Hi all, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Me, hubs and three kids (11,9,2) moved to Prince George bc nearly 7 years ago. On twp. Got PR Boxing Day 2013, we’re ready for citizenship then they moved the goalposts, then they moved them again, anyway we finally became eligible for citizenship one month after eldest turned 18 (🤬) he has autism and doesn’t test well. He can easily demonstrate use of the English language (he is a genius, literally) but they won’t let him skip the test.
we have a date thru at last (11.5m after applying so bang on the 12m timeline) and me and hubs are studying the book but son is struggling. Anyone with an autistic young adult worked thru this?

7 year update, by the way Prince George is nowhere near as bad as you’ve all heard. It’s a fabulous place to live and we have some solid friends here who would do anything for us, oldest is living in his own flat, receiving disability and volunteering at a thrift store. Getting work experience etc. Middle is about to graduate high school and both of the two can drive. Smallest is now 8 and a proper Canadian, we now live on a small farm and wouldn’t dream of going back to blighty even if you offered us £10m!

When an applicant requests a waiver of certain requirements of the Citizenship Act or has demonstrated to the citizenship officer that they will not be able to meet the requirement for citizenship concerning language or knowledge due to a medical condition, the applicant should provide a medical opinion completed by their physician.

Citizenship officers and CMB analysts may approve a request for a waiver on compassionate grounds in exceptional cases further to having reviewed an applicant’s particular circumstances.
Requirements that may be waived on compassionate grounds

For any applicant (including applicants 18 to 54 years of age, and all applicants over 54 years of age):
knowledge of one of the official languages of Canada;
knowledge of Canada and of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship; and/or
the taking of the oath of citizenship.

BTW my daughter found it far more effective to do sample tests, rather than concentrate on learning the book. There are a finite number of questions and you learn as you go, from your wrong answers being corrected. Perhaps that would be easier for you and your son?

that’s a great tip and exactly what we’ve been doing 👍🏻 He has a photographic memory he can learn it easily the issue is interpreting the ambiguous questions and providing the answers he knows in a way they can understand as correct.

Update... my email to citizenship clearly got thru to a human which is lovely, she sent me the medical exemption form to get signed by the doctor (our dr is awful this was an ordeal but I got it done!)
they arranged for autistic 19yo to take the test verbally and if/when he failed he could use medical exemption so would qualify either way.
son actually walked they the test with 20/20 because photographic memory despite all my worry

me and hubs then sat test (also 20/20 but I’ve been drilling him for months on questions so we worked for it)

took oath of citizenship on wednesday so all 5 of us now finally Canadians. Just in time for Canada day and very happy it’s finally over.