I AM A CANADIAN CITIZEN + MY JOURNEY
- Danee
- May 16
- 15 min read
Updated: May 22
Oh, hey! Ça va ? I recently reached a significant milestone in my journey in North America: I became a Canadian citizen! In honor of attaining this step, I’d like to share my application process and my journey here, as well as a few reasons why I decided to apply.
Contents
First, Some Context
A basic requirement for becoming a Canadian citizen is having been a permanent resident for at least 1,095 days (the equivalent of three years) in the five years preceding the application; there’s a caveat for temporary residents, which I talk more about below. Because being (or becoming) a permanent resident first is such a crucial requirement for the Canadian citizenship application, I have separate posts that recount my journey of becoming a permanent resident (PR) of Canada, having come to the country as an international student in December 2020.
I wrote my PR story in 2023, shortly after becoming a PR, and structured that story as a mini book with three chapters. You don’t have to read that story to understand my citizenship application process, but I think it provides meaningful context to my overall journey in North America. Here is the introduction to that story, and here is Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3; I also wrote a recap and included a screenshot of my IRCC account with all my applications from study permit to permanent residence.
Now, onto my citizenship journey.
My Citizenship Application Journey
A Few Key Background Details
In case you’re new here or didn’t read my PR story, or just need a refresher, below are some key details about my background, in chronological order:
I am originally from Yaoundé, Cameroon, where I spent the first twenty-one years of my life. I graduated with a bachelor's degree there before going to the U.S. for grad school.
I landed in Chicago in February 2017 and left in June 2020. During those ~3.5 years, I was an international student on an F-1 visa. I started with an English Language program (since my native language is French), then went on to pursue an MBA. I went to the U.S. by myself, but I had a sister in New York City. In Chicago, however, it was only me.
I applied for my employment authorization document (EAD) about three months before graduation and received it just about three months later; this is the document I used to work full-time until it expired in May 2020. Because of its expiration, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other factors (including my plan to go to Canada), I went back to Cameroon a month later in June 2020.
I came to Canada as an international student in December 2020 to pursue another master’s degree; this time, a specialized one-year program. I’d started this program from back home because of Covid, so by the time I landed in Toronto, there were only three quarters left in my program. I came by myself, not knowing a single person in the country: no family and no friends.
I completed my program in August 2021, applied for the post-graduation work permit (PGWP) in October 2021, and received it in March 2022; it had a three-year validity period.
I applied for permanent residence in November 2021 through a temporary public policy: the TR to PR pathway, under the French-speaking recent international graduates from a Canadian institution stream.
My PR application was approved in September 2022; I received the electronic confirmation in February 2023 and the PR card the following month, in March 2023. I was still in Toronto.
I became a Canadian citizen in December 2025 in Montreal. ☺️
Application Process and Timeline
I became a citizen exactly five years after coming to Canada. That said, the entire process from application to citizenship ceremony took me about 6 months.
As mentioned earlier, a key requirement for applying for Canadian citizenship is being a PR for at least 1,095 days, or three years, excluding time spent outside of Canada, all in the five years preceding the date of application. This is the physical presence requirement.
I don’t go into the requirements for becoming a Canadian citizen in this post and focus more on my experience, but here is a resource that outlines them if you’re curious.
I applied for citizenship in June 2025, only two years after becoming a PR; this is thanks to the caveat I alluded to earlier: some applicants can credit a maximum of 365 days, or one year, to their physical presence, if they spent at least a year as temporary residents before becoming permanent residents. This was my case: I was a temporary resident (TR) from December 2020 to February 2023, first as a student, then as a worker. That’s a little over two years as a TR, but then again, I could only credit up to one year to my citizenship physical presence requirement.
Sometime in October 2023, the same year I became a PR, I created this physical presence tracker to track my days in and outside of Canada, haha. Yes, I was that excited and impatient! I couldn’t wait to become a citizen.
Excluding the 42 days I spent outside of Canada between 2020 and 2025, I became eligible to apply for citizenship on March 26, 2025. My initial plan was to apply four days later, on March 30th, but I ended up doing so on June 4th. I was well over the 1,095 days by then, which was good. I received the acknowledgement of receipt (AOR) on July 22nd.
