Passport renewal for Citizenship application

[supergnagno]

Hi,

I'm working on my citizenship application and my original passport (Italian) is expiring on April 2018. I will not be submitting my application before mid-December or possibly later and I am worried that they may not process the application before my passport expires. If so, would this affect my application? Should I renew my passport before starting my application?

Thanks in advance!

 

[dpenabill]

I'm working on my citizenship application and my original passport (Italian) is expiring on April 2018. I will not be submitting my application before mid-December or possibly later and I am worried that they may not process the application before my passport expires. If so, would this affect my application? Should I renew my passport before starting my application?

Expired passport in itself is NO problem.

If the passport expires after an applicant applies, that should have NO impact on processing. Just means the applicant cannot travel abroad pending renewal of that passport or becoming a citizen and obtaining a Canadian passport. The processing agent may ask a question or two about this during the interview, but that is just for contextual information, mostly to verify the applicant does not have some other passport or travel document which has not been disclosed.

If the passport expires prior to when the applicant applies, that is considered a gap which the applicant needs to explain (there is space in the application for this). This is not a big deal either unless there is something which makes IRCC concerned there is another passport or travel document; thus, for example, IRCC generally has no reason for concern unless there is an indication the applicant POSSIBLY traveled abroad during a period of time in which the applicant's passport was expired.