visit my sister there. I emailed the lawyer who originally advised me, but she has moved firms and I haven't heard a response back. I need to respond to the Canadian Citizenship Office, but don't know how to respond to the questions above. I was so close with my citizenship process.

 

Should I just say I plan to go to Canada on so and so date as I was planning to visit my sister there....so torn, as I do not want to jeopardize my Green Card in the US in any way either. Should I just give up my hopes to be a Canadian?

 

Any suggestions for a good Canadian immigration lwho is well versed in US immigration would be very much appreciated!

This is fine. You do have to do the citizenship ceremony when physically in Canada. So advise them that you can come up to Canada when required to carry out the Oath. Additionally, you may want to ask the CBSA to stamp your passport as proof you entered on that day. They are iffy about doing it for PR's but your mileage may vary, failing that, you can do a Privacy Act request to get proof of when you entered Canada, but that doesn't have a quick turnaround. You will probably need a Canadian mailing address to receive the citizenship cert.

 

I am also a Canadian PR living as a conditional LPR in the US, having applied for Canadian citizenship. Got my test invite earlier this week so I'll be interested to hear how you get on.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Kai G. Llewellyn

[2Ps 49]

On 3/2/2022 at 11:08 PM, Kai G. Llewellyn said:

This is fine. You do have to do the citizenship ceremony when physically in Canada. So advise them that you can come up to Canada when required to carry out the Oath. Additionally, you may want to ask the CBSA to stamp your passport as proof you entered on that day. They are iffy about doing it for PR's but your mileage may vary, failing that, you can do a Privacy Act request to get proof of when you entered Canada, but that doesn't have a quick turnaround. You will probably need a Canadian mailing address to receive the citizenship cert.

 

I am also a Canadian PR living as a conditional LPR in the US, having applied for Canadian citizenship. Got my test invite earlier this week so I'll be interested to hear how you get on.

Awesome good to know. So I spoke to a citizenship lawyer and he mentioned that it was for the OATH and to give them a date an create a booking to show when I plan to return to Canada. He said the new liberal govt allows citizenship although you live outside Canada.

 

Do you mean if I drive, to stamp the passport ? I believe they stamp it when you fly, correct? Regarding citizenship certificate, I was planning to have it mailed to my sis who lives there, do you know normally how long it takes to receive it after the ceremony? 

[Kai G. Llewellyn 829]

16 minutes ago, 2Ps said:

Awesome good to know. So I spoke to a citizenship lawyer and he mentioned that it was for the OATH and to give them a date an create a booking to show when I plan to return to Canada. He said the new liberal govt allows citizenship although you live outside Canada.

 

Do you mean if I drive, to stamp the passport ? I believe they stamp it when you fly, correct? Regarding citizenship certificate, I was planning to have it mailed to my sis who lives there, do you know normally how long it takes to receive it after the ceremony? 

Yeah, stamp the passport. And no, CBSA doesn't usually stamp passports of PR's though they sometimes do it on request.

 

I've heard it can take around 2-4 weeks at the moment. Of course, once you become a Canadian citizen your PR card is null and void and cannot be used as a travel document anymore. So if you leave Canada without your naturalization certificate, you may use your foreign passport to re-enter if driving by land, but expect some delays while they verify your citizenship.

[2Ps 49]

4 minutes ago, Kai G. Llewellyn said:

Yeah, stamp the passport. And no, CBSA doesn't usually stamp passports of PR's though they sometimes do it on request.

 

I've heard it can take around 2-4 weeks at the moment. Of course, once you become a Canadian citizen your PR card is null and void and cannot be used as a travel document anymore. So if you leave Canada without your naturalization certificate, you may use your foreign passport to re-enter if driving by land, but expect some delays while they verify your citizenship.

Thanks for your response. So is it better to be in Canada until you get the citizenship certificate and then apply for passport and then leave Canada? I was planning on having my sister mail the passport to me once the process is completed. 

 

The lawyer did mention that I can apply for canadian passport from US, but it will be more complicated I guess...Seems like I should plan to be in Canada for at least a month....

[Kai G. Llewellyn 829]

21 minutes ago, 2Ps said:

Thanks for your response. So is it better to be in Canada until you get the citizenship certificate and then apply for passport and then leave Canada? I was planning on having my sister mail the passport to me once the process is completed. 

 

The lawyer did mention that I can apply for canadian passport from US, but it will be more complicated I guess...Seems like I should plan to be in Canada for at least a month....

If you don't have any need to return to Canada after the citizenship oath, you could leave once you have the natz cert in hand, or even leave before that and have your sister forward it to you in the US. (i.e. she receives the envelope, then FedEx's it to you in the US), you can then use that to apply for a passport from the US. Not sure if it's more complicated or not. I believe you can use the natz cert to re-enter Canada by car.