From there, I simply went through the normal steps in the process. I didn’t get a request for fingerprints (probably because I’d already provided them when I applied for my study permit back in 2020; they are valid for 10 years), nor was I invited to an interview. The only thing I needed to do after submitting my application was take the citizenship test, which was fairly straightforward (the prep material was also quite interesting, and I learned a lot!).
Below is a snapshot of my timeline on the Citizenship Tracker. I know my process was relatively fast and straightforward, but it felt so good to see my application status change to "Closed" after 6 months of "Pending!"
Notes
I tend to obsess over things I’m excited about but can’t control; I’ve gotten better at managing this, partly because I give myself exercises to force patience. You’ll see it in my PR story too, if you read it.
In the case of my citizenship application, I challenged myself to only check my tracker once a week, on Wednesdays, starting around September. It truly didn’t serve any purpose to check for updates every day or every couple of days—it actually made me more anxious (the em dash here isn’t an indication that ChatGPT wrote this, I promise).
A week may not sound like a long time, but for someone who struggles with letting go of control, I can tell you some weeks were hard to live through without any updates!
Now, I’d like to share a few things I had questions or doubts about throughout my process, or some things I saw people wondering about on Reddit.
Accessing the Online Tracker
I applied for Canadian citizenship on June 4, 2025; my AOR came on July 22nd, which is the date IRCC started processing my application, and the reason the first update on the tracker appears on that day. It’s also only after receiving the AOR that you can access the citizenship tracker webpage.
I wasn’t able to register on the citizenship tracker on July 22nd. I saw somewhere online that it can take 2 to 3 days for the tracker to work after receiving the AOR, but even a week later, I still couldn't create my account, even when trying on different browsers. I sent several webforms to IRCC, but they were no help. It’s only a month later, on August 23rd, that I was finally able to access my tracker. I’m not exactly sure when it was activated because I stopped checking every day, but the day it worked, I was at work and opened the tracker using a work computer.
Taking the Citizenship Test
I got invited to take the citizenship test between October 17 and November 15, 2025. It was online, and I took it from home. To prepare for the test, I only used the Discover Canada guide IRCC sends you; I’d already done a first pass before receiving the invitation to take the test, but overall, it wasn’t too bad.
While I was taking the test on October 22nd, a pop-up tab opened. That worried me a little since you’re not supposed to have any other tab or window open during the test, and when I came back to the test page after closing the other tab, I saw a message saying I wasn’t supposed to be away. It was nothing to worry about since my test was validated two days later (IRCC reviews it before marking it as complete).
Citizenship Ceremony + Certificate of Citizenship
Language, Physical Presence, and Prohibitions (LPP) are usually the last step before you get invited to the citizenship ceremony, and, from what I’ve seen, all three are usually updated on the same day on the tracker; in my case, that was October 28th.
The wait until I was invited to the ceremony, almost a month later, was a bit frustrating, haha. This was partly because I was comparing my timeline to similar ones I saw on Reddit, where applicants were invited to the ceremony just a few days after their LPP was completed (I knew better than to do that, but oh well 🤷🏾♀️). Also, the tracker webpage was down for an entire week, and since I forced myself to only check it once a week, having to wait two weeks to open that page only to not see any updates was painful! 😩
Anyway… the Citizenship Ceremony activity was marked as “In progress” on my tracker on Wednesday, November 19th (after I checked earlier that day), but I received the official invitation on Monday, November 24th, to take the oath about three weeks later, on Friday, December 12th. That day marked the end of my journey.
When I filled out my application back in June, I requested an e-certificate, but for some reason, they gave me a paper certificate at the ceremony. Maybe because my ceremony was in person and not virtual? I read the ceremony format doesn’t affect the certificate format, so I’m not too sure why they didn’t honor my initial request. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter all that much, and I actually liked getting my paper certificate at the ceremony, haha. I scanned it right when I got home too, so no big deal at all!
Applying for my First Passport
A Few Requirements
Looking ahead to the passport application (and because I rarely wear makeup), I decided to take my passport photos right after the ceremony on December 12, 2025. I didn’t end up using those, but that’s another story.
You usually only have to wait 2 to 3 business days after the ceremony to apply for a passport, but since I became a citizen in the last month of the year and didn’t have a pressing need for a passport, I decided to wait until the new year to apply for one and get that full year of validity.
A guarantor is needed for a first passport application, and that person needs to be a Canadian citizen who has known you for at least two years. As mentioned in my initial background details above, I came to Canada alone and didn’t know anyone. Over time, I met people, some of whom are Canadian citizens, but I didn’t feel comfortable asking any of them to be my guarantor for my first passport application.
