Shall we apply for Canadian Citizenship before or after the birth of the child?

[CanadianPermanentResident]

Hi All,

My wife and I are permanent residents of Canada. We are expecting our first child. My wife is 4 months pregnant right now and she is going to India for the delivery. We both are eligible for applying for Canadian citizenship.

My question is, should we go ahead and apply for Canadian Citizenship without waiting for the birth of a child or we should wait and apply after the baby is born?

If we apply before the baby is born, after birth do we need to add baby on application for citizenship? Will it delay the process? Will CIC raise any concerns?

Please note that baby will be having Indian passport due to Indian birth place.

I appreciate your valued opinions in this regard. Thanks!

 

[canvis2006]

If I were you, we'd plan and have the baby birth in Canada, that way baby becomes Canadian by birth and no issues of sponsorship, etc.

Since you're PR, and if baby born outside Canada you'd need to sponsor the child, why go through such hassle ?

And apply citizenship AS soon as you qualify (not sure if you're interested, or you wanna remain PR and keep your indian nationality)

 

[sns204]

This doesn't apply in this case, as even if they applied today, they wouldn't get a citizenship grant completed before the baby is born, but I'm curious.

If parents that are Indian-born become Canadian citizens before the child is born in Canada, would the child be Indian by decent, since the Indian citizenship has to be given up?

 

[CanadianPermanentResident]

If I were you, we'd plan and have the baby birth in Canada, that way baby becomes Canadian by birth and no issues of sponsorship, etc.

Since you're PR, and if baby born outside Canada you'd need to sponsor the child, why go through such hassle ?

And apply citizenship AS soon as you qualify (not sure if you're interested, or you wanna remain PR and keep your indian nationality)

Thank you canvis2006 for your reply. You are right, having baby born in Canada is an ideal thing. However, my wife expects family and relatives to be around at the time of delivery. So, we are planning to have child birth in India. We are very much interested in Canadian citizenship. I understand that I will have to sponsor child after getting citizenship. However, what if, child is born after application and before I get citizenship? Will this event delay the process of getting Citizenship?

 

[Beet2017]

That’s true. Having baby here is easier than overseas. The baby will be canadian citizen automatically and you can apply afterwards. Then you can bring the baby in India when you are all citizens

 

[Seym]

Thank you canvis2006 for your reply. You are right, having baby born in Canada is an ideal thing. However, my wife expects family and relatives to be around at the time of delivery. So, we are planning to have child birth in India. We are very much interested in Canadian citizenship. I understand that I will have to sponsor child after getting citizenship. However, what if, child is born after application and before I get citizenship? Will this event delay the process of getting Citizenship?

Since your child will not be a canadian PR at birth and thus would have nothing to do with your or your wife's application, it should have no effect on your application, whether you send it before or after the baby is born.

 

[sns204]

Thank you canvis2006 for your reply. You are right, having baby born in Canada is an ideal thing. However, my wife expects family and relatives to be around at the time of delivery. So, we are planning to have child birth in India. We are very much interested in Canadian citizenship. I understand that I will have to sponsor child after getting citizenship. However, what if, child is born after application and before I get citizenship? Will this event delay the process of getting Citizenship?

While people do apply together as a family, the applications are individual. There wouldn't be a such thing as "adding" the child to your application. As previously stated, the child has no status in Canada and therefore would not be an issue to your application.

I'm not sure if there is any complexity surrounding the fact that you'll be sponsoring your child right away vs waiting until you are citizen to start the sponsorship process.

 

[CanadianPermanentResident]

I agree with you all that the best option is to plan the birth of a child in Canada. However, baby will be born in India due to the reasons mentioned in my above reply.

I need your opinion for the following scenario -
August 2018 - Me and my wife apply for Canadian citizenship in August 2018
September 2018 - We go back to India for delivery
December 2018 - Child born in India and gets the Indian passport and Canadian VISA
January/February 2019 - Do I need to add a baby as a dependent on my citizenship application? Will it delay the process of me becoming a Canadian citizen? Will I jeopardize my citizenship by adding a child?
April 2019 - Our citizenship application is still in progress. We return from India to Canada.

