Canadian Citizen. Now What? Who to inform and useful stuff

[Michels]

Hi All

When one becomes citizen there are a few institutions to inform if the status change and some useful tips I found can be reused, this list is not exhaustive and will be updated as we progress discussing it:

Who to inform:

1. Optional: Elections Canada and your provincial elections (if you did not tick the box in your citizenship application) : https://ereg.elections.ca/CWelcome.aspx
2. Mandatory: Schools require to inform of the status change (Kids schools, or yours)
3. Optional: You might need to inform your Bank that you are Canadian now, so they scrap the PR copy they have
4. ...

Tips:

1. If you did not apply for a passport yet you can start it here: http://passport.gc.ca/ or pick up an application form at any Canada Post office for free
1.a. When you get your passport, take a picture/scan of it and store it in your cloud/email it to yourself & relatives or keep it in a separate place, you will need it in case the passport is lost.
2. If you are planning to travel, check the section regarding travelling abroad, it has extensive valuable information regarding health, risks, advisories and the recommended registration when travelling:
http://travel.gc.ca/travelling
3. Do Not lose your landing COPR paper! you will need it when applying for old age Pension!
4. Keep the original Citizenship certificate documents together (Certificate, Photo, PM Letter)
5. The extra Photo that they return with the citizenship certificate , do not discard it, it is needed to with the certificate (this what while applying for the passport they told me)
6. Do not Laminate your Citizenship certificate! Keep it as is in a file/folio sheet.
7. Stop checking eCas ;D

 

[wufan33]

Thanks. And tip 7 is most useful

 

[pedros]

Excellent advice Michels! Thanks a lot and +1

 

[elen1984]

Hi All

When one becomes citizen there are a few institutions to inform if the status change and some useful tips I found can be reused, this list is not exhaustive and will be updated as we progress discussing it:

Who to inform:

1. Optional: Elections Canada and you provincial election (if you did not tick the box in your citizenship application) : https://ereg.elections.ca/CWelcome.aspx
2. Mandatory: Schools require to inform of the status change (Kids schools, or yours)
3. Optional: You might need to inform you Bank that you are Canadian now so they scrap the PR copy they have
4. ...

Tips:

1. If you did not apply for a passport yet you can start it here: http://passport.gc.ca/ or pick up an application form at any Canada Post office for free
1.a. When you get your passport, take a picture/scan of it and store it in your cloud/email it to yourself & relatives or keep it in a separate place, you will need it in case the passport is lost.
2. If you are planning to travel, check the section regarding travelling abroad, it has extensive valuable information regarding health, risks, advisories and the recommended registration when travelling:
http://travel.gc.ca/travelling
3. Do Not loose your COPR paper! you will need it when applying for old age Pension!
4. Keep the original Citizenship certificate documents together (Certificate, Photo, PM Letter)
5. The extra Photo that they return with the citizenship certificate , do not discard it, it is needed to with the certificate (this what while applying for the passport they told me)
6. Do not Laminate your Citizenship certificate! Keep it as is in a file/folio sheet.
7. Stop checking eCas ;D

Thanks so much for this information, I have just a question, about n : 5 you talked about the extra photo that they return it with certificate , I just become a Canadian citizens on December 11 th, 2014 I didn't get any photo with my certificate , and I sked someone he had the ceremony one day before me , he said didn't get it too , because I thought I drope it in the room ,

 

[Michels]

Thanks so much for this information, I have just a question, about n : 5 you talked about the extra photo that they return it with certificate , I just become a Canadian citizens on December 11 th, 2014 I didn't get any photo with my certificate , and I sked someone he had the ceremony one day before me , he said didn't get it too , because I thought I drope it in the room ,

Hi elen1984

When I applied for the passport, the clerk asked for the photo that came with the certificate, I told her I thought it was an extra not required one.. she said it should stay with the certificate.. which I found a bit strange.

 

[elen1984]

Hi elen1984

When I applied for the passport, the clerk asked for the photo that came with the certificate, I told her I thought it was an extra not required one.. she said it should stay with the certificate.. which I found a bit strange.

I'm going to apply for the passport tomorrow and I'll tell the clerk I didn't get it and see if it's important.

 

[Michels]

I'm going to apply for the passport tomorrow and I'll tell the clerk I didn't get it and see if it's important.

