Urgent* travel to US on Indian passport after oath*

[Ponga]

Well, the underlining fact remains that you don't need Canadian passport nor certificate to come back to Canada via land border (private travel). Indian passport or any other form of ID will be sufficient.

Assuming the OP's wife also became a PR in 2017, neither of them are foreign nationals when returning to Canada, right? It sounds like they, or at least the Op's wife, is not yet a citizen.

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/td-dv-eng.html

Acceptable documents to denote identity and citizenship

Upon arrival at a Canadian port of entry, travellers must satisfy a CBSA border services officer (BSO) that they meet the requirements for entry into Canada. For Canadian citizens, permanent residents and persons registered under the Indian Act, this can be done through questioning and through verifying documentation such as a:

• Canadian passport
• Canadian birth certificate
• permanent residence card
• citizenship card
• Secure Certificate of Indian Status (SCIS) card or valid Certificate of Indian Status (CIS) card

 

[ishangodbole]

Do you have any link that you can refer this ?

I am sure you will not be satisfied but here you go anyway, straight out of Justice Laws of Canada website. It is right up there in Canadian bill of rights.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html

Mobility of citizens

• 6 (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.

 

[ishangodbole]

Assuming the OP's wife also became a PR in 2017, neither of them are foreign nationals when returning to Canada, right? It sounds like they, or at least the Op's wife, is not yet a citizen.

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/td-dv-eng.html

Acceptable documents to denote identity and citizenship

Upon arrival at a Canadian port of entry, travellers must satisfy a CBSA border services officer (BSO) that they meet the requirements for entry into Canada. For Canadian citizens, permanent residents and persons registered under the Indian Act, this can be done through questioning and through verifying documentation such as a:

• Canadian passport
• Canadian birth certificate
• permanent residence card
• citizenship card
• Secure Certificate of Indian Status (SCIS) card or valid Certificate of Indian Status (CIS) card

He is asking about after oath when she definitely will be a Canadian citizen.

 

[abbas.pasha]

I am sure you will not be satisfied but here you go anyway, straight out of Justice Laws of Canada website. It is right up there in Canadian bill of rights.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html

Mobility of citizens

• 6 (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.

You guessed it right.
What you are quoting is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is clear.
But crossing border without the required documents, which in this case would mean a Canadian issued travel or identification document is not available will not render OP entry into Canada...

 

[armoured]

There are so many Ifs and buts in your msg that OP will have even more questions..

Ridiculous statement.

These 'ifs and buts' are pretty simple to parse and understand. If you can read.

if they do establish the traveller (at port of entry - reminder to anyone travelling by plane that if they don't let you board your plane, this doestn' help you at all) is a citizen or PR

And again, reality is that most of the time (basically always) they can identify by your foreign passport and/or other ID. It really helps to have your UCI# (like photocopy of old PR card or something like that) because the unique client identifier # ... uniquely identifies you.

There are two 'ifs' here: one is that 'if they do establish your identity as a citizen or PR' - meaning you have a document proving your identity and they match it to the database, which, ummm, applies to everyone. And that's what you have a unique idenfitier for. The second doesn't apply because we stated right upfront this is about crossing at a land border (and was only to warn any who would misread and show up at an airport thinking this would work - it will not work to board a plane).

If you just got citizenship

Hardly an 'if', that's the specific case we're discussing.

[If youv'e changed your name multiple times or other things are out of order ... well, more chance of issues.]

Seems a reasonable warning, not hard to understand, that does not apply to all that many. But yeah, if your documents don't match what they have on record, you could have trouble. And the corrective step would be to ... carry the docs that prove you did a legal change of name.

 

[armoured]

You guessed it right.
What you are quoting is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is clear.
But crossing border without the required documents, which in this case would mean a Canadian issued travel or identification document is not available will not render OP entry into Canada...

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/urgent-travel-to-us-on-indian-passport-after-oath.786306/post-10324286

Again, they 'shall' (legal language for 'must') let you in when satisfied you're a citizen. And we've stated repeatedly here, in practice, they do so routinely for those with documents as in the post in this thread, even just photocopies, and even just with a foreign passport that links directly to the database they have on citizens/PRs.

