Hello All,
Does anybody have an idea how much time it takes to get your Canadian passport delivered after your have got the citizenship certificate post your oath ceremony..
Also, can one travel back to India immediately after receiving the passport ?
Please suggest..
Once you are a Canadian citizen, you can use the Indian passport for a period of 3 months PROVIDED that you do not get a Canadian passport. However, the problem with this is you CANNOT get back to Canada. You will destroy your PR card AND you shouldn't be using your PR card to travel once you are a citizen. You need your Canadian passport to return back to Canada.
You must wait for your citizenship certificate to arrive before you can apply for a passport. It can take anywhere between a day (urgent processing) to a month to receive your citizenship certificate.
If you have proof of travel, you can apply for Express / Urgent processing but then you can't go to India without a proper visa or OCI.
So, the best course of action is if the trip is non-essential or not urgent, postpone it. Get your citizenship certificate, get your passport, get a visa/OCI and then visit India. Also, in these uncertain times, I wouldn't even consider planning on traveling with a visitor visa because Indian officials can refuse entry for people on a tourist visa (as per the current guidelines, you cannot enter India if all you have is a tourist visa).
The best course of action here, like I said is wait and get your OCI and then go to India. Your only other option is to get your citizenship certificate, fly to India on Indian passport, apply for Canadian passport at Canadian embassy responsible for your address in India and then travel back to Canada with a Canadian passport. While the second option might be possible, I wouldn't recommend it as you don't want to invite or give any chance to the border official to question you.
Good luck!
