susieh

We had our citizenship ceremony 4 weeks ago, but haven't applied for passports yet. My husband needs to travel to the UK asap due to a serious family illness, but since he doesn't have a Canadian passport, he won't be able to get on a flight back to Canada. (We realise in hindisight we should have applied for passports immediately, but we didn't have plans to leave the country this summer...)

As far as I can tell, PRs can apply for a travel document from the high commission, but it doesn't look like that's an option for citizens. You can get an urgent passport either on the weekend ($335 in addition to usual passport cost) or by the next business day ($110 extra). We were wondering, if he travels back via the US, and comes back overland into Canada, could he get back in using his British passport? (He could take his citizenship certificate.)

Thanks for your help!

BritInParis

Your husband will need to apply for special authorisation before his return flight.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/d...n-citizens.asp

Snowy560

In addition to the above and depending on when he is going exactly and where you live in Canada, you may be able to get a passport in a very short space of time. Do you have a walk in passport office near you? People on here have got one in a day. My husband got one in the space of a few days as he needed to be able to travel at short notice due to a relatives's declining health.

susieh

Thanks! We do have a walk-in passport office nearby. It's not open until Monday, but I don't think he's likely to travel tomorrow anyway, so he'll probably try the passport office and see how quickly they can process an application. Otherwise the special authorisation definitely sounds like a good option.

Thanks both of you for your help.

Snowy560

Yes it sounds like it makes sense to try for the passport first and special authorization as a back up.

This link may be helpful for urgent passport locations, even it seems, at w/e, holidays etc. (although I can't find mention of w/e etc in the actual text):

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...-passport.html

susieh

Thanks!