Canadian citizenship for refugees and protected persons

Am I ready to apply?

You can apply when every line below is true for you. Each one links to the part of this page that explains it.

• I am a permanent resident. I have a PR card (even an expired one), a Confirmation of Permanent Residence, or a Record of Landing.
• I have been in Canada at least 1,095 days in the last five years, counted the way that applies to refugees.
• I filed my income taxes for at least 3 of those 5 years, if I had to file.
• I am 55 or older — or I have proof of English or French at level 4 and I am ready for the test, or I will ask to be excused.
• Nothing in my record stops me: for example, I am not in prison, on parole or on probation, and I have no serious conviction in the past four years.
• I have not been back to the country I fled or got its passport — or I have spoken to a lawyer about it.
• I have my documents: two pieces of ID, copies of my travel documents or an explanation, photos, any police certificates I need, and certified translations.
• I have the fee: $653 for me, and $100 for each child applying with me.

Not ready yet? You lose nothing by waiting. You can apply as soon as you are ready.

Step 1

Only permanent residents can apply for citizenship. A positive decision on your refugee claim makes you a protected person. It does not make you a permanent resident.

• ✓You can apply for permanent residence any time after the Immigration and Refugee Board or IRCC tells you that you are a protected person. A few people cannot apply — for example someone who is already a refugee in another country where they could go and live permanently — and a person named a Designated Foreign National must wait at least five years.
• ✓List every family member on that application — your spouse or partner and all your children, including those living outside Canada. If you leave any of them off, you will not be able to sponsor them later — IRCC calls this a lifetime bar.
• ✓A family member you list who lives outside Canada has one year from the day you become a permanent resident to apply from abroad.
• ✓As a protected person you do not pay the Right of Permanent Residence Fee — only the processing fee: $660 for you, $660 for your spouse or partner, and $180 for each dependent child.
• ✓Living in Quebec? You must also apply to Quebec for a selection certificate (Certificat de sélection du Québec, CSQ) as soon as your claim is accepted. You can do it at the same time as your permanent residence application, and Quebec's review is free.
• ✓Want to travel before you become a permanent resident? You can get a Refugee Travel Document while your application is processed. You must be in Canada to apply for it. The warning above applies to you too.
• ✓Resettled refugees — government-assisted, privately sponsored or blended visa-office-referred — became permanent residents when they landed in Canada, so this step is already done.

Step 2

You need at least 1,095 days — three years — in Canada during the five years before the day you sign your application. How a day counts depends on your status that day:

• ✓As a permanent resident: every day counts as one full day.
• ✓After your claim was accepted, but before you became a permanent resident: two days in Canada count as one day. This time can give you at most 365 days.
• ✓While you waited for a decision on your refugee claim: those days do not count at all — even if you had a work or study permit. IRCC says those permits did not make you a temporary resident.
• ✓As a resettled refugee: you were a permanent resident from the day you landed, so every day since then counts in full.
• ✓Days outside Canada do not count.

Example: your claim was accepted on March 1, 2022, and you became a permanent resident on March 1, 2023. That year counts as about 182 days, so you need about 913 more days as a permanent resident. The physical presence calculator in our main citizenship guide can add up your dates — enter only the time after your claim was accepted as time before permanent residence.

Step 3

What you need depends on your age on the day you sign your application.

• ✓55 or older: you do not take the citizenship test and you do not need to prove English or French. IRCC may still invite you to an interview.
• ✓18 to 54: you need proof that you can speak and listen in English or French at level 4 (CLB or NCLC 4) — reading and writing are not tested for this — and you take the citizenship test.
• ✓Ways to prove your language: a LINC or CLIC certificate showing level 4 or higher in speaking and listening (a placement test alone is not enough); a high school, college or university program you studied in English or French, in Canada or abroad; results from an approved test such as CELPIP, IELTS General Training, PTE Core, TEF Canada or TCF Canada — results you sent with your permanent residence application count even if they have expired; or, in Quebec, a Quebec government French course document showing level 4 or higher.
• ✓If you are 18 to 54, you can ask to be excused from the test or the language requirement (a waiver). The reasons IRCC lists include trauma due to war, torture, living in a refugee camp, a low level of education or literacy in your first language, and a severe medical condition that has lasted, or may last, at least a year.
• ✓To ask, send the Waiver Request Form (CIT 0116) with evidence — for example a letter from your teacher or learning centre, or a medical opinion form (CIT 0547) — with your application, or later as long as there is no decision yet. An officer decides each case. If they say no, you take the test or prove your language, and you can still ask for an accommodation, such as an oral test.
• ✓The oath is different: an adult can be excused from it only if a mental disability stops them from understanding it.
• ✓Taxes: if you had to file income tax, you must have filed for at least 3 of the 5 years. IRCC checks this with the Canada Revenue Agency. Filing is worth doing even with little or no income — the Canada Revenue Agency uses your return to calculate your benefit and credit payments.
• ✓Your record: you cannot become a citizen while, for example, you are in prison, on parole or on probation; you are charged with a serious (indictable) offence right now; you were convicted of one in the past four years; or you are under a removal order. Most of these bars end once enough time passes. The full list is in our main citizenship guide.

