Contents of the Oath Ceremony Letter (received via email) and discussion

[rajkamalmohanram]

Mine is on November 5. waiting for the letter. Does anyone know if there is an option to invite someone (relatives for example) to watch the ceremony through the link? Or is there even such a thing? Thank you

No, there is no way to do that. Only members can join the Zoom conference.

Your family can watch this if they are in the same room.

 

[arav12345]

No, there is no way to do that. Only members can join the Zoom conference.

Your family can watch this if they are in the same room.

Hello Rajkamal, how long did it take for your to receive the Citizenship certificate and do you know how soon we can apply for passport after receiving the citizenship certificate? My ceremony is scheduled on the 23rd of December and I have a trip planned for 28th of January. Should I postpone ceremony? Please advise. Thanks!!

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Hello Rajkamal, how long did it take for your to receive the Citizenship certificate and do you know how soon we can apply for passport after receiving the citizenship certificate? My ceremony is scheduled on the 23rd of December and I have a trip planned for 28th of January. Should I postpone ceremony? Please advise. Thanks!!

You can apply for a passport as soon as you receive the citizenship certificate. For me, I received it the very next day because my application was processed urgently.

Otherwise, it can take anywhere between a week to 6 weeks to receive the certificate.

You should talk to the clerk at the ceremony and request them to expedite the certificate because you are traveling soon.

 

[Neel14]

Hi,
My tracker says I am scheduled for Oath ceremony on Dec 2. It was updated on Oct 26. Its been a week & I have not received any email/notice for Oath ceremony. Should I fill a web-form or just wait?
Thanks

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Hi,
My tracker says I am scheduled for Oath ceremony on Dec 2. It was updated on Oct 26. Its been a week & I have not received any email/notice for Oath ceremony. Should I fill a web-form or just wait?
Thanks

You'll receive an email only about a week or two before the ceremony. In some cases you might even receive it a couple of days before the ceremony.

 

[arav12345]

You can apply for a passport as soon as you receive the citizenship certificate. For me, I received it the very next day because my application was processed urgently.

Otherwise, it can take anywhere between a week to 6 weeks to receive the certificate.

You should talk to the clerk at the ceremony and request them to expedite the certificate because you are traveling soon.

Thank you! Can I hold on to my Indian Passport till I visit India and come back to Canada? Can I use my Indian PP for travel after receiving the Canadian PP?

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Thank you! Can I hold on to my Indian Passport till I visit India and come back to Canada? Can I use my Indian PP for travel after receiving the Canadian PP?

Generally, the rule goes like this. If you have obtained citizenship but you haven't obtained a foreign passport OR if you applied for foreign passport but the passport isn't in your possession, then you can use your Indian passport for a period of 3 months. This 3 months begins from the date you became a citizen.

Your trip is going to be very complicated if you enter India using your Indian passport while you're a Canadian citizen.

If you enter India using an Indian passport, I don't think you can exit using a foreign passport. You have to exit India with the same Indian passport you entered with. However, you can't do that because you will NOT have a PR card or a Canadian visa since you are Canadian citizen. So, you might not be allowed to exit India and that'll cause a lot of problems.

So, you might have to do something like this :

1. Visit India on Indian passport.
2. Apply for a Dubai Visa on Indian passport.
3. When leaving India, show your Indian passport and book a separate ticket to Dubai.
4. When you arrive in Dubai, pull out your Canadian passport and obtain a visa on arrival using your Canadian passport.
5. Leave Dubai and travel to Canada on your Canadian passport.
6. When you then surrender your Indian passport in Canada, you will be paying a file of $500 ($250 for each trip you took after obtaining a Canadian passport).

Instead, plan something like this :

1. Obtain Canadian passport
2. Apply for an Indian tourist visa and surrender your Indian passport (together)
3. Go to India with your Canadian passport and tourist visa (Tourist visa can only be used after November 15th, 2021 AFAIK).
4. When you come back to Canada, you can apply for OCI if you want to.
5. However, if you are planning to stay in India for a while (something like 3 months), you can apply for OCI in India.

