I am scheduled to take oath/test in 9 days. The email says I need
All of the original documents in your possession – Immigration Record of Landing (IMM1000) or
Confirmation of Permanent Residence (IMM5292 or IMM5688);
I don't have those and cannot find them anywhere. My wife thinks it was never given to me, but...whatever. I usually keep good records, so it's surprising.
Anyway, I am wondering how to proceed. There is a very long delay for getting those records - 6 months.
I largely concur with the observations offered by
@JPBless but with some clarifications.
In particular,
it is NOT likely this is a problem for the interview. Be prepared to answer questions about it, truthfully of course, but the CoPR is not all that important for making decisions about a grant citizenship application (as noted by
@JPBless, it is nonetheless an important document for other purposes). Indeed, it has been many years since applicants were asked to include a copy of the CoPR with the application itself. And even more than five years ago when I attended my interview the interviewer did not even ask to see my CoPR.
LONGER DISCUSSION and CLARIFICATIONS (for any who might be interested; otherwise SKIP)
:
As I understand the current instructions, they require the applicant to bring all referenced documents
IN POSSESSION. Obviously, an individual cannot bring any document the individual does NOT have in his or her possession. A failure to bring one of the referenced documents will NOT, not in itself, disqualify the applicant.
That said, the referenced documents have evidentiary relevance, and since the burden of proof is on the applicant, the absence of this or that document can have more or less impact on how well the applicant meets the burden of proof as to particular elements in qualifying for a grant of citizenship. The most obvious example would be showing up without a passport, which could preclude the applicant from meeting the burden of proving his or her identity (and thus result in the application being denied), even if the applicant has and presents other forms of identification (with some exceptions; for example, stateless persons and many refugees obviously need to establish identity without a passport). Another fairly obvious example is failing to present ALL possibly relevant passports, which will not itself preclude qualifying for citizenship but which can trigger dramatically elevated concerns about the applicant's physical presence calculation.
Thus some of the referenced documents have more important evidentiary value than others. So the impact due to not having this or that document can and will typically depend on the extent to which IRCC relies on the document relevant to material questions about qualification, and the extent to which other sources can make up for not having the document.
In this regard, for purposes of grant citizenship, the CoPR is not much important. It is mostly relevant to identity and status. Identity is readily established by other documents and status is verified by IRCC records. Failure to have it at the interview does not pose much, if any risk, that IRCC will have questions about the applicant's identity or PR status, at least none that are not otherwise raised by other circumstances.
As noted by
@JPBless, the CoPR is nonetheless an important document for other purposes. It is almost for-sure you had one, since it was an absolutely necessary document to do the PR landing (within the last two decades) and it always comes in multiple copies, the landing officer keeping all but one of the copies and the landing PR keeping one copy . . . I do not know how substantial recent CoPR copies are, but when I landed more than a decade ago mine was a very thin and rather flimsy piece of paper which could be easily damaged and mistaken for a paper that was not important to keep.
If you cannot locate your copy you CANNOT obtain a replacement. Rather you will need to apply for and obtain a confirmation of status, which effectively replaces the CoPR for purposes like Old Age Security but which is not a copy of the original.
While
@JPBless offers a prudent suggestion to make that application soon and thus be able to explain you have done so at the interview, if questions about it come up, my sense is even that is not necessary now . . . but you should remember to get it done, to make the application for confirmation of status, and then keep that secure with other important documents.
Side Note Re Proof of Language Ability:
I do not know if interviewers typically ask to see the applicant's copy or original of the proof submitted by the applicant.
HOWEVER, generally this document is no longer of much importance because the applicant is nonetheless TESTED for language ability in the course of the interview. This is not obvious but it is FOR-SURE part of the interview (see IRCC PDIs about interviews). It is largely done attendant a bit of what seems like
chit-chat in addition to the more formal questions asked during the interview. Thus, for example, no matter what proof of language ability the applicant has and brings, the applicant must still be able to demonstrate language ability at the time of the knowledge-of-Canada test (which in significant part is also a test of language ability) and interview.
Failure to bring the language ability proof submitted with the application would ordinarily NOT have much relevance UNLESS (for some reason, which would be unusual) IRCC suspects the document submitted with the application was fraudulent.
