Once the 3 years are up and you apply for citizenship do you have to remain in canada while the whole thing gets sorted out or could you fly out and then return for the test and the ceremony?

Thanks

You don't have to but from a practical point of view it would be very difficult. You don't get much warning of when your test or ceremony is (these can be a few month apart) and booking flights at short notice would cost you a fortune I imagine.

There's no *legal* requirement that you remain in Canada. You do have to maintain your PR status, though that won't normally be a concern if you qualify for citizenship.

*However*, you only get a week or two's notice of the test and ceremony, and I don't believe they'll send notices outside Canada. So you'd need somebody in Canada to pass on the messages when they arrive, and you'd need to be able to fly back to Canada (probably twice) on short notice when the time comes.

But all you would have to do, is write a letter to the folk at the testing centre/court to explain that you had already arranged (eg) a business trip / urgent family visit / whatever and ask for a later date. I had to do this (for genuinely important business travel) and there was no problem. The court bit was delayed about a month, no biggy.

Well I guess that's an option but I think the OP has a husband and kids and plans to move back to the UK permanently. Plus depending where she lives she will have to fly back twice once for the test and then again for the swear at the Queen bit.

Oh, I see. That wasn't apparent from the first post. In that case she's a prattish fraud and should be shot.

As one who got my Canadian Citizenship and then jumped ship 10 days later I'm probably up before the firing squad too then

LOL thanks! but yes looking to return to UK for a bit and then want option of returning especially for the kids! So there

Lovely to see such commitment to Canada.

Why doesn't she get her citizenship first, then move?
(which is legal).

Well that's what I did however you should ask the OP the question but it sounds like she wants to leave ASAP.

She may well have to decide what is more important to her in that case.

I would have expected that people would be required to continue spending X amount of time over Y period to keep their citizenship once they have it, similar to the residency requirement for getting it in the first place..


I am sure there are genuine cases where people have had to move away from Canada after gaining citizenship, but if some only want citizenship but have no intention of staying in Canada after achieving this, then I don't believe these people deserve it.

To the latter, I say you're holding up the queue for those who deserve it more.

There used to be a law like that, prior to 1967.

Like when there was the recent conflict in Lebanon and Canada ended up evacuating lots of Canadian Citizens from the area despite the fact that none of them had any intentions of living in Canada, just keeping it for 'emergencies'. Things like that start people talking about tightening the rules and removing the right to 'dual' Citizenships which would be unfortunate for those of us who want to become a Citizen of our new country but don't want to renounce the Citizenship of the country of our birth, family and where we grew up.