Lost expired passport needed for Canadian citizenship application—what should I do?

[@Aliboo_191]

Hi everyone,

I am a 19 year old female and I am in the process of applying for Canadian citizenship, but I have ran into an issue. One of my expired passports (from when I was a minor) has been lost, and I need to account for all passports during my five-year eligibility period.

I have already filed a police report to document the loss, and I plan to write a Letter of Explanation. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Will this be enough for IRCC, or is there anything else I should do? Do you think I will be able to proceed with my citizenship application without my expired passport?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[schilz]

You should be able to proceed, but ensure to include the police report in your letter of explanation (ideally have the police report mention the passport number if you have it), and IF that passport had relevant travel stamps for the 3 year residency requirement (e.g. passport had entry stamps for days you are claiming you were in Canada in your application) be sure to include alternative evidence to support that, like airline confirmation emails.

 

[armoured]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

As below, follow basic instructions for lost documents.

If you are well over the minimum physical presence requirement, you should be okay (it's not that often they ask for all passport pages and stamps). You could order your CBSA ATIP records for entries and exits, just for your own comfort.

In future: take and keep scans/photocopies of all important docs!