I applied without it, this is when she told me not to lose it

 

[marcus66502]

Hi All

When one becomes citizen there are a few institutions to inform if the status change and some useful tips I found can be reused, this list is not exhaustive and will be updated as we progress discussing it:

Who to inform:

1. Optional: Elections Canada and your provincial elections (if you did not tick the box in your citizenship application) : https://ereg.elections.ca/CWelcome.aspx
2. Mandatory: Schools require to inform of the status change (Kids schools, or yours)
3. Optional: You might need to inform your Bank that you are Canadian now, so they scrap the PR copy they have
4. ...

Tips:

1. If you did not apply for a passport yet you can start it here: http://passport.gc.ca/ or pick up an application form at any Canada Post office for free
1.a. When you get your passport, take a picture/scan of it and store it in your cloud/email it to yourself & relatives or keep it in a separate place, you will need it in case the passport is lost.
2. If you are planning to travel, check the section regarding travelling abroad, it has extensive valuable information regarding health, risks, advisories and the recommended registration when travelling:
http://travel.gc.ca/travelling
3. Do Not lose your landing COPR paper! you will need it when applying for old age Pension!
4. Keep the original Citizenship certificate documents together (Certificate, Photo, PM Letter)
5. The extra Photo that they return with the citizenship certificate , do not discard it, it is needed to with the certificate (this what while applying for the passport they told me)
6. Do not Laminate your Citizenship certificate! Keep it as is in a file/folio sheet.
7. Stop checking eCas ;D

There are really very few institutions that absolutely MUST be informed of your acquisition of Canadian citizenship, and even these, only if you're going to need certain benefits from them. They're mostly government departments.

At the federal government level:

(1) Service Canada needs to be notified, even if for no reason other than to seal your image in their records as a Canadian citizen. If you do this, they will no longer ask you to prove permanent resident status at retirement when you apply for Old Age Security (OAS).

(2) You probably want to notify the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Again, it's not the end of the world if you don't, but if there ever arises some benefit in the future which you could qualify for as a citizen, you would get it without delay if they had your status in their records as a citizen.

As a side note to the above, I am not a citizen yet, just have PR status but when I was at the Service Canada office to have them record my legal name change, I asked them if I had to notify CRA separetely. The lady at the counter didn't know so she had to call a supervisor, who said that as far as she's aware information from Service Canada gets transmitted to CRA automatically. But, she warned, just to be sure I should notify them on my own. I did that.

(3) Any other federal government department you deal with (especially if you work for them). Again if in the future there are programs you could benefit from that are only open to citizens, it goes a lot faster if they've already recorded you in their books as a citizen.

At the provincial level

(1) Notify the Provincial Driver License office. In Ontario, you have to do that if you apply for an enhanced driver's licence, which is available only to citizens and lets you cross the US border without a passport. So if you want the enhanced version of your licence .....

(2) The provincial medical insurance program, if their records are kept separate from driver records.

Non-governmental institutions

(1) Your bank. Strictly speaking this isn't necessary, unless you want them to destroy the copy of Confirmation of Permanent Residence and any other PR document you've given them. The law doesn't require that you be a Canadian citizen, or even a PR, to hold bank accounts. The only legal requirement is that you have legal status in Canada (any status) when you do business with a bank. The bank has already verified your legal status from PR documents. So it really boils down to a question of do you insist on being identified as a citizen in their records.

Keep in mind, though, that some records are never deleted by the addition of others (as I've painfully found out from my name change process). For example, even though your bank might get rid of copies of PR documents when you notify them of your citizenship, they may still keep a record of the fact that at one time you were a PR (You certainly won't be able to hide that fact when you apply for a home mortgage loan and they notice from credit reports that your SIN number only goes back 5 years).

Once you have notified Service Canada of your citizenship, you do not need to keep your COPR paper for Old Age Security, unless you're in Quebec, which has its own set of rules.

As for schools, again there's no legal requirement to notify them per se. They've already verified your permanent status. The rest is just gravy.

 

[Oronno]

thanks, good to know always...

 

[sharedknowledge]

=1 for Michels and Marcus for invaluable info.

 

[Michels]

Thanks Marcus for bringing up the Service Canada notification.. it will sure help