Step 4

Most refugees cannot send a passport from their home country. You do not need one.

• ✓Your Refugee Travel Document is a travel document — Canada's own passport forms list it as one. List every travel document and passport that was valid at any time during the five years, and copy its identity page — including ones that have expired and ones you never used. You do not need to renew an expired one to apply. Keep the originals: IRCC can ask to see them at an interview.
• ✓No passport or travel document at all during the five years? That is allowed. The application asks you to explain why, in the question about your travel documents.
• ✓Do not get a passport from the country you fled just for this application — see the warning above.
• ✓Two pieces of ID, each showing your name, photo and date of birth — for example your PR card (even expired), a driver's licence, a provincial health card, a senior citizen ID card, or the identity page of your travel document. If one of them is your PR card, the other must be issued by the Canadian federal, provincial or territorial government.
• ✓Your permanent resident details: the application asks for your client number, your name and the date you became a permanent resident, as shown on your Record of Landing (IMM 1000), Confirmation of Permanent Residence or PR card.
• ✓Photos taken to IRCC's citizenship photo specifications — IRCC says these are not the same as passport photo specifications. Online you upload one digital photo; on paper you send two printed photos.
• ✓Police certificates: you need one from each country outside Canada where you spent 183 days or more in a row in the past four years, since you turned 18 — for example a country where you waited for resettlement. You do not need one from your country of origin if you were there right before you landed in Canada.
• ✓If you cannot get a police certificate, explain why in the application, and send proof that you asked for it and a letter describing everything you tried. IRCC does not promise to accept this. If the certificate would have to come from the country you fled, speak to a lawyer or legal aid before contacting its authorities.
• ✓Check your date of birth: your citizenship certificate will show the same date as your immigration documents. It cannot be changed while your application is being processed; after you get your certificate you can apply to correct it.
• ✓Documents in any language other than English or French need a certified translation. If the translator is not certified, they must also sign a sworn statement (affidavit), and they cannot be a member of your family.
• ✓Your travel history: every trip outside Canada in the past five years, whatever the reason, with the dates, the destination and the reason for the trip.

Step 5

Most people apply online in IRCC's citizenship application portal. If someone else will fill in and submit the application for you, apply on paper instead — see the next step.

1. 1

   Create your account

   Register in IRCC's citizenship application portal with your own email address and a password. Have your documents ready before you start: if you do not submit within 60 days, the account and everything in it are deleted. Applying with your spouse or partner? Each adult creates their own account, the accounts are linked, each adult fills in and signs their own application, and one adult submits them together. You add your children's applications in your own account.

2. 2

   Fill in the application

   Answer every question and upload your documents and photo. One question asks about every country where you have held citizenship or immigration status, including your country of birth: list the country you were a citizen of, even if it is the country you fled, and your status in any other country, such as refugee claimant. If you have never been a citizen of any country, do not list one. Where it asks for your passports and travel documents, list your Refugee Travel Document, or explain why you have none. List every trip outside Canada.

3. 3

   Pay the fee and upload the receipt

   You pay in IRCC's online payment service, which needs its own separate account. The card does not have to be in your name — a family member can pay for you. IRCC emails you a receipt; upload it into your application. Without it the application is not complete.

4. 4

   Sign and submit it yourself

   Sign your own application on the signature page — nobody can sign it for you — and submit it. The email you get straight away only confirms that IRCC received it.

5. 5

   Wait for your Acknowledgement of Receipt

   This is a letter that says your application is complete and in the queue. It shows your application number and your client number (UCI) — keep both. If something is missing, the whole application comes back to you, and you start again when you resubmit.

6. 6

   Track your application

   Once you have the Acknowledgement of Receipt, you can follow your application in IRCC's citizenship tracker — a separate account from the one you applied in.