 

[CanadianPermanentResident]

While people do apply together as a family, the applications are individual. There wouldn't be a such thing as "adding" the child to your application. As previously stated, the child has no status in Canada and therefore would not be an issue to your application.

I'm not sure if there is any complexity surrounding the fact that you'll be sponsoring your child right away vs waiting until you are citizen to start the sponsorship process.

Thanks for answering my question. If there wouldn't be such thing as "adding a child to application", then that will be really great for me. However, I asked this question because, the similar situation I faced while getting PR. I was single when I applied for PR. My PR was almost approved. Then I got married. I had to add my wife as a spouse on my PR application. As a result this delayed my PR. Later we both got PR together.

 

[DavEd]

I agree with you all that the best option is to plan the birth of a child in Canada. However, baby will be born in India due to the reasons mentioned in my above reply.

I need your opinion for the following scenario -
August 2018 - Me and my wife apply for Canadian citizenship in August 2018
September 2018 - We go back to India for delivery
December 2018 - Child born in India and gets the Indian passport and Canadian VISA
January/February 2019 - Do I need to add a baby as a dependent on my citizenship application? Will it delay the process of me becoming a Canadian citizen? Will I jeopardize my citizenship by adding a child?
April 2019 - Our citizenship application is still in progress. We return from India to Canada.

What if your child fails to get a Canada visitor visa??

 

[canuck78]

You should be aware that TRV for baby's born abroad are often denied. You have the option to try and get a trp but often one parent must sponsor from Canada which takes 6-8 months usually.

 

[guelphmm]

There are few things to be considered :

1. You can apply for citizenship in August 2018, usually people get test date within 3-4 months (there are few outliers too), and you can always postpone that and increase your timeline

2. To get visa for your child born outside Canada can be tricky , Visitor (TRV) visa is not guaranteed based on many experiences shared on this forum. And to sponsor your child, one of you have to be physically present in Canada (better job quicker is the process). My twins were born in India too , took 6 months to get PR . But I applied their TRV once I get AOR for their PR application and got the visa in 2weeks .

You can decide.

Your Citizenship application will be delayed if you are unable to attend citizenship test and interview

Hope this helps you to decide.

I agree with you all that the best option is to plan the birth of a child in Canada. However, baby will be born in India due to the reasons mentioned in my above reply.

I need your opinion for the following scenario -
August 2018 - Me and my wife apply for Canadian citizenship in August 2018
September 2018 - We go back to India for delivery
December 2018 - Child born in India and gets the Indian passport and Canadian VISA
January/February 2019 - Do I need to add a baby as a dependent on my citizenship application? Will it delay the process of me becoming a Canadian citizen? Will I jeopardize my citizenship by adding a child?
April 2019 - Our citizenship application is still in progress. We return from India to Canada.

 

[WeazyF]

I think you are complicating the matter. You have to decide yourself what you want. Your child wouldn't have any status and as such cannot be added to any application.
We do understand the notion of giving birth in India but then you will spend approx. $4000 to ensure your child is a citizen in 5 years from now, if it happens the way you plan it to. I think you should logically think about your options then make your decision.

 

[Joshua1]

Since you post this on an open forum, I'll advise you not to complicate your life.

As others have already indicated, your child will not have any Canadian status if born outside of Canada. By the time you get back here, you will have to apply for PR for him/her which could take up to 10 months (based on current IRCC timeline)... do you see where I'm going with this?

I understand that people have different family culture. However, from what I have read on multiple forums, don't Indian citizens automatically lose their citizenship once they get another one? If so, why bother?

 

[mumbai1985]

If your child is Born in Canada, then she / he will still be able to apply for Indian citizenship when 18.

How about bringing her / your parents here?