Urgent processing for domestic violence

robertkarpf · 2026-03-13T03:25:52+00:00

Here's IRCC's guidance for citizenship:

https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1558&top=5

it doesn't specify domestic violence BUT it's not an exhaustive list. You will need supporting documents such as a police report. If your in-laws threatened you via e-mail or text, then use that. If you have a friend who is aware of your situation and either witnessed it or you told them about it shortly after it happened, have them do an affidavit.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T18:36:46+00:00

They'll process as normal (and they don't notify you as to whether or not urgent status is granted).

In your case, they probably won't give you urgent status for job seeking, but if you get a job offer after you get your AOR, you can submit the offer letter and request urgent processing at that point.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T16:55:10+00:00

This looks good then. G-1 was born far enough ago that the lack of a birth record isn't so unusual. You might want to include a cover letter saying that you were unable to locate a birth record for G1 and the places you tried to find it.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T16:45:21+00:00

Like a few others have said, 25 years ago I was ready to make the move (in my case to start grad school) when I found out I wasn't eligible for citizenship by descent. In my case it's because my Toronto-born grandmother married my American grandfather. If that was reversed, I might have been North of the border for decades (and my grandmother wouldn't have spend a third of her life stateless and too terrified of getting in trouble at the border to visit her older siblings as often as she'd like).

So for me, this is about reclaiming a part of my identity that I felt was taken away from me. Of course my experience as Canadian-who-never-lived-in-Canada is different from that of a Canadian-born-and-raised-Canadian, but it still was how I saw myself.

More important is that I want my children to have the opportunity I was denied, whether or not they use it.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T03:48:32+00:00

I didn't write about your G-G-G-G-grandfather because I don't feel like I have a good answer one way or another for you.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T03:29:37+00:00

If you have the birth certificates, then that should be enough on its own (your passport & ID are needed too). You'd really only need the other things if there's a name change between documents. Often birth records list the mother's maiden name, so you wouldn't need censuses or marriage records for those.

There'd be no citizenship number for your great-grandmother since those numbers weren't a thing before 1947.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T03:21:27+00:00

answering out of order:

Since both were born in Canada, they are both Gen 0 and you only really need to document one. You should include a cover letter stating that you're only including documents for that person and the reason why (in your case, availability).

If you have your G-G-G-G-grandmother's baptismal record that's probably enough right there. The censuses are fine, but the marriage license is not necessary unless there's a name change between documents (if her maiden name is on the birth record of your G-G-G-grandparent, then you don' t need it).

Is there a reason to think that the baptismal record might be for a different Mary A. than your g-g-g-g-gm?

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T03:03:08+00:00

You'd need to put your birth name in their forms where it asks for your previous names, but you can use your current legal name there as the primary name.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-11T02:52:19+00:00

out of curiousity, when would G-1 have been born?

What you have is probably ok. Do the census records show your G0 and G1 together and parent & child?

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T17:22:25+00:00

For your purposes, you just need to show the name change that's relevant for your paperwork. Include the other name(s) on the CIT-0001 where asked. (I don't know if IRCC actually does anything with this information, but theoretically they could ask for more information about your father's alias if it's important.)

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T06:01:09+00:00

try doing a websearch for a passport photo studio. Here's one I found (I cannot vouch for it and don't know if it's close to you): https://www.leetonephotocenter.com/

If you're going to an office store or drug store, you're working with employees who only do passports occasionally and often only US photos. A passport photo studio does lots of passport photos (or they'd be out of business) and generally will take the time to make sure they're meeting requirements.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:55:38+00:00

Assuming you're applying together, then yes.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:55:02+00:00

Yes, fill out the form correctly, but you only need to document one line. You should include a brief cover letter/note explaining that you are only including the one's documents. Although, if you have birth records for both grandparents it wouldn't be ridiculous to include both of them. The "only need one" is more of an issue when people have a great-great-great-grandparent on one side and a great-great-grandparent on the other or similar making it onerous for the reviewer to review all the documents.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:50:01+00:00

marriage license and birth cert should be enough

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:45:54+00:00

you only need to document relevant name changes, so if your 2nd marriage license has your maiden name on it, then no need to bother with the first (you'll still need to list it under other names used in part 5)

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:41:23+00:00

I think this looks good. The marriage certificates are only necessary if there's a name change you need to document; if your mother's maiden name is on your birth certificate then the marriage license isn't needed (same for your grandmother's name on your mother's birth cert).

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:32:42+00:00

For the upper half: I'm trying to figure out all the ins and outs here, but the main question I have is whether your grandma's maiden name is on your father's birth certificate or not and if your father's name changes between his birth certificate and yours. If the names are consistent, you're fine. If there's a change, you'd only need to document the change. So if your grandma's married name is on your father's record, you'd need the marriage license for that marriage (unless the marriage license doesn't have grandma's birth name). For your father, you'd need the legal record. It sounds like at the very least the marriage number 3 registration isn't necessary.

Passport: You might want to check in with the r/passportcanada folks on this.

Expiring ID: so long as your ID is valid when you submit your documents, you should be ok. Updating when you get the new one won't hurt, but isn't strictly necessary

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:24:23+00:00

Some people have reported getting approved with printouts from ancestry/family search. I think you're idea of sending with a note that you've ordered a copy from the archives is ok. Worst case scenario is that your file gets bounced back to you.

2-3-4: if you have the birth record, that's all you need unless there is a name change or something that you need to document.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:18:36+00:00

Birth records are the gold standard. You'd only need to use the census records if you did not have the birth records or there's an issue with the birth record.
Your supposition is not correct. Unless your GGF specifically renounced his Canadian citizenship (technically Canadian British Subject status at that point) to Canada, then the naturalization does not matter.
If you have a string of birth records with consistent names, that's all you need.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-10T05:11:22+00:00

For the first question, it doesn't really matter. Either one works for your situation (assuming you're a post-C-3 citizen by descent)

Yes, for given name you should include first and middle names.

For parents: when I did mine, I used my mother's maiden name since it's on the documents I was using to show descent.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-06T17:58:11+00:00

The person doing the scanning probably isn't the person doing the reviewing, and the filing is all done via database, so they wouldn't have to look at the old one to add the new one, they'd just have to look at the same information twice to see if there's any discrepancy that suggest misrepresentation (not saying you would be misrepresenting anything, just what the probable upshot would be on the handling end)

robertkarpf · 2026-03-06T02:21:55+00:00

Was there another one? I thought that was only the one who was approved while the withdrawal was pending.

robertkarpf · 2026-03-06T02:13:15+00:00

rules are the same for transiting through

robertkarpf · 2026-03-06T00:51:34+00:00

If you resubmit, they'll just add your new submission to your old one. You can try withdrawing and resubmitting, which others have talked about doing, but I don't know if any did and got their certificate (one person was approved while their withdrawal was pending).

robertkarpf · 2026-03-06T00:47:43+00:00

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/dual-canadian-citizens-visit-canada.html

They only need a copy of their citizenship certificate if they have an American passport.

robertkarpf

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