In that case, in addition to the required two references, I needed to provide two more (who live in the U.S. or Canada), get and fill out a Declaration in lieu of a Guarantor form, and have it sworn to. This form isn’t available on IRCC’s website, so I had to go to a Passport Canada location to get one. The agent I first spoke with initially didn’t want to give it to me, stating that the form is only available to people who have been in Canada for less than two years, and that since I’d been here for five, I needed a guarantor. I insisted that I didn’t know anyone close enough who would be a guarantor on my application, and that’s when he directed me to someone else who gave me the form.
Sworn Statement for Declaration in lieu of Guarantor Form
To have the document sworn to, I went to a commissioner of oaths at Accès Montreal. I also brought my passport photos and a copy of my ID for the commissioner to sign and stamp (they only needed to sign and put a stamp on the back of one photo, not both). Each signature cost $5. A commissioner of oaths, in this case, essentially does what a guarantor would have done for free, haha.
If you’re going to go this route, it’s important that you do not sign your documents before going to the commissioner of oaths; the whole point is for them to verify your identity and attest that you signed documents in front of them. I filled out a portion of my declaration form ahead of time and completed it at the commissioner of oaths before signing everything in front of her. Seamless process overall.
Processing Times
Standard processing times for passport applications are 10 to 20 business days, but my application took longer to process because, among other things, a friend I’d used as a reference was out of the country when the passport office started calling my references. My friend had to call the office back when she returned to Canada.
I was actually surprised when my friends told me the passport office called them—I thought asking for references was merely a formality. I mean… with the number of applications they process every day, I didn’t think they had time to check references one by one. Well, they do, although it seems to vary by application, because I’ve seen others get their passports with no reference check. In my case, they asked my references for things like my address, my occupation, and how long they’ve known me. They even asked for my height, the length of my hair, and the color of my eyes! 😆
When I applied on January 5, 2026, the agent said my passport would be ready two weeks later, on January 19th, before being mailed to me and potentially arriving by the end of that week, a total of about three weeks. With the delays, I received my passport on May 12th. This didn’t bother me too much since I didn’t have any trips planned.
All in all, the entire process from citizenship application to getting my passport took almost a full year, from June 2025 to May 2026.
Why I Applied for Canadian Citizenship: Passport Privilege
When I came to Canada in 2020, I wasn’t planning on applying for citizenship; in fact, for my entire first year, I thought I’d stop at becoming a permanent resident. Part of the reason was that I (wrongfully) thought that a PR card would be enough to open me up to travel across the world without visa restrictions. I wasn’t particularly interested in getting involved in Canadian politics either, as a voter or otherwise, so I truly didn’t see the point of becoming a Canadian. The process also seemed very far from me, only being an international student at the time and knowing that ahead of me were PGWP and PR applications first.
As I matured and experienced certain things in and outside of the country (and after realizing my PR didn’t grant me visa-free access to as many countries as I initially thought), I started considering applying for Canadian citizenship. Many of the reasons I ultimately did are private, but there are a few I’d like to share. On a broad level, I became intimately acquainted with the concept of passport privilege. Out of all the privileges and resulting inequalities that exist, this one hit me hard: facing discrimination based on my nationality and passport was both eye-opening and enraging. A few situations come to mind that I’d like to share.
Two Short Stories
The Bad and the Ugly
When I went back home to Cameroon in the summer of 2023, it was for a family emergency. I was working at Accenture, and my manager at the time shared a few resources to help me book a flight at a reduced rate considering my circumstances; when she mentioned those resources during our call and before she even sent them my way, I already suspected I wouldn’t be eligible based on my country of origin.
And I was right.
When she shared the links to those resources, both airlines she mentioned didn’t offer the discount for flights to Cameroon. I looked for similar programs at other airlines, but didn’t find anything I was eligible for. That in itself didn’t disappoint me too much, because, as I said, I already suspected this would be the case.
What really bothered me was what happened on my flight back to Canada. In trying to spend the least amount of money possible, I’d booked a round-trip ticket (Toronto to Yaoundé, then Yaoundé to Toronto) through a third-party travel agency for close to $3,000 (yes, that much), with the flights being operated by Air France.
