Yes you can travel without your Canadian passport after taking the Oath

[Chaoui05]

Hey Guys,

I thought it would be useful to share this news. If you are from visa exempt county, and you had booked your flight right after the ceremony you could still fly and go back to Canada with your country of origin passport - I did the same thing flying back from Bahamas right after the ceremony and I had no time to apply for a Canadian passport and the boarding agent let me in when I showed him the special authorization I received from IRCC. It literally took 30min to get the approval, from the moment I applied:

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

Find out if you are eligible for a special authorization to board your flight to Canada
You can apply for a special authorization if you:

• have a flight to Canada that leaves in less than 10 days, and
• have a valid passport from a visa-exempt country.

And one of the following:

• have previously received a certificate of Canadian citizenship, or
• held a Canadian passport in the past, or
• were granted Canadian citizenship after having been a permanent resident of Canada.

Your information will be verified in our electronic systems to confirm that you are a Canadian citizen. This authorization will be valid for only 4 days from the date of travel you select on the form. If you don’t use it within this time, you will need to apply for a new authorization.

 

[ccto]

Thanks for your post, this is so very helpful!!! I will be in a similar situation and researched this topic for days on end and only through this post found the solution!!! Many thanks for sharing!

 

[zardoz]

Hey Guys,

I thought it would be useful to share this news. If you are from visa exempt county, and you had booked your flight right after the ceremony you could still fly and go back to Canada with your country of origin passport - I did the same thing flying back from Bahamas right after the ceremony and I had no time to apply for a Canadian passport and the boarding agent let me in when I showed him the special authorization I received from IRCC. It literally took 30min to get the approval, from the moment I applied:

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

Find out if you are eligible for a special authorization to board your flight to Canada
You can apply for a special authorization if you:

• have a flight to Canada that leaves in less than 10 days, and
• have a valid passport from a visa-exempt country.

And one of the following:

• have previously received a certificate of Canadian citizenship, or
• held a Canadian passport in the past, or
• were granted Canadian citizenship after having been a permanent resident of Canada.

Your information will be verified in our electronic systems to confirm that you are a Canadian citizen. This authorization will be valid for only 4 days from the date of travel you select on the form. If you don’t use it within this time, you will need to apply for a new authorization.

Note that the link on the page to "Apply for a special authorization" actually ends up at https://secure.cic.gc.ca/dc-dn/srvmsg/404_5-en-fr.html

 

[ccto]

Note that the link on the page to "Apply for a special authorization" actually ends up at https://secure.cic.gc.ca/dc-dn/srvmsg/404_5-en-fr.html

Just to clarify, the page has to be accessed via https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/dual-canadian-citizens-visit-canada.html#findOut
Once on the page, one has to click on "Apply for special authorization" which leads to a form where one has to enter their specific details. This form is only valid for a certain time, so clicking on any other link (like https://secure.cic.gc.ca/dc-dn/dcc-eng.aspx) doesn't work (it will give a page not found error).

 

[dpenabill]

The fact this practice, the quick availability of the special authorization, depends on having a visa-exempt passport, is startling.

Whether or not one agrees with the policy and related practices, I recognize there are well-founded and rational reasons for discriminating against Foreign Nationals based on their nationality, largely rooted in the nature and scope of mutual obligations pursuant to international relations with some countries versus others, but also derivative of differing real world circumstances.

BUT this institutionalization of such discrimination against CANADIAN CITIZENS, based on their country of origin (or at least the other country for which they carry a passport), strikes me as fundamentally unfair . . .

. . . that said, I also recognize the extent to which the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, defers to the Minister in such matters, in terms of balancing legitimate governmental interests and needs, against a policy or practice that otherwise compromises a Charter right. But my sense is this is so blatantly discriminatory on the basis of national origin it should be challenged.

And I say that even though an outcome invalidating this discrimination may have little effect other than resulting in procedures which slow down the process significantly for those citizens with visa-exempt passports, but also not so much so that will eliminate a gross disparity between those with a visa-exempt passport versus those with a passport from some other country. That is, even if the challenge succeeds, the result is not likely to improve service for those who do not carry a visa-exempt passport.