Step 6

• ✓Online, you must fill in and submit the application yourself. Someone you trust can sit with you and help, but you must not share your account or password with anyone.
• ✓If you want someone else — a family member, a friend, a lawyer or a consultant — to fill in and submit it for you, apply on paper: the application form (CIT 0002), two printed photos, the printed result of IRCC's physical presence calculator, your fee receipt, and the Use of a Representative form (IMM 5476) naming the person helping you. A family member or friend can be your representative for free. You still sign the application yourself.
• ✓The fee is $653 for an adult and $100 for each child under 18. IRCC's fee list has no reduced fee for refugees or for people on a low income. If an adult is not granted citizenship, the $123 right of citizenship fee is refunded.
• ✓Need citizenship urgently? There is no general fast track. IRCC processes an application urgently only in exceptional cases: for example if you need citizenship to get a job or keep your job, or you must travel because of a death or serious illness in your family and you cannot get a passport from your country of nationality. No letter from an organization is needed — you write your own explanation of why it is urgent and attach documents that support it, such as a doctor's letter. Applied online? There is no place for this in the online application: after your Acknowledgement of Receipt arrives, send your request through IRCC's web form with your application number and client number (UCI). On paper, write “Request Urgent Processing – Grant of Citizenship” in large letters on the envelope and put your explanation inside. IRCC says that even when a case qualifies, it may not be able to act in time.
• ✓Free help: IRCC-funded settlement organizations serve permanent residents, including resettled refugees, and protected persons, at no cost. Their services include preparing for the citizenship test.
• ✓In Quebec, IRCC's search tool does not list organizations. Quebec's free service is Accompagnement Québec (1-877-864-9191); you can register with your IRCC client number.
• ✓Legal aid for immigration and refugee matters is funded in seven provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia. Contact your provincial legal aid office to ask what it covers.

Step 7

• ✓Waiting is normal, and you may hear very little for months. IRCC publishes current processing times on its website.
• ✓Tell IRCC if you plan to leave Canada for more than two weeks in a row. IRCC can invite you to the test, an interview or the ceremony on fairly short notice, so keep trips short — and the travel warning above still applies.
• ✓Keep your address and email up to date with IRCC. Test invitations and ceremony notices go to them, and IRCC can treat an application it cannot reach as abandoned.
• ✓IRCC may ask you for more documents or a police certificate at any time. Answer quickly.
• ✓IRCC may invite any adult to an interview, including people 55 and older. Bring the original documents you sent, and every passport or travel document you used in the five years before you applied.
• ✓If you are 18 to 54, you take the citizenship test online: 20 questions in 45 minutes, and you pass with 15 correct. You have up to three attempts; if you do not pass, IRCC invites you to a hearing with a citizenship official. Discover Canada, the official study book, is also available as audio — about three hours.
• ✓You can ask for accommodations: a large-print, oral or Braille version of the test, more time, or a test in person or by Microsoft Teams if your internet connection is weak. At a hearing with a citizenship judge, the judge may allow you to bring an interpreter who is at least 18 and does not have a citizenship application in progress.
• ✓If your application is refused, you can usually apply again — there is no waiting period, unless you were refused for not telling the truth, which bars you for five years. It is a new application with a new fee. You can also ask the Federal Court to review the decision within 30 days of the date on your refusal letter.
• ✓At the ceremony you take the oath of citizenship. You can swear it, referring to your religious belief — bring your holy book if you wish — or affirm it without referring to religion.

Step 8

• ✓You can apply for a Canadian passport once you have your citizenship certificate.
• ✓If your Refugee Travel Document has not expired, send it with your passport application — the passport form asks for any Canadian travel document that is still valid, and a refugee travel document is one. If it is valid for more than twelve more months, the form asks you to explain in writing why you are applying now.
• ✓If the Passport Program has been keeping your old passport, you can ask for it back once you are a citizen. You must return your refugee travel document when you do.
• ✓Once you are a citizen, IRCC's enforcement manual says the government will not try to take away your refugee protection while you stay a Canadian citizen.
• ✓The country you fled may still consider you its citizen. If you travel there, Canada's ability to help you can be limited — see the dual citizenship section of our main citizenship guide.

Step 9

• ✓Children born in Canada are already Canadian citizens (except children of foreign diplomats). They do not apply.
• ✓Your other children do not become citizens automatically when you do. Apply for them.
• ✓Children under 18 who are permanent residents can apply at the same time as you, for $100 each. They do not need three years in Canada, the test or language proof.
• ✓A parent with custody signs the child's application. Children 14 and older sign it too, and take the oath at the ceremony; children under 14 do not.
• ✓A child who is a protected person but not yet a permanent resident cannot apply for citizenship yet. A child who is 18 or older applies as an adult.

Questions refugees ask