My flight home only had one layover, in Paris, but my return flight had two: one in Paris and the other in Amsterdam. Traveling from Toronto to Yaoundé wasn’t an issue, but when I tried boarding my flight to Toronto at the end of my stay, I was informed that wouldn’t be possible because I didn’t have a transit visa.
“A transit visa? What do you mean? I won’t need to get out of the airport,” I said to the agent at the Air France counter. Each layover was six hours or less.
The agent replied, saying that because of my passport, I couldn’t stop in two or more countries of the European Union without a valid transit visa, even if none of those countries were my final destination. This wasn’t mentioned anywhere on my ticket, and I’d never heard of something like it.
I was already a PR and had a job waiting for me in Toronto, but that wasn’t enough to board my plane. So, I missed my flight and had to spend another $3,000 to book a one-way ticket to Toronto for the next day, since I needed to return to work soon after arriving.
No fraud. No overstays. Just a “weak” passport.
At the time, even if I had already made some progress in my personal finance journey, this unplanned expense was a major setback. Thankfully, 2023 is when I became a PR and was now eligible for lines of credit, which weren’t available to me when I was an international student or while working on the PGWP. I’d applied and been approved for a line of credit a couple of months earlier, unaware this was ultimately how it would become useful.
I remember sitting at my gate at Charles de Gaulle Airport, crying because I’d just managed to pay off previous debt, yet I was now in additional debt simply because of the passport I held.
I was back in Toronto in August 2023, and October of that year is when I created the physical presence tracker I showed above. I still had two years to go, but I couldn’t wait to become a Canadian citizen and never have to borrow money again to book an extra plane ticket because I can’t have two layovers somewhere.
The Good
Something positive that made me look forward to becoming a Canadian citizen coincidentally happened on that same trip: when I landed in Toronto in August 2023 and it was time to go through security before entering Canada, all I needed to do was scan my PR card and passport at one of the self-serve kiosks. That was it.
No one asked me for documents; no one pulled me out of the line to double-check my passport or something else; no one asked me any questions. In fact, I actually didn’t interact with anyone before getting in my Uber back to my apartment. I’d never had such a smooth experience entering a country that wasn’t mine.
It almost felt abnormal: I’d become accustomed to carrying loads of documents with me to prove my status and financial ability to be in either the U.S. or Canada. Only having to scan my Canadian PR card and Cameroonian passport made me look forward to the day I’d only need to scan my Canadian passport. Can you imagine?
Other Factors
In addition to these two events, other factors motivated me to apply for Canadian citizenship, all of which relate to how I envision my life. Here are two I’d like to share.
Career and Wealth Building
As someone who’s always wanted to have an international career, I realized that would be logistically more difficult on a “weak” passport. Then there’s everything that revolves around wealth-building. Since 2022, I’ve been on a financial literacy and wealth-building journey, educating myself and trying to access certain tools to help me on that journey.
Many of my options were limited when I was a temporary resident, but even as a PR, thinking of building wealth on a global scale without worrying about geographic limitations seemed to require something stronger. A nationality, that is.
Lifestyle and Looking Ahead
And, of course, there’s (leisure) travel. I mean… I can now reach 85% of the world either visa-free or with a visa on arrival, up from 30% with just my Cameroonian passport.
Having experienced visa application processes for different purposes and for different countries across different continents since I was young, I don’t take the ability to book a ticket, pack a bag, and leave, for granted.
Finally, as I’ve thought about other areas of my life in light of my experiences, it’s been a bit of a consolation to know that if I have children, they won’t have to go through what I did. At the very least, if they study in Canada, their tuition fees will not be three times that of Canadian citizens or permanent residents. As I plan for their entire education to be paid for, they won’t be burdened with student loans either.
Having attended grad school in the U.S. debt-free thanks to my family, I am incredibly grateful for that gift; a gift that’s been put into perspective since taking out a loan to go to school in Canada.
Final Thoughts
This is it for my Canadian citizenship journey, and some of the reasons I decided to apply.
Being the first to do anything is hard, and that’s especially true when it comes to immigrating to a country far from home. If you’re on a similar journey, I wish you courage and strength; I am rooting for you ☺️. And if you’ve recently become a citizen of another country yourself, congratulations! 🎉🥳
I also hope peeking into my journey was helpful. Here’s a TikTok recap of (part of) this journey if you’d like to check it out. Thank you for reading and/or watching.
Câlins,
Danielle
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