 

[arav12345]

Generally, the rule goes like this. If you have obtained citizenship but you haven't obtained a foreign passport OR if you applied for foreign passport but the passport isn't in your possession, then you can use your Indian passport for a period of 3 months. This 3 months begins from the date you became a citizen.

Your trip is going to be very complicated if you enter India using your Indian passport while you're a Canadian citizen.

If you enter India using an Indian passport, I don't think you can exit using a foreign passport. You have to exit India with the same Indian passport you entered with. However, you can't do that because you will NOT have a PR card or a Canadian visa since you are Canadian citizen. So, you might not be allowed to exit India and that'll cause a lot of problems.

So, you might have to do something like this :

1. Visit India on Indian passport.
2. Apply for a Dubai Visa on Indian passport.
3. When leaving India, show your Indian passport and book a separate ticket to Dubai.
4. When you arrive in Dubai, pull out your Canadian passport and obtain a visa on arrival using your Canadian passport.
5. Leave Dubai and travel to Canada on your Canadian passport.
6. When you then surrender your Indian passport in Canada, you will be paying a file of $500 ($250 for each trip you took after obtaining a Canadian passport).

Instead, plan something like this :

1. Obtain Canadian passport
2. Apply for an Indian tourist visa and surrender your Indian passport (together)
3. Go to India with your Canadian passport and tourist visa (Tourist visa can only be used after November 15th, 2021 AFAIK).
4. When you come back to Canada, you can apply for OCI if you want to.
5. However, if you are planning to stay in India for a while (something like 3 months), you can apply for OCI in India.

Thank you very much for your response. I think I am going to reschedule my oath ceremony because I am not sure if I will have enough time to apply for Indian Visa after getting the oath done. (oath on 23rd Dec and travelling on Jan 28th). I appreciate your response. Thank you!

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Thank you very much for your response. I think I am going to reschedule my oath ceremony because I am not sure if I will have enough time to apply for Indian Visa after getting the oath done. (oath on 23rd Dec and travelling on Jan 28th). I appreciate your response. Thank you!

Its your decision but I'll have to say this. Unless this trip is absolutely essential and there is no way you can reschedule your tickets, I wouldn't recommend postponing oath ceremony. The reason is this - There is no telling when you'll get another ceremony. Even if you come back to Canada in a month and let IRCC know you are back, it could be several months before hear back about your ceremony.

Once you get your citizenship certificate, you can potentially get your passport in under 9 business days and the Indian visa in under 2 weeks. As long as you manage to convince the clerk at the citizenship ceremony to expedite the certificate, you should be able to make it on time.

If you want to be super safe, postpone the trip for 2 weeks later.

That's just my opinion - If this trip is flexible, you can leave a couple of weeks later rather than postponing the ceremony and being shrouded in the dark about your ceremony date for several months in the future.

Good luck!

 

[mpsqra]

Thank you very much for your response. I think I am going to reschedule my oath ceremony because I am not sure if I will have enough time to apply for Indian Visa after getting the oath done. (oath on 23rd Dec and travelling on Jan 28th). I appreciate your response. Thank you!

Don't reschedule it.

 

[prash42]

Hi Raj, hope you are well. IRCC Scarborough scheduled me for virtual oath on Dec 9th, along with wife and minor children. I'm wondering if there's a realistic chance of getting our Canadian passports in hand before Christmas, to enable travel to the US (by road to Michigan / Illinois).

These are the things I'm planning on, to improve my odds. Any other suggestions to speed things up?

• Mention to the citizenship clerk in the breakout room, both before and after the ceremony, that we'd like the citizenship certificate to be expedited to enable planned travel during Christmas (even though our applications aren't under Urgent Processing)
• Sign oath forms electronically using scanned signatures on Adobe Reader DC, and email it back to IRCC immediately after the zoom call ends.
• Schedule in-person appointment at Service Canada for Dec 16th in anticipation of receiving our citizenship certificates (if they permit scheduling multiple appointments, I might schedule an additional appointment for Dec 19th or 20th)
• Choose either the express or urgent pick-up option

Does IRCC respond to emailed oath forms to confirm they are all good? Is there a specific IRCC phone number to call, to check on progress of citizenship certificate?

