Citizenship oath received while being outside of Canada and had to postpone - how long does it normally take?

[kghayesh]

My wife received her citizenship oath today for Aug 11th and we are away and due to return on Sep 18th. It is quite hard to change our flights back to catch the ceremony on time because we have to be back home here due to family medical issues.

Did anyone go through this before and had to postpone due to personal reasons of not being able to be in Canada during the oath ceremony? What is your experience on how long does it take to reschedule the oath ceremony?

 

[shiremag]

My wife received her citizenship oath today for Aug 11th and we are away and due to return on Sep 18th. It is quite hard to change our flights back to catch the ceremony on time because we have to be back home here due to family medical issues.

Did anyone go through this before and had to postpone due to personal reasons of not being able to be in Canada during the oath ceremony? What is your experience on how long does it take to reschedule the oath ceremony?

Once you come back to Canada and provide proof of return (boarding pass) - a couple months to 6 months. It's highly recommended not to postpone your ceremony if you can. If you do have to postpone it - it really depends on the processing office and your luck as your application is considered non routine after not attending the first scheduled oath ceremony

 

[dejected]

I'll support Shiremag's point of view.
Personally, if I were to be in that situation, I'd make every effort to keep my oath date.

 

[dpenabill]

My wife received her citizenship oath today for Aug 11th and we are away and due to return on Sep 18th. It is quite hard to change our flights back to catch the ceremony on time because we have to be back home here due to family medical issues.

Once you come back to Canada and provide proof of return (boarding pass) - a couple months to 6 months. It's highly recommended not to postpone your ceremony if you can. If you do have to postpone it - it really depends on the processing office and your luck as your application is considered non routine after not attending the first scheduled oath ceremony

Largely concur with @shiremag . . . BUT . . . There has been a sudden flurry of posts referencing a change in policy and practice regarding taking the oath outside Canada. Some of the detail in these posts suggests they are credible.

But allowing adult Section 5(1) applicants the opportunity to take the oath while abroad without special authorization (which has been very rare in the past) is such a major change in policy and practice, unless and until there is more definitive information from at least authoritative sources it is prudent to wait and see . . . allowing, however, that anyone who in particular has communication from IRCC specifically allowing them to proceed with taking the oath while abroad, can probably proceed to do so. As best can be seen so far.

For those anxious to learn if they too could take the oath while still abroad, again it will be prudent to wait and see. If this change is real there should be more definitive news and confirmation coming soon.

Posted more observations here:

Some Background:

Early this year there were proposed changes to the regulations that would ostensibly allow the Minister to adopt procedures that could include online oath proceedings for applicants outside Canada, but it was not clear that is what the Minister would implement when the changes took effect.

Those changes, in the regulations governing the oath of citizenship, were scheduled to take effect in June, but until quite recently there has been no indication they were approved and taking effect. And meanwhile it has remained unclear what changes in actual practices would follow.

The Justice Laws website is an authoritative source which publishes the official statutes and regulations. It still does not show these changes in regulation to be in effect BUT as of today it is only current to July 25, 2023, and the reports that IRCC is allowing the oath abroad have just emerged since then. (Note, Regulations in effect until at least July 25, which would not allow for the oath outside Canada for 5(1) grants of citizenship except with special authorization, that is Regulations 19 to 24, are here: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-93-246/page-2.html#h-952206 . . . subject to change any day now it seems).

There is a possibility that IRCC could implement such a change, to more broadly allow taking the oath outside Canada, pursuant to changes in interpreting how the current regulations apply to online ceremonies, but that is a very tangled weedy tangent and seems quite unlikely, so I'll leave it at that, at noting the possibility.

In any event, other than those who are in fact being scheduled for the oath and being given clear instruction that they can take the oath abroad, the rest of us should WAIT and SEE what additional information becomes available. If this change is being broadly implemented information about it and confirming this should SOON start showing up in multiple authoritative sources.

Some sources for reference:

Extensive list of PDIs regarding citizenship, including group under title "Ceremonies and promotion, which in turn includes link to oath ceremonies in particular: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/canadian-citizenship/overview/functional-guidance-on-table-contents.html

PDI for Oath of Citizenship: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/canadian-citizenship/ceremony/oath.html . . . but last updated more than two years ago

Link to Manual for "Citizenship delivery abroad" is here:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/canadian-citizenship/citizenship-abroad.html . . . also out of date . . . July 2020 . . . but is nonetheless a good source for how things work up until now.

 

[bubuland]

My wife received her citizenship oath today for Aug 11th and we are away and due to return on Sep 18th. It is quite hard to change our flights back to catch the ceremony on time because we have to be back home here due to family medical issues.

Did anyone go through this before and had to postpone due to personal reasons of not being able to be in Canada during the oath ceremony? What is your experience on how long does it take to reschedule the oath ceremony?

Hello - I'm in the same boat. Do you have any update please?