Some elements of discrimination are, clearly, simply hard-wired into the system. Unfortunately.

 

[Gibe]

The fact this practice, the quick availability of the special authorization, depends on having a visa-exempt passport, is startling.

Whether or not one agrees with the policy and related practices, I recognize there are well-founded and rational reasons for discriminating against Foreign Nationals based on their nationality, largely rooted in the nature and scope of mutual obligations pursuant to international relations with some countries versus others, but also derivative of differing real world circumstances.

BUT this institutionalization of such discrimination against CANADIAN CITIZENS, based on their country of origin (or at least the other country for which they carry a passport), strikes me as fundamentally unfair . . .

. . . that said, I also recognize the extent to which the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, defers to the Minister in such matters, in terms of balancing legitimate governmental interests and needs, against a policy or practice that otherwise compromises a Charter right. But my sense is this is so blatantly discriminatory on the basis of national origin it should be challenged.

And I say that even though an outcome invalidating this discrimination may have little effect other than resulting in procedures which slow down the process significantly for those citizens with visa-exempt passports, but also not so much so that will eliminate a gross disparity between those with a visa-exempt passport versus those with a passport from some other country. That is, even if the challenge succeeds, the result is not likely to improve service for those who do not carry a visa-exempt passport.

Some elements of discrimination are, clearly, simply hard-wired into the system. Unfortunately.

My guess is that if you don't have a visa-free passport, the airline company just won't let you board the plane. And I doubt that showing them an authorization they never heard of would help in any way. So granting the authorization to people without a visa-free passport would just be useless.....

 

[dpenabill]

My guess is that if you don't have a visa-free passport, the airline company just won't let you board the plane. And I doubt that showing them an authorization they never heard of would help in any way. So granting the authorization to people without a visa-free passport would just be useless.....

While I do not know for sure, it seems most likely this "special authorization" amounts to an override of eTA ineligibility for citizens. So yes, you are probably right in the sense that this amounts to giving the Canadian citizen's visa-exempt passport eTA so it will allow boarding the flight to Canada.

In particular, it is the eTA requirement which now precludes Canadians from using a visa-exempt passport. Prior to the full implementation of eTA, Canadians with PR status, as well as Canadians with citizenship, were allowed to board flights headed to Canada by presenting a visa-exempt passport. Now, a visa-exempt passport must have eTA to get permission to board the flight. The airlines do NOT see eTA itself. It is not something displayed or present in the passport as such. What the airlines see is a response in the CBSA system that affirms the passenger has authorization to board the flight.

Canadians (both PRs and citizens) are specifically NOT eligible for eTA. Which is why, now, Canadian PRs must have a valid PR card (or PR Travel Document), and Canadian citizens must have a Canadian passport, to board flights headed to Canada.

This was probably an easy electronic override to implement, and is of substantial benefit to those eligible, and it probably saves IRCC visa offices time and money. Implementing a comparable override for other passports would be more difficult (only visa-exempt passports get eTA as such) and less secure. So, from an administrative perspective it probably makes rather good sense.

EXCEPT it OVERTLY DISCRIMINATES on the basis of a Canadian citizen's country of origin.

In any event, you are right that there is nothing comparable for passports which are not visa-exempt . . . which will not show authorization to board a flight unless there is a visa or travel document otherwise showing authorization.

But you are not right about airlines not being able to handle other authorizations . . . after all, a Canadian citizen who does not have a visa-exempt passport can still obtain a special authorization to board a flight to Canada . . . technically a special Travel Document. Just not as quickly. Not nearly so quickly. Just like a Canadian PR without a PR card, who can obtain a PR Travel Document from a visa office, the Canadian citizen can apply for the authorization through the respective visa office. May take just a day or three, or it may take weeks.

As I noted, even though I am no where near a constitutional law expert, I am well enough acquainted with so-called "balancing" interests to easily forecast why a challenge will fail. That government interests will be seen to outweigh the impact on Charter rights. It is, nonetheless, disappointing and to some extent disconcerting that such hardwired discrimination against some Canadian citizens is so casually embedded in the system.