Processing times for citizenship grants have increased over time and for a lot of applicants it can take more than 2 years for them to granted their citizenship.

In case you believe that you have an emergency, you might be able to request urgent processing for your citizenship. Eligibility for urgent processing is granted under the following circumstances –

• Requiring citizenship to apply for a job.
• Requiring citizenship to attend school, college or a university.
• Requiring citizenship to avoid losing job.
• Requiring citizenship to travel abroad because of death or serious illness of family member

The urgent processing might also be granted if you had a successful appeal regarding your citizenship application.

Already sent in your application?, here is what you would need to do

• Write a letter on why you need urgent processing
• The letter must include your UCI, Name, Birth Date, Email and Phone Number.
• Gather any other evidence (For e.g – letter from employer or hospital)
• Send the documents to the Immigration Services using their web form – https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/contacts/web-form.asp?v1

Haven’t sent in your citizenship application? You would need to –

• Write a letter on why you need urgent processing
• Gather all the evidence for your request.
• Include the letter and evidence with your citizenship application.
• You must write ‘Request Urgent Processing – Grant of Citizenship‘ in bold/dark letters on the envelope.
• Send in your citizenship application to the processing center.

Not all applications are accepted for urgent processing
The case officer will review your application and can reject the urgent processing request if they believe you haven’t provided a satisfactory explanation or have provided insufficient evidence.

How long would it take for urgent processing?
Even if you make an urgent processing request, you still have to go through all the necessary background checks, citizenship test and your citizenship oath. Depending on how fast it gets done for you, you might be able to get your citizenship within a few weeks to a few months.