Budgie1

Hello,

My Husband & I are sitting our citizenship exam on 6 September and we have a 13 month old baby. I was wondering if I can bring her along in her stroller or will I have to arrange for someone to look after her?

Thank you,

Mrs Budgie.

Steve_P

I don't know but even if she is allowed in, she's not going to be able to help you answer any of the questions.

iaink

Dont think it will be a problem, but you can always check with the local CIC office that is hosting the test to be sure.

You will be in and out in 5 minutes anyway with any luck, the test is not hard if you read the book a couple of times.

HPJOS

We have our test that day too in Calgary, our son will be going to his normal dayhome, albeit a little earlier than usual as the test is at 8am.

If you have no way of not bringing her perhaps you could arrange it for one of you to wait outside with her while the other does the test and then swap?

Helen

iaink

When I did the test everyone did it all at once to prevent any cheating/ advantage for those taking it later...

Budgie1

We are in Calgary too :-) 8am as well. Guess we'll see you there.

Budgie1

Really the test is that short just 5 minutes? Even more reason I would like to take her with me. We don't really have anyone we can leave her with. I am a stay at home mum so we don't use a day home. Our friends all work and we don't have any family here. so it makes it a little difficult.

iaink

Preaching to the choir on that one

You get up to half an hour I think to do the test, but most English native speakers are in and out very fast. Its all the administrative stuff and document checking and whatnot that takes all the time, not the test itself.

Maybe we could all twist Steves arm to come down and babysit if necessary, hes retired, so probably got nothing better to do

Budgie1

Thanks everyone for your response. I have been able to find a friend who can come along and sit outside with our daughter whilst we take the test. Now I am glad the test was so early in the day as it was the only reason it worked out.

Alberta_Rose

wait .... when I sat the test in Calgary (last November) there was quite a lot of preamble and explanation, and then the tests were handed out, and then once you had completed the test you could take it up to the front to be marked, but then you had to wait silently in your seat for the whole 30 minutes until the test time was complete .... some people did take the whole half hour!

We were in that room for around an hour and a half all told I would think.

Babies were certainly brought to the ceremony in the afternoon, but there were none at the test itself. By all means check, but I don't think it would be allowed.

Oops just read your last reply! .... you do get told a time to get there, but the test will not be at that time. You have to line up and speak individually to an officer who checks who you are and asks some Q's and tells you to go wait in the test room. The test seemed to take ages to get started. So it's good that you have a friend to babysit, but you should still check with the test centre to estimate how long you'll be in there maybe???

Tuppence

It's lucky you have someone to help, as it was specifically called out at our test that anyone who wasn't actually taking the test was not allowed in the room.

I can see why. Baby / small kid making any sound or just being there is distracting. If I failed my citizenship test, that's the first thing I would be complaining about, and I would be blaming CIC for letting them in. They don't want the administrative headache of that.

Dashie

Are you breastfeeding? If so, there are laws stating that the nursing babe and mother are actually considered to be one unit/person, because of the baby's needs, and the baby has to be allowed to go wherever the mother is. Could that help?

On the other hand though, they likely wouldn't want a baby in there not needing to feed that could distract the other people taking the test too.

We're going to have the same issue when we eventually go to take ours.

britishvixen21

I took the test last month in Toronto and i was there for 3 hours! while everyone checked in and did a small English test. Fair do's the Test only took me 3 minutes but a lot of beaurocratic waiting around.

They did say that if anyone had young children they had to be well behaved and if an infant became fussy they would have to take them outside as to not distrupt the other people.

gad33

I took my test in Calgary at the beginning of the month. I arrived at 10.30 and didn't sit the test till about 11.35. You were allowed to leave when you had finished the test.

There were children who were in the testing room and they did make noise at one point.

You and your husband will not be allowed to sit near each other so you won't be able to pass baby back and forth.

There is a small cafe by the testing room so your friend would be able to have a coffee or something while waiting for you.

LucyLovelock

Ooh was yours the same day as ours? We were last november too, 8am test and then 1pm ceremony!
I think it was November 18th?