Its your decision but I'll have to say this. Unless this trip is absolutely essential and there is no way you can reschedule your tickets, I wouldn't recommend postponing oath ceremony. The reason is this - There is no telling when you'll get another ceremony. Even if you come back to Canada in a month and let IRCC know you are back, it could be several months before hear back about your ceremony.

Once you get your citizenship certificate, you can potentially get your passport in under 9 business days and the Indian visa in under 2 weeks. As long as you manage to convince the clerk at the citizenship ceremony to expedite the certificate, you should be able to make it on time.

If you want to be super safe, postpone the trip for 2 weeks later.

That's just my opinion - If this trip is flexible, you can leave a couple of weeks later rather than postponing the ceremony and being shrouded in the dark about your ceremony date for several months in the future.

Good luck!

 

[arav12345]

Its your decision but I'll have to say this. Unless this trip is absolutely essential and there is no way you can reschedule your tickets, I wouldn't recommend postponing oath ceremony. The reason is this - There is no telling when you'll get another ceremony. Even if you come back to Canada in a month and let IRCC know you are back, it could be several months before hear back about your ceremony.

Once you get your citizenship certificate, you can potentially get your passport in under 9 business days and the Indian visa in under 2 weeks. As long as you manage to convince the clerk at the citizenship ceremony to expedite the certificate, you should be able to make it on time.

If you want to be super safe, postpone the trip for 2 weeks later.

That's just my opinion - If this trip is flexible, you can leave a couple of weeks later rather than postponing the ceremony and being shrouded in the dark about your ceremony date for several months in the future.

Good luck!

I spoke to BLS and they say that I can apply for the Visa and surrender my Indian PP on the same day and get the Visa within 15 business days. Also waiting to see if Evisa will open up on 15th Nov. For now I am not requesting to reschedule. Thank you!

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Hi Raj, hope you are well. IRCC Scarborough scheduled me for virtual oath on Dec 9th, along with wife and minor children. I'm wondering if there's a realistic chance of getting our Canadian passports in hand before Christmas, to enable travel to the US (by road to Michigan / Illinois).

These are the things I'm planning on, to improve my odds. Any other suggestions to speed things up?

• Mention to the citizenship clerk in the breakout room, both before and after the ceremony, that we'd like the citizenship certificate to be expedited to enable planned travel during Christmas (even though our applications aren't under Urgent Processing)
• Sign oath forms electronically using scanned signatures on Adobe Reader DC, and email it back to IRCC immediately after the zoom call ends.
• Schedule in-person appointment at Service Canada for Dec 16th in anticipation of receiving our citizenship certificates (if they permit scheduling multiple appointments, I might schedule an additional appointment for Dec 19th or 20th)
• Choose either the express or urgent pick-up option

Does IRCC respond to emailed oath forms to confirm they are all good? Is there a specific IRCC phone number to call, to check on progress of citizenship certificate?

1, 2 and 4 are good.

For 3 => Schedule an appointment at a Passport Canada rather than service Canada. Most Passport Canada offices offer Express service. They usually don't provide Urgent service unless your trip is in 2 business days. (Mine was in 4 BD but they still didn't provide urgent but I still got my passport on time with Express service).

 

[tfareed]

After my Oath ceremony, I sent signed oath form to Mississauga office on their email address but did not get any auto reply email. Is it normal or i was supposed to get an auto reply email. Can anyone please let me know because i am not sure if they have received my email.

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

After my Oath ceremony, I sent signed oath form to Mississauga office on their email address but did not get any auto reply email. Is it normal or i was supposed to get an auto reply email. Can anyone please let me know because i am not sure if they have received my email.

You won't get an auto reply.