 

[abbas.pasha]

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/urgent-travel-to-us-on-indian-passport-after-oath.786306/post-10324286

Again, they 'shall' (legal language for 'must') let you in when satisfied you're a citizen. And we've stated repeatedly here, in practice, they do so routinely for those with documents as in the post in this thread, even just photocopies, and even just with a foreign passport that links directly to the database they have on citizens/PRs.

That’s interesting that CBSA would let someone into the country by mere photocopies of documents and foreign passport.

 

[armoured]

That’s interesting that CBSA would let someone into the country by mere photocopies of documents and foreign passport.

Repeat: for someone who is in CBSA/IRCC database (which means, basically, everyone who has ever applied for PR status, received citizenship/passport, and several other categories), they have the info. Big exceptions are mostly those born in Canada who have never outright applied for some things, and Canadians born abroad who've not applied. Hopefully in most cases these are children but any way not relevant to this case.

They don't even need all these documents, but they do need some. To identify them sufficiently to match - and of course to convince cbsa officer that Person A in their file is also the Person holding the identification of Person A. (Everyone faces that issue, hence eg biometrics and pictures.)

Match issues between the database and docs: sounds silly but mostly name and date of birth, supported a bit by other stuff. UCI helps a lot. I presume there is other stuff in the files but don't know the details (they probably do record the foreign passports and probably some other docs that they see and link them to the file, but again - don't know). So yeah, change your name and not have docs on that / update your other docs, they might not match the file.

I have heard of citizens being admitted with no 'real' docs - but were cases of stolen docs and the like, and I think there were ways to get photocopies or something sent. These were not described to me as fun encounters at the border - but then, replacing a stolen passport while abroad is not a lot of fun any way you have to do it, either.

But admitting Canadians who have other supporting docs and just lack the passport or even citizenship cert? Relatively routine. (That might still mean extra time at the border for them to check, and still not be 'fun', but most cases I've heard of have been relatively mild encounters, with the big difference in time only if there are lines at secondary inspection (if sent to secondary). And have heard of quite a few cases where the CBSA officers really only asked a few more questions and wasn't all that much esxtra time.

And I dont' offhand recall hearing of a straightofrward case where the citizen was not admitted.

 

[abbas.pasha]

Repeat: for someone who is in CBSA/IRCC database (which means, basically, everyone who has ever applied for PR status, received citizenship/passport, and several other categories), they have the info. Big exceptions are mostly those born in Canada who have never outright applied for some things, and Canadians born abroad who've not applied. Hopefully in most cases these are children but any way not relevant to this case.

They don't even need all these documents, but they do need some. To identify them sufficiently to match - and of course to convince cbsa officer that Person A in their file is also the Person holding the identification of Person A. (Everyone faces that issue, hence eg biometrics and pictures.)

Match issues between the database and docs: sounds silly but mostly name and date of birth, supported a bit by other stuff. UCI helps a lot. I presume there is other stuff in the files but don't know the details (they probably do record the foreign passports and probably some other docs that they see and link them to the file, but again - don't know). So yeah, change your name and not have docs on that / update your other docs, they might not match the file.

I have heard of citizens being admitted with no 'real' docs - but were cases of stolen docs and the like, and I think there were ways to get photocopies or something sent. These were not described to me as fun encounters at the border - but then, replacing a stolen passport while abroad is not a lot of fun any way you have to do it, either.

But admitting Canadians who have other supporting docs and just lack the passport or even citizenship cert? Relatively routine. (That might still mean extra time at the border for them to check, and still not be 'fun', but most cases I've heard of have been relatively mild encounters, with the big difference in time only if there are lines at secondary inspection (if sent to secondary). And have heard of quite a few cases where the CBSA officers really only asked a few more questions and wasn't all that much esxtra time.

And I dont' offhand recall hearing of a straightofrward case where the citizen was not admitted.

All of the above you spent time writing is based on what you heard off LoL
Carry On.. more theories

 

[armoured]

All of the above you spent time writing is based on what you heard off LoL
Carry On.. more theories

No, it's backed by documents and the laws and regulations. I don't know what more you want than actual experiences and that.

 

[ebs2cloud]

@dpenabill @armoured @ishangodbole @abbas.pasha and others.

We have in person oath, so we'll get citizenship certificate right away.

From US travel standpoint, is it legal to goto US on indian passport as i am technically not an indian citizen right after oath. Can i run into any legal issue in future for showing CBP my indian passport after taking canadian citizenship?

Also, with citizenship certificate in hand, can i apply for passport in US?

Thanks!

 

[armoured]

From US travel standpoint, is it legal to goto US on indian passport as i am technically not an indian citizen right after oath. Can i run into any legal issue in future for showing CBP my indian passport after taking canadian citizenship?

That's a question for US and Indian authorities, hence no opinion. From a risks standpoint, I see little likelihood US authorities would know or care, and don't know how Indian authorities would ever find out. But again - not a Canadian issue, and not my issue.

Also, with citizenship certificate in hand, can i apply for passport in US?

Of course. But will be far, far faster if you can go to a passport office, and since you won't be doing it by mail, they check and return your citizenship certificate on the spot.

 

[abbas.pasha]

@dpenabill @armoured @ishangodbole @abbas.pasha and others.

We have in person oath, so we'll get citizenship certificate right away.

From US travel standpoint, is it legal to goto US on indian passport as i am technically not an indian citizen right after oath. Can i run into any legal issue in future for showing CBP my indian passport after taking canadian citizenship?

Also, with citizenship certificate in hand, can i apply for passport in US?

Thanks!

I shared the link with you before. It is mentioned there "A grace period of three months is allowed from the date of acquisition of foreign citizenship" https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/urgent-travel-to-us-on-indian-passport-after-oath.786306/post-10323775
Why dont you apply for Canadian passport on urgent/emergency basis with Passport Canada office ?
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/urgent-emergency-passport.html
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-adult-passport/urgent.html

https://www.moneywehave.com/how-to-get-an-emergency-canadian-passport/

I am not sure if you can apply for Canadian passport in the US if you are merely just visiting and you are not a resident there..

 

[smash1984]

This is what CBSA recommends. They of course want everyone to travel with passport, etc.

But the truth is that if they do establish the traveller (at port of entry - reminder to anyone travelling by plane that if they don't let you board your plane, this doestn' help you at all) is a citizen or PR, they must let you in.

And again, reality is that most of the time (basically always) they can identify by your foreign passport and/or other ID. It really helps to have your UCI# (like photocopy of old PR card or something like that) because the unique client identifier # ... uniquely identifies you.

That said: I'd strongly recommend that anyone doing this bring other ID and stuff with them (Cnadian driver's license, copy of old PR card, anything with UCI, anything that shows you recently took the oath, etc). This will go a long way to convincing the CBSA officer that you are indeed a PR/Citizen, that you live in Canada, and that you aren't playing games.

If you just got citizenship and tell them that's why you dont' have either the certificate or the passport but had to travel for some urgent reason - well more likely you'll get some understanding.

[If youv'e changed your name multiple times or other things are out of order ... well, more chance of issues.]

Thank you for your posts. They are quite informative, and actually make a lot of sense. If it's in the Canadian charter (which it is) then of course CBSA are bound to allow entry to a Canadian. I suppose for a lot of us who came from not so well developed parts of the world, our airport experiences color our perception of any border crossing. I think what you're saying is correct, but I still probably wouldn't be able to carry this out (if I was ever in the situation). But this is great information to know.

 

[ebs2cloud]

I shared the link with you before. It is mentioned there "A grace period of three months is allowed from the date of acquisition of foreign citizenship" https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/urgent-travel-to-us-on-indian-passport-after-oath.786306/post-10323775
Why dont you apply for Canadian passport on urgent/emergency basis with Passport Canada office ?
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/urgent-emergency-passport.html
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-adult-passport/urgent.html

https://www.moneywehave.com/how-to-get-an-emergency-canadian-passport/

I am not sure if you can apply for Canadian passport in the US if you are merely just visiting and you are not a resident there..

Yes, most likely I'll go with urgent weekend processing.

Thanks